Now that the dust has settled, Graham Bolger recounts his tales of the Gumball 3000 rally to Kilian Doyle
It began as a spark that went off in Graham Bolger's head one December afternoon. He was going to do the Gumball 3000 rally, wheelchair bedamned.
He'd had one of the worst years imaginable, coming off his motorbike the previous December and being left paralysed from the waist down.
Months of therapy later, he'd had enough. He wanted to do something wild, something to prove to himself he was still alive.
A 3,000 mile jaunt in supercars with several hundred other nutters? That'll do nicely.
After a bit of wangling, Graham and his co-driver, Mysterious Paul, secured the loan of a BMW 630i, fitted it with hand controls and were off on the adventure of a lifetime.
It started in London, where they were cheered off by thousands of fans. They felt like superstars. "There were so many Ferraris and Lamboghinis and SLR McLarens that they were almost mundane," says Graham. "The most incredible feeling - 120 amazing cars, crowds screaming their heads off and me in the middle of it all, loving it. It was a real eye-popper."
As the rally blasted through France, Belgium, Germany, Austria and Hungary to Serbia, spectators lined every bridge, crowds thronged in every city. Mayhem and madness littered the route.
Belgium was particularly surreal. Not least because they got cheered on by several hundred fans after Graham was stopped for going a teensie weensie bit over the limit at 2am.
"It was the quintessential Gumball moment," he says, proudly. They then had to repel an over-eager female Belgian Gumball fan who tried to inveigle her way into their car with the promise of sexual favours.
The Gumball circus left Belgrade for Thailand, leaving our jaded heroes to head for home. Back in Dublin two days later, Graham grabbed a flight to Las Vegas, leaving Paul to bring the car back to the brave soul who lent it to them, Frank Hogbin in Joe Duffy BMW.
There were three cars written off: a Dodge Viper, a Lamborghini Flash and a Rolls Royce Phantom that got replaced by the owner the next day. The mangled grille from the Roller was presented to the owner on his arrival in Los Angeles in an act of Gumball humour. There were no serious injuries.
Not that Gumballers go unscathed. Each and every one was a shell by the end of it. Driving from London to Belgrade, flying to Thailand for a 1,000 mile rally and then being airlifted to Las Vegas before a final drive into LA, all in the space of a sleep-deprived week, will do that to you.
Graham found himself taken aback by the rampant decadence of Las Vegas. Following an orgiastic gig by superstar, Snoopp Dogg, whose Gumball-stickered Bentley was parked outside, he had to extricate himself from a hotel room where one of the Gumballers was on the phone ordering hookers like pizzas. "Not my thing," he says. "It was all a bit sleazy."
On to LA. The trek through Death Valley in a support vehicle was the sharp end of the Gumball.
This was the broomwagon, sweeping up the detritus, both human and machine, that had been left strewn around the scorched earth of the desert. As a result, they missed the finish on Rodeo Drive. Graham never got to fulfil his plan of wheeling himself over the finish line.
Sadly, the much-anticipated wrap party at the Playboy mansion in Beverly Hills, which took place a year to the day after Graham got out of therapy, proved a damp squib. "Hundreds of exhausted men in tuxes standing around, bored. Hardly what I imagined!"
For Graham, the real highlight was the start in London. Surrounded by friends and family, not to mention thousands of gawping fans, he felt he'd managed to draw a line under the pain and suffering of the months since the crash.
Would he do the Gumball again? Perhaps if some genial philanthropist decided to sponsor him. Otherwise, no. Being surrounded by wealthy ne'er-do-well playboys who could crash Ferraris without blinking was a tad daunting for a regular Joe like him. That said, he's glad he did it. "After the year I've had, it's great to be able to look back on something really cool that I got to do."
Visit Graham's website: spokeout.com and the Gumball 300 site at gumball3000.com