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NewsletterMaster Swavek Dydiszko, President of the Organizing Committee for the European Championships 2010, was honored with a very special gift during the championships. Read his own report of the exiting experience bellow.
“During the official opening ceremony for the European Championships 2010, which were held in Sweden, I was very surprised when I received an unexpected but very much appreciated gift. Although my whole life is devoted to Taekwon-Do I am also big fan of another sport, the motor sport F1. The gift I received was a whole day of F1 and I would at the end of the day drive a real F1 car!
There were many TKD-persons in Sweden who worked to make my dream come true. Because of this I feel obligated to share my experience of this wonderful day with all of you even though it is not about TKD.
The F1 course was instructed by Johan Rajamäki, a well known profile in motor sports in Sweden with much F1 experience. The place of the course was the motor-racing track of Anderstorp in the south of Sweden. This track was up until the late 70-ties an official F1 motor-racing track with international Grand Prix competitions.
I arrived at the track in Anderstorp together with my wife Petra early in the morning the 22nd of June, which was the day of my F1 experience.
Johan Rajamäki welcomed us to the F1 experience. We were briefed about the schedule of the day. The next step was to try out the special race outfit with suite, shoes, helmet and gloves which we should use during the race day.
The first part of the course was theoretical and covered different parts of driving on a motor-racing track. As it involved very high-speed driving with extremely fast cars all previous driving knowledge had to be upgraded. Johan gave many valuable advices and informed us about the safety prescriptions. It was time for our first laps on the track. We started with the Formel Opel Lotus cars which had a top speed of 260 km/h and the acceleration 0-100 km/h in 4 seconds. As my experience of driving at a true motor-racing track was non-existing my first laps surely did not make it to the speed high score of the track. But lap after lap with help of the good instructors it felt better and the lap times were getting better and better.
After driving the Opel Lotus time came for the highlight of the day, the F1 experience. Two F1 cars which were in action 2002 were pulled out of the pit. The one I would drive was an Arrow with the top speed of 330 km/h and the acceleration of 0-200 km/h in 5 seconds.
The instructions for the first lap was to warm up the tires and the brakes. During the second lap I was able to push the speed further and the feeling of this monster car acceleration is not possible to describe in words. It felt better and better and when it was time to end I felt like continue forever and ever. As an ending of this perfect day I was given an F1 certificate. I would also like to take this opportunity to thank all TKD-enthusiasts in Sweden who made this wonderful experience possible for me.
Wishing all of you a nice and warm summer!”
Master Swavek Dydiszko