The correct answer is C. driving.
Even though gerunds and participles look the same (both end in -ing), there are important differences between them. Gerunds are always used as nouns - this means that they can act as subjects or objects within a sentence. On the other hand, participles are always used as adjectives or parts of verbs.
If you take a look at the sentence above, you will see a couple of forms ending in -ing: <em>pounding, blowing, driving, </em>and <em>exciting. </em>Only <em>driving </em>is the gerund here (with the function of the subject of the sentence) - the rest of them are all participles used as adjectives.
