Circuit Stage
May 3, 2010 by Damir Pildek · Leave a Comment
You know you’re standing in a safe place – you’re certain. You’ve looked at the situation a dozen times. You’ve seen the track markers and the tapes and you’ve calculated the absolute limits of the lines the cars can take if they are to stay on the track. There’s even a bearded bloke covered with Land Rover badges sitting on a stool a couple of yards in front of you smoking a pipe. It must be OK to stand here, you say to yourself. Nice position for some good photos. Good sunlight pouring over your shoulder. No thorns in the bushes around you.
But when the Croatia Trophy Circuit Stage mass start of over sixty vehicles is about to get underway and the drumroll of over sixty barking engines rolls over you – you step back a couple of paces. The bearded Land Rover bloke with the pipe quickly gets up off his stool and suddenly looks a bit less of an expert. You can see he’s a bit worried. He has put his pipe in his jacket pocket and you know it’s still burning.
Suddenly the roar magnifies and a hundred tons of hot metal hurtles towards you. You step back even further, bump into the bearded Land Rover bloke with the pipe who has somehow already got behind you and you’re grateful for a nearby thorn bush you can step into. You don.t know whether to turn and run or take photographs or take cover behind a tree or just pray. In the end you do nothing except open your mouth in amazement.
The leading cars scream past you filling it with crunchy dust.
The Circuit Stage is well and truly underway. Competitors negotiate a circuit of just under four kilometres multiple times, tackling creeks, ravines, ascents and swamps and doing their best to stay ahead of the competition. Because of the mass start the early laps can lead to exciting racing and, as the stage progresses, some spectacular overtaking moves can be seen as the leaders lap slower opposition. Everyone has to come into the pits once for a wheel-swapping task which can take anything from five to ten minutes and almost always radically changes the leader board positions.
It’s loud. It’s multicoloured. It’s exciting. It’s fun. It’s fast. It’s great for spectators. It’s the Croatia Trophy Circuit Stage.
