A jealous boyfriend

(image Brad Binder at Kyalami racetrack)

I have always been attracted to dangerous men, and one of them stands out like the wild boy he was. Seventeen years old with a rebellious streak, I met this tall, blonde, blue-eyed Adonis who was also a race driver, and of course, my heart went haywire at first glance. It was the most excitement this farm girl had ever had and I fell head over heels in love, or to be precise, infatuated and hero worship. Fast cars and bikes always made the adrenaline rush through my veins, and he did it all for me. He was an excellent driver of cars and bikes and in the years that followed, he became a promising bike racer until an accident cut it short.

That is not what this post is about, although I had so much fun with him in his car doing the craziest stunts on public roads. He had a Honda 750 something or other, and we would go for rides all over the place at the highest speed possible. In the middle of the night, when the roads in town were quiet, he would drift the car all over the road on the wet tarmac. One night, he reached approximately 140 mph on a highway, and from then on, I was addicted to high speed.

Let me get back to the real story. As you can see, the memory of him, is still vivid in my mind. He was very jealous and had a volatile temper that would cause a few guys to get beaten up by him if they even as much as looked my way. We frequently went to superbike races at Kayalami race track near Johannesburg, and this is where the wildest thing happened with him as the instigator.

We were sitting in the stands watching one of the races when a drunk guy walked past and, made a remark about me. In a flash he was over the seats in front of us, and a huge fight ensued. As with most men, friends started pushing and shoving and in no time at all the whole place was like a war zone and even strangers were getting in on the brawl. I was terrified. He put me in his car with the windows rolled up and the doors locked, telling me not to open for anyone.

I looked out into the air when I heard the police helicopter hovering above us, and they tear-gassed the whole place. Everyone was running in all directions, bumping into each other with tears streaming down their faces, trying to get away from it. You can imagine my shock knowing this chaos was caused by my extremely jealous boyfriend. We didn’t watch the rest of the races, but went home in a huff.

He never threatened me, or hurt me in any way but I couldn’t handle his jealousy any longer. I broke up with him after that, but we stayed close friends over the years. He is a wonderful guy, but not the best partner in life.