With death just inches away, Chanyakarn Khumdee knew her street-racing days had come to an end

When you're driving fast with a car tailgating you, death is just a split second away.

Today Chanyakarn Khum-dee is owner of event-organising company Think and Do, but in her youth she says that street racing almost cost her life.

"I was a fast driver when I was a teenager in the 1980s, and I was involved in a lot of street racing," she admits.

Back then, Vibhavadi-Rangsit Road was a popular venue for racing, and Chanyakarn was a regular participant in the nightly illegal races that started once the Palace, Bangkok's most popular disco of the time,  had shut its doors.

Driving an E30 BMW 320i, which came with a 2.0-litre engine and manual transmission, Chanyakarn was one of five well-known female street racers.

"Sometimes I won and sometimes I lost, and I raced until the guys knew that I was as good as them," she says.

Racing on public roads is illegal simply because it is dangerous to all road users, racers too, and Chanyakarn experienced this first-hand.

"It was a Saturday night and there was a huge crowd. The Palace was still open but I came out to race after hearing that powerful cars like the Fiat 131 Sport, which also had a 2.0-litre engine, and a lot of two-door Toyota Corolla DXs were lining up," she says.

"At first my car wouldn't start, but I finally got it running. I turned into Vibhavadi-

Rangsit Road and accelerated until I caught up with the leading cars, which were doing about 170 kilometres an hour.

"As I approached the U-turn at St John's school I saw a shape flash into the side-view mirror - a car was speeding up inside to cut me into the corner. Before I could react, it bumped me on the driver's side and I began skidding up against the concrete barrier. Right then, my life depended on a split-second decision."

Chanyakarn decided to steer towards the concrete barrier so that her car wouldn't get caught in the middle of the road.

"There was a huge 10-wheel truck on my right side that would have hit me if I hadn't moved left.

The driver of that truck wouldn't have been able to brake in time," she says.

Chanyakarn was wearing a four-point seatbelt that kept her in her seat, and suffered only minor injuries, including cuts from the windshield when it broke. "It was a lesson I will never forget," she says.

Nowadays Chanyakarn drives a Mini Cooper, and restricts herself to out-accelerating other cars - mostly Minis - at the lights. 

"If you asked me if I still think about the accident, I would say, yes, I do. But whenever a car begins revving up behind me, it always stimulates my fighting spirit," she says.