Reykjavík Grapevine - 06.06.2014, Blaðsíða 31

The International Organ Summer
in Hallgrímskirkja 2014
June 14 – August 17
Hallgrimskirkja's Friends of the Arts Society 32nd season
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19. 6. 12 noon Helga Þórdís Guðmundsdóttir,
Víðistaðarkirkja/Iceland
26. 6. 12 noon Guðmundur Sigurðsson,
Hafnarfjarðarkirkja/Iceland
3. 7. 12 noon Kári Allansson, Háteigskirkja & Anna
Jónsdóttir soprano, Reykjavík/Iceland
10. 7. 12 noon Steingrímur Þórhallsson, Neskirkja &
Hallveig Rúnarsdóttir, soprano, Reykjavík
17. 7. 12 noon Sigrún Magna Þórsteinsdóttir,
Akureyrarkirkja/Iceland
24. 7. 12 noon Jón Bjarnason,
Skálholt Cathedral/Iceland
31. 7. 12 noon Stéphane Rigat, orgel & Olivier Gillet
trumpet, Marseille/France
7. 8. 12 noon Eyþór Ingi Jónsson,
Akureyrarkirkja/Iceland
14. 8. 12 noon Gunnar Gunnarsson,
Fríkirkjan í Reykjavík/Iceland
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Hallgrímskirkja, Skólavörðuholti, 101 Reykjavík
Sími / tel.: +354 510 1000, fax: +354 510 1010
list@hallgrimskirkja.is - www.listvinafelag.is
14.6. 12 noon Björn Steinar Sólbergsson, Hallgrímskirkja Reykjavík
15.6. 5 pm Björn Steinar Sólbergsson, Hallgrímskirkja Reykjavík
21.6. 12 noon Hannfried Lucke, Lichtenstein- Salzburg/Austurríki
22.6. 5 pm Hannfried Lucke, Lichtenstein- Salzburg/ Austurríki
28.6. 12 noon Pétur Sakari, Helsinki, Finnland/ Finland
29.6. 5 pm Pétur Sakari, Helsinki, Finnland/ Finland
5.7. 12 noon Thierry Escaich, París Frakkland / France
6.7. 5 pm Thierry Escaich, París Frakkland / France
12.7. 12 noon Andreas Meisner, Altenberg Þýskaland / Germany
13.7. 5 pm Andreas Meisner, Altenberg Þýskaland / Germany
19.7. 12 noon Alessandro Bianchi, Cantu, Ítalía/ Italy
20.7. 5 pm Alessandro Bianchi, Cantu Ítalía/ Italy
26.7. 12 noon Lára Bryndís Eggertsdóttir Reykjavík, Ísland/ Iceland
27.7. 5 pm Lára Bryndís Eggertsdóttir Reykjavík, Ísland/ Iceland
2.8. 12 noon Maurice Clerc, Dijon Frakkland / France
3.8. 5 pm Maurice Clerc, Dijon Frakkland / France
9.8. 12 noon Eyþór Franzson Wechner, Ísland/ Iceland
10.8. 5 pm Eyþór Franzson Wechner, Ísland / Iceland
16.8. 12 noon Axel Flierl , Dillingen, Þýskaland/ Germany
17.8. 5 pm Axel Flierl , Dillingen, Þýskaland/ Germany
Opening hours September — May
9:00 — 18:00 weekdays
10:00 — 17:00 saturdays
12:00 — 17:00 sundays
Aðalstræti 10, Reykjavík
Museum of Design and Applied Art, Garðabær
(354) 517 7797 — kraum@kraum.is
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31The Reykjavík GrapevineIssue 07 — 2014 SPORT
three seasons. The
first two, he won the
championship in the
street-legal class.
Presumably bored
and in need of a chal-
lenge, he switched
to modified this year
and today in Hella
he won first place
by amassing roughly
five times as many
points as the next
closest driver in his
class. After the award
ceremony I ask what
he thought of the
courses. “They were
technical,” he says.
“I had never driven
on water or on mud,
so that was new.” His
car, parked next to
us, is covered in more
filth than a motorised
pigpen. “At one point
there was so much
mud kicked up that I
couldn’t see where I
was going,” he says.
“I suppose I guessed right.”
I wonder aloud if he’d be willing to
take one last drive in Snáðinn today with
me in tow. “Why not,” he shrugs. One of
Jón’s crew team gives me an oversized
jumpsuit to wear and I climb aboard
like a deflated marshmallow, instantly
absorbing the mud covering every inch
of the vehicle’s interior. As he revs the
engine, Jón gives me some ominous
advice. “I’ll take it easy out there, but
if anything happens, whatever you do,
keep your arms inside the car.”
Before I can change my mind about
all this, he floors the pedal and we shoot
off from the car pit, past the few remain-
ing fans and back toward the ravine.
Jón is heading for the hill course. I start
praying under my breath. Under the
hood the engine is roaring, even though
Jón is clearly following his promise to
take it easy. These are not machines
to be trifled with, I think to myself, and
yet torfæra is about trifling with them to
the limit. We approach a path that bears
right, descending gradually down into
the ravine. Instead of following it, Jón
breaks slightly and drives dead ahead,
over the lip. The nose of the car plunges,
our angle of decline
instantly dropping
from almost nothing
to 60°. Jón breaks,
banks right and ac-
celerates across the
hill. We’re skidding
along an open black
gash in the earth at
an impossible angle
and no law of phys-
ics amenable to hu-
man logic is keeping
us here—just a 600
horsepower engine
(750 with nitro!) and
a batshit crazy driver
with a brand new tro-
phy to his name.
After a few sec-
onds in this precari-
ous state, Jón hops
us back up onto the
path. We weave down
to the bottom and
begin the ascent up
the other side. This
is the real course, the
hill that drivers were
flipping their cars on
earlier in the day. As the sheer lip of the
ravine looms ahead of us, I think of Jón’s
warning and impulsively cross my arms
tightly across my chest. But my fears are
misplaced. The engine heaves us over
every outcropping and incline in our
way, no matter how steep. With the give
of the suspension, we rock and swerve
to the top of the ravine. Then Jón loops
back around to the lip in preparation for
the descent and the return to the car pit.
He glances my way. “Cool, right?” “Re-
ally cool,” I answer, pale as death, hands
still clinched tight.
We pause for a brief moment on the
edge. I look down at the black hill we’re
about to brave—the steepest yet—and
my stomach drops. Then I look up at the
hill opposite, where the crowd of thou-
sands had been mere hours earlier. The
parking lot is almost empty now, but the
torfæra drivers and their crews, along
with the event organisers, are still hang-
ing around in the pit. God bless those
search and rescue professionals, I think
to myself. I sure hope they raised some
funds today.
And then Jón starts tapping the gas.
Torfæra
Torfæra is native to Iceland. It
evolved out of the experimenta-
tion of off-road driving enthusi-
asts in the 1960s, who modified
their vehicles to better suit them
to the local landscapes. Accord-
ing to Guðbjörn “Bubbi” Gríms-
son, a veteran of torfæra rallies
in both Iceland and Norway,
the emerging sport was quickly
seized upon by search and res-
cue teams, which saw them as a
good opportunity to raise funds.
The first rally was held in Reyk-
jahlíð (Mosfellsdalur) on May 2,
1965. The rules of competition
changed throughout the initial
decades and were eventually
codified in their present form in
1987. In 1992 a rally was held in
Sweden, marking the first tor-
færa event outside of Iceland;
the sport has since gained popu-
larity throughout Scandinavia.
“These are not ma-
chines to be trifled with,
and yet torfæra is about
trifling with them to the
limit.”