Thailand fling!
The Top Gear boys buckle up for a hairraising truck ride in the Far East…
TOP GEAR Sunday, 8pm, BBC1 Factual
An exotic road trip to a far-flung destination is a Top Gear staple, so Freddie Flintoff, Paddy Mcguinness and Chris Harris were delighted to be travelling to Thailand to kick off the latest series. Tasked with road-testing three pick-up trucks, the lads headed to Bangkok, where Freddie’s trip was sadly cut short.
‘I was a day and a half into the trip, and I wasn’t feeling at my best,’ he explains.
‘I tested positive for COVID, and that was me isolating in
Thailand. The other two just drove off and carried on!’
Meanwhile, Chris and Paddy were introduced to the terrifying sport of Formula Hmong.
‘It is a race in wooden carts that you steer with your feet,’ says Paddy. ‘You’ve got a little handbrake in the middle of the cart that will slam into your solar plexus if you crash, and you’re sent down a steep hill at high speed!’
Sure enough, Paddy ended up in an unfortunate position…
‘I went straight into the village’s irrigation pipes and smashed
What’s on them up,’ he says. ‘But I wasn’t as banged up as Harris!’ Having dislocated a finger, Chris admits he’d think twice about trying again. ‘It’s one of those ones where, looking back, you go: “What were we thinking?”’ he says. ‘We don’t bounce the way we used to!’
Full throttle
Knowing daredevil Freddie as they do, the pair reckon the ex-cricketer could have done himself some serious damage with his no-holds-barred approach.
‘Freddie would have been going twice as fast, been twice as brave, and had twice as big an accident,’ says Chris.
‘So COVID definitely saved him!’