Francois Lottering
Dressed in her white T-shirt, dark trousers and a pair of white sneakers Evanka Möller could easily be mistaken for just another motor sport enthusiast. But don’t get fooled by this slender built petite spinner and drifter.
When New Era arrived at the Windhoek Spin City north of the city, Möller was hard at work preparing her yellow BMW named “Vankies” to entertain the hundreds of spectators that came to see their favourite spinners on the tracks.
Her small size do not hamper her skills as she changed the car’s rear tires, while giving instructions to her technical crew what to to do under the bonnet.
Once she gets behind the mighty “Vankies” steering wheel, one realises her petiteness has nothing to do with her skills. She can barely reach the accelerator or brake pedals, not even to talk about looking over the steering wheel. But all doubts faded once she entered the arena with the crowd’s cheers dominating the revs of the BMW.
During her performance she proved to any man that she is no push over, and handled her powerful BMW with such finesse like a lady. But her skills and perfect composure on the tracks showed that this 20 year old knows what she is doing behind the car’s controls. Her stuntmen’s performance and entertainment all depends on Möller’s skills, timing and handling during the spinning and oversteering of the vehicle.
Though the stunts could be potentially dangerous and even life threatening if executed wrongly, Evanka is at all times in control. Communication plays a vital role during her few minutes on the track as the safety of her stuntmen depends on her.
The idea is to make as much smoke as possible from the rear spinning wheels, and if you have a blow out on a tyre, the crowd will cheer, but a double blow out is what the crowd came for. And that is exactly what Möller came to do on the tracks, smoke, and double blow outs.
Very composed and a calm Möller told New Era once she enters the arena she only has one thing on her mind, and that is to keep the spectators on their feet.
“The only thing on my mind while on the track is to keep on going, just carry on because we must entertain the crowd.” Möller said.
It is a skill to keep the car under control she added.
On a question if she ever had a major incident while on the track, she laughed and told New Era, only minor ones. It happens that sometimes drivers misjudge themselves with the speed and distance from the safety barriers, and sometimes end up into the barriers with no or little damage to the car, but normally we just carry on, it is all about the fun she added. Initially her parents were not comfortable seeing their child doing all the stunts behind the yellow BMW’s controls, but once they saw for themselves how she control the car and the crowd’s cheering her and her team on, they accepted it, and feel much better about her sport she narrated to New Era.
If this is a sport? That needs to be debated as every driver only has one aim, and that is to entertain the crowd by means of spinning and drifting his or her car in a confined space, and if the driver manage to have a double blow out, even better for the crowd. Some more advanced drivers and stuntmen doing “death wish’ stunts by means of hanging out or jump over the car, or open the car’s bonnet, and this all when the vehicle is in motion.
None of these stunts should be carried out if not trained at all Möller told New Era.
Saturday’s event was attended by spinners as far as from South Africa and Botswana, while some local spinners came all the way from the coast to show off their skills and agility behind the wheel.
And for Möller it is all back to work until the weekend when she uses her time to practise her skills for the next event. To be one of Namibia’s best female spinners is written in big bold letters all over her.