A thief made off with a suspicious-looking bag in his Subaru Impreza, completely ignoring police orders to slow down and give himself in.
The police had no choice but to give chase – much to the audience’s delight.
For the “thief” was in fact Mark Galea, a stunt driver with Team Maximum Lock, and the exciting manoeuvres were all choreographed specially for the annual motoring event Paqpaqli Għall-Istrina held yesterday at the Malta International Airport.
Following a drifting display and a number of adrenaline-pumping manoeuvres such as handbrake turns and fast turns, the getaway driver was cornered by two police cars. He leapt out, only to be “arrested” by a crowd of children. A search of his Subaru yielded a number of goodie bags.
Mr Galea explained that the performance took two months of training in collaboration with four policemen. The 32-year-old taught the policemen everything from scratch.
“Our aim was to play with our audience’s emotions. And it seemed it worked because people were really into it.”
Policemen Noel Pisani, Jason Cesare, Louis Tabone and Steve Grech relished the experience, which they described as being “very different” from the way they were used to driving.
They professed their favourite manoeuvre as being the one dubbed “the chicken”, which involved the two police cars racing head-on with the Subaru, before veering at the last second to allow it to pass between them.
Over 1,000 vehicles from 35 local automotive clubs participated in this year’s edition of Paqpaqli Għall-Istrina, organised by a team on behalf of The Malta Community Chest Fund together with Tonio Darmanin and the Malta Motorsport Federation.
The vehicles ranged from classic cars to luxury and exotic supercars, with one of the major attractions being the mighty Fireforce 3 Jet Car, a resident of the Santa Pod raceway in the UK.
The dragster is built around a massive jet engine and is considered to be one of the fastest cars in the world, reaching speeds in excess of 540 km/h.
Its driver and owner, Martin Hill, explained that the car can destroy a quarter-mile in five seconds, using up to 100 litres of fuel.
Our aim was to play with our audience’s emotions. And it seemed it worked because people were really into it.
The car is 10 years old and is “relatively easy” to drive if built properly.
“Everything passes very quickly once you’re in it.”
Other attractions included the legendary Ferrari F430 Challenge, a non-road legal variant of the road-going Ferrari 430. The car has been extensively modified by Ferrari to boost its on circuit performance with extensive weight reduction and suspension changes. People were able to book the drive of a lifetime in this Ferrari.
Other supercars included the Lexus LFA and a fully functional replica of the Knight Rider, from the 1980s series starring David Hasselhoff.