Nigerian Transporters VS Professional Racers

Travelling home and back to school for the festive season, I got to experience public transport once again and it was bliss. To all of you that go home by flight, you have no idea what you are missing. Oya, you don catch me, I lied. You flight people are not missing anything at all, I seriously envy you guys because public transport is so tiring. While going home in December, the bus left Ilorin at 10am and we arrived Asaba at about 8pm. That's 10 solid hours on the road. I observed the faces of all passengers on arrival and we all looked so worn out, but guess who was still full of life? If your answer was the bus driver, then you would be correct.

It took me about two days to recover from the journey and I am very sure it took other passengers longer. As for the driver who performed the strenuous activity of driving for almost 10 hours straight, I knew that he would be on his way back to Ilorin the very next morning, conveying another set of  passengers to their destination. As I pondered about this, the idea of endurance racing came to mind. Now, what is endurance racing?

Endurance racing is a form of motorsport which is meant to test the durability of equipment and endurance of participants. Durability of equipment, being the vehicle is important because if there is no car to race, the racers are basically useless, but our focus for this episode is on the endurance of racers. One of the most popular endurance races is the well renowned 24 hours of Le Mans. In this race,  a pair of drivers usually go around the said racetrack for 24hours, meaning that each driver of a pair drives about 12hours in total but not at once, as they do so in intervals of usually 3 or 4 hour turns. Hence, a driver races for about 3-4hours, before he or she swaps with their partner and the cycle goes on and on.

Notice how there are 4 members of each team, meaning each racer would drive for about 8hrs 

I hope we can now see where my comparison of Nigerian transporters and professional racers stems from. Most Nigerian transporters drive for the same amount of hours as professional racers with cars that are even less advanced, with no pit crew and on dangerous roads that are literally death traps. I then went ahead to search online for the characteristics of endurance racers. I picked three of these characteristics, which will lay the basis of our comparison today.

Le Mans Race

Characteristics of a Endurance Racer

1. Physical Stamina

An endurance racer must be able to sit for hours inside the cockpit while withstanding searing heat and controlling his car at high speeds without losing focus. A Nigerian transporter battles daily with the scorching sun of our dear country in vehicles that rarely have functioning air conditioners. On the part of controlling high speed vehicles, Nigerian transporters barely do pass 160km/hr compared to professional racers who max out their speedometers but still, Nigerian transporters take control of their vehicles that are filled to capacity with passengers. These transporters maneuver the roads with so much finesse while evading pot holes, road safety and olopa.

Our stamina comes from Pounded Yam and Fufu

2. Mechanical Knowledge

An endurance racer needs to know their their vehicle inside and out, in order to tackle whatever problem may occur with his racecar during the event. As for our Nigerian transporters, they are like 1&2 with their vehicles. They have been driving these vehicles for years and they have reached a point of total sync with their vehicles. You rarely see a Nigerian transporter seeking the help of a mechanic to fix his car, except it is a very serious situation that requires heavy machinery which he lacks.

3. Fast reflexes

In racing, timing is everything, split second decisions and reactions are very necessary. When it comes to timing, Nigerian transporters are number one. These transporters understand that time is money and therefore let no second wastefully go by. They arrive at their destination on time, so they can pick up a new batch of passengers to another location in record time. As for fast reflexes, with all the pot holes, ditches, Dangote trucks and fellow mad drivers that Nigerian transporters evade on a daily, trust me when I say that their reflexes are a 100%.

Renowned Female Transporter

I totally understand that comparing a Nigerian transporter with a professional racer is far fetched and some would even consider this episode an insult to the racing profession. All I am saying is that I have watched transporters over the years and I am always impressed with how they drive and manage stress. I am very sure that if a Nigerian transporter is hand picked and given the necessary training to become a professional racer, he would dominate the racing scene!

I know this is coming about two weeks late, but Happy New Year Turbonerdz. Wishing you all a great year filled with nothing but smiles on your faces. This is the first blogpost of the year and cheers to more. Thank you for reading and always remember to Turbo that engine!