Derek Bell

In Las Vegas, to drive a racing car for the road

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iven how much time I spend in the USA, it's funny that I have largely avoided Las Vegas.

Please don't read anything into that: I don't mean it as a loaded comment. It's just that I have generally skirted around it or travelled through its airport en route to somewhere else. And the reason for me mentioning this? Well, this column is being written only a few days after my birthday, which was spent in Sin City. Not that any sin was involved, you understand. It was a family 'do' so there were no shenanigans. It bookended quite the car-related itinerary.

To be honest, I have reached an age at which 'milestone birthday' gets bandied around. Merely reaching your birthday is considered an achievement in some quarters, not that I think like that. Quite the opposite. Anyway, I had my lovely wife Misti with me and my two boys, Justin and Sebastian, plus my godson Aiden de Cadenet. Las Vegas is something of a second home for Justin in that he records his weekly motorsport podcast from the Wynn Las Vegas hotel. They've created a studio for him where he interviews the great and the good of racing.