'Wetting' the appetite.

Despite the big gap between rounds one and two of the Champ Car series, I seem to have been in as many 'planes as ever, but at least I got home for a bit - and sampled another high-speed thrill along the way.

First stop on the trip back to Europe was Lido di Ostia, near Rome, where I had the fantastic opportunity of driving a P1 Powerboat. Wettpunkt's Hannes Bohinc is like the Michael Schumacher of powerboat racing, but he invited myself, Kevin Kalkhoven and Paul Newman along to test the boat and I actually got to drive it - well, to steer it - which was fantastic and quite an experience.

I remember seeing the boats when I was a little girl and watching them on TV and thinking 'wow, that looks really dangerous', but, when I got to Italy, I thought they weren't as big as I remembered. However, you see them out there on the water and they still look really powerful. You think 'okay, I'm going to take it easy because Champ Car and racing comes first and I don't want to do anything silly to impede that' but, being competitive people like we are, you get going and still want to be the fastest, be the best.

Luckily, I didn't have control of the throttle, otherwise I'm sure I would have wanted to open it a little bit more, and a little bit more.... But, even with the steering, you can take a little more each time as you learn the limits of the boat. It's just a motorised vehicle at the end of the day, albeit on a different kind of surface. It was interesting, but nerve-racking too, especially not knowing how the thing behaves. Hannes was great, telling me what to do, and we had a great time. I'm massively grateful to them for letting me have a go and, for sure, if the opportunity comes up again, I'll jump at it.

The conditions were very calm - very, very calm! That made it slightly easier for me, but I can imagine what it would be like in rougher waters. These are obviously offshore boats, so they are designed to go out in a lot more choppy water but, for my first go, I was quite happy that we were just outside the harbour and on some nice smooth stuff!

Obviously, because you do everything at once in a car, it was a bit alienating to just have to do one thing in the boat. You don't have control of everything and it's difficult to get your head around the fact that you're steering but not having the input on the throttle as well. That was perhaps the biggest difference between the powerboat and my Champ Car, other than it was on a different surface, but, at the end of the day, if you have a feel for one thing, you'll probably have the feel for anything else. A lot of racing drivers have tried to do the boat thing.

Because I had so much trust and faith in Hannes, not having control of the throttle wasn't so much of an issue. I was the novice and it was probably the other way around - he was probably more scared of letting me steer! Whichever way round, it is taking away an element of control and most drivers are control freaks. Had you taken away the steering on a race car and given it to someone else while I was just doing the throttle, I'm not sure I would have been on the throttle very much! But, this time, it was okay as I knew that he was better at doing what he was doing than I would have been.

I didn't ask, but it may have been possible for me to have a go on the throttle. But you see Hannes at work and he's so talented at trimming them out. It's a real big skill, and he's the best at what he does. If I turned a tad too much, he could sort it out immediately on the throttles and, conversely, if I didn't turn enough, he could turn it on the throttles too. I obviously wouldn't be that good as I don't have the experience.

I don't know if it's more dangerous learning the throttles, whether you start off by learning the boat first, then progress on... You don't want to become a racing driver and jump straight into a Champ Car, you learn your craft first. That's basically what I did in Italy - by having a two-seater ride with a little bit of input! In cars, you start in Formula Ford or whatever, and it's the same in boats. It's just that I got a chance to jump straight into the F1 of boats - even if they weren't going to let me have a free-for-all!

As far as I can tell, Kevin and Paul had a blast too. They didn't get to drive like I did, but they did get out of the boat and the adrenaline was flowing, so they definitely had a ball - the grin on Kevin's face was unmistakeable! It was great, a really fantastic thing to be able to do - I think we all had grins on our faces! Not everybody gets the chance to do something like that and we all feel very privileged.

Paul Newman is fantastic. He's just like any other team owner, any other person. He's very clever, but very quiet. It's fantastic what he does for everyone else, so selfless, particularly with the Hole in the Wall camps that he is setting up. That was the main reason for him coming over - well, that and Sebastien Bourdais' wedding, obviously! We've been to one of the camps in Connecticut and it's just amazing the good work that he does and the effort that he puts into all these children. He's just a decent human being and a very nice man. For one of them to be involved in racing is very few and far between!

Despite this latest escapade, there are still some high-speed ambitions I want to fulfil. I'm never satisfied... When I was a very little girl, I had the ambition of being a fighter pilot. Obviously, I turned into a racing driver instead, but I've always wanted to have a go in one of those fighter jets that pulls negative G. Maybe, one day, I can fulfil that. Part of me wants to know if I can pull five negative G or whatever without throwing up I guess....

I've managed to take some time out since the powerboat and, even though it was only three days over the bank holiday in the UK, it was well needed - not just for me, but for my family and friends as well, as they have been wondering what I'm up to and whether I'm still around. It was nice to get back and see them. It was my nephew's birthday, and Rob was racing an old Alfa Romeo in the Top Hat series at Donington Park, so I went there for the morning and had a look at that.

However, while it was great to get some R&R, I was ready to go back to America. It's been busy, and it was definitely nice to just chill out for a few days, but, having said that, Kevin and everybody went to Qatar to see the Grand Prix Masters race and I wanted to go out there and support Nigel Mansell and watch one of those races as well, so I was kind of torn. But, seeing as how I wasn't going to get another opportunity to go home before the end of the season, I thought I'd better make the most of it.


Discover more about Katherine Legge at www.katherinelegge.com