PERHAPS my greying hair suggested that I needed a driver with wily experience over pumped-up youth when I was invited to join Thursday evening’s ‘rolling roadshow’ phase of the five-day Jersey International Motoring Festival.
Invited into a passenger seat by the ever-helpful Alex Salmon of the Jersey International Motoring Festival organising team, I was paired up with a stalwart of local motorsport John Fernandes.
At 77-years-old and soon to be 78 – and a day on from celebrating his 48th wedding anniversary with wife Caroline – John had the calm, assured manner of a man who had seen it all before. My kind of driver.
If motor racers have a quota of hairy moments, I imagine John would have reached his years ago. That said, he did mention that his car had slick tyres – not ideal for the squally, blustery Victoria Avenue that John and I would soon scream up and down on a loop which covered the length of the Lower Park.
If John had the air of a seasoned classic, so too did his car: a 1986 MG Metro 6R4 which back in the day was a much-respected entrant in the ‘Group B’ rallies of the epoch. Bright red and yellow, John’s motor stood out in every way.
In 1990, John drove the car up Bouley Bay hill in 43 seconds – the quickest time from a local driver on the day and still a record, to the best of his knowledge.
At a very showery Lower Park paddock, John helped me to strap tightly into my bucket seat of the spartanly fitted four-wheel-drive Metro, with its six-cylinder engine behind us.
Waiting for the off, with Caroline – on her birthday – regularly coming to check that all was well, John and I had a chat.
Associated with Jersey motorsport for half a century, he owned and ran Seaton Garage for 52 years. Fun fact: originally from Madeira before coming to Jersey via studies in the UK, John clearly had motor oil in his veins – his grandfather owned the very first car and bus ever in the Portuguese island.
After other classes of cars had had there 20-or-so-minutes of fun up and down the Avenue, including Ferraris, bikes and Ford Escorts, we were marshalled onto the road, behind the frolicking Skoda of Jersey’s leading rally driver Sam Touzel, who had a journalistic colleague from ITV in his passenger seat.
Rather her than me, I thought, as Sam shot off into the distance, performing some hair-raising – and no doubt stomach-churning – turns at each end of the elliptical circuit. Ah, the exuberance of youth.
Still, John was not slow by any means as we sped parallel to the Lower Park, across the reservation at West Park, in and out of the first layby, then back towards the western end of the park.
I felt myself relax into it a bit a few laps in, despite Sam having a little spin on one turn which brought our cars a little too close for comfort … but John didn’t bat an eyelid, suggesting this was all part of the process.
As we rolled back into the temporary paddock, John apologised for having to slow down into the turns due to the lack of grip, but I was happy with the speed he had achieved. It was bloomin’ quick by my standards, and quite enough of an adrenalin rush.
Although I had only dipped my toe into motorsport that evening, I had been warmly welcomed by the festival community, and I had experienced the attraction of opening up a bit on Jersey’s usually highly speed-controlled roads.
The Jersey International Motoring Festival continues today with the Westmount hill climb and another demonstration event around Victoria Park. There will also be trade stands, music, food, entertainment and static displays on The People’s Park and Lower Park.
