I chatted with our company's driver while the car idled at a red light. Sometimes, around midnight, I told him, I hear the sound of fast cars tearing down Tai Tam Road. The squeal of tyres, as brakes are slammed on, awakens me. Then the nocturnal speedsters gun their engines and roar on through the night.
I asked the driver if he knew what these sounds were. He said they were probably illegal street races. The long stretch from Stanley to Shek O is apparently a popular course for street racers. They drive for high stakes, wagering cash and their own lives on the narrow, winding road along the ocean. It is their moon-bathed Macau Grand Prix.
I chuckled and asked how he had acquired such a detailed knowledge of this phenomenon. To my surprise, he said that he had participated in such races during his wild years. What was more, he had even competed in the Macau Grand Prix, and finished pretty high in the championship.
It was hard to imagine this refined and unshakably polite young man as a speed demon. He is an impeccable company driver; he never cuts people off; and he always pulls over when he sees a sports car behind, allowing the more powerful vehicle to pass. He just doesn't have that fiery temperament I imagine a racing driver needs.
But if I take a closer look, maybe I have seen evidence of his skill from time to time: such as when he takes a turn with one hand on the wheel and the vehicle just glides round it, car and driver moving smoothly as one. It is too bad that I don't understand racing, and cannot fully appreciate his technique. The closest I have ever come to racing was go-karting in Macau, and all I can remember is my white-knuckled fear.
Our driver is a crouching tiger among grazing deer. How frustrating it must be for him to inch through a Hong Kong rush hour.
Times have changed, he sighed, continuing our talk. He told me that these days, every successful racing driver is backed by big money. The Grand Prix is no longer a race between drivers, but between cars. The driver becomes secondary, he lamented, and the money invested in the machinery is what wins races.
