Love hate and motorsport

I love motorsport and yet I hate it with a passion.

Now for some of you out there who have always questioned my predilection for hanging around alternately dusty, wind burnt paddocks or muddy bogs as venues without any decent facilities watching cars go round and round in circles - this is going to sound rather odd.

Or when you've heard about my stories about replacing a head gasket at two in the morning in a warehouse in Whangarei and discovering four of the head bolts are stuffed or the times I've spent losing my hearing and breathing lungfuls of burnt rubber, race fuel and carbon monoxide while climbing under a car to see if something is loose.

Yes I do love motorsport - the people are genuine and in New Zealand they are down to earth types who aren't in it for the money because there isn't any and they are there basically for fun and enjoyment. There are a variety of classes and racing formats starting from go karts in novice for not a lot of money to the likes of the Porsche GT3 boys who budget $250k a year for their series.

And in between there are guys who go out there and sprint around a track because they want a bit of adrenaline especially the guys who spent months or years building up kit cars and modifying road cars into safer, more wieldy machines that they can enjoy the thrill of a bit of friendly competition, a dose of adrenaline and a sense of satisfaction about driving something that they built with their bare hands (albeit with some help).

I've had a little to do with some of the clubman folk - guys who drive around in clubmans like Chevron, Frasers, Beatties and Caterhams. All based on this 60s sportscar called the Lotus 7 which is essentially an engine, a tube frame welded together and clothed with some bare aluminium panels. They are cars from another era - full of roaring snort, sensory overload as the engine revolutions build, steering feel for Africa and the raw surge of the wind across your face - far from the well cocooned capsules that we now drive in from A to B.

The guys and gals driving these delicate but ripper machines as well as their support crews are masochists - you'd have to be there's nothing luxurious about them, they are quick but not fast - the soap box trolley aerodynamics mean an invisible hand of wind resistance puts the brakes on just over 200 km/h but from rest to 100km/h they'd shame a lot of cars with twice the horsepower.

Funnily enough I was enjoying motorsport sans motor on Sunday - I was sitting around watching the inaugural Red Bull Trolley Grand Prix on the lower reaches of Domain Drive in Auckland yesterday. A good bunch of people - we reckoned over 10,000 during the sunny part of the early afternoon but the rain scaring off the punters later in the day. And like a motorsport event, there were the really serious folk with aerodynamic capsules and the other end four guys dressed as nurses with a mobile bed. The points system emphasized fun over speed - with the only team I saw getting a perfect row of 10s from the judges putting on a 6 member choreographed dance routine to the tune of 'Greased Lightning' - before their trolley lurched to a second from two finish.

And inevitably the rain came and I stayed with a few hardier souls watching the thrills and spills on a greasy track as ambition and adrenaline got the better of the crimson misted pilots as the finishing line beckoned just around the diabolical 'Monkey Corner.' We laughed and celebrated the crashes and spins - saluted the will to finish and laughed with the competitors and not at them - well apart from Mark Ellis but his own team tarred and feathered him before the start.

Meanwhile, south of our frivolity and comedy was another racing venue. Pukekohe Raceway is a fast and demanding circuit which I can describe as basically two straights linked by a series of corners - it is a tough and very fast circuit to race at. Nowhere on a permanent racecircuit in either NZ or Australia do the competitors spend as much time as a proportion of a lap with their foot pressed hard against the accelerator on the firewall.

The circuit is also notorious for poor drainage and is likely to get pensioned off to another role in two years in any case after Eric Watson has bought out the lease to make it a thoroughbred stud farm.
However, yesterday the rain that brought levity and humor to the crowd in the Auckland Domain was to exact a heavier and more serious toll at Pukekohe. While I was enjoying the bubbly frivolity @ the Domain, the clubmans were participating in their clubman series. A bit of 'gentleman' racing with only some bragging rights at the pub afterwards and some satisfaction at enjoying yourself on offer. Like I said before, this is a bunch of guys and gals who are there for a bit of fun and enjoyment.

Well somewhere on the front straight, physics bit back with horrific consequences.

Wearing a helmet driving westward into the driving rain along the front straight you're lucky if you can pick up the rear lights of your competitor. The rain driving onto your visor, the glow from the sun and then it's the tightening right hander into a series of S curves.

It appears that one of the drivers lost control of his car and the following driver following hard on his heels had no time and nowhere to go as they come into that bumpy sweeper where the cars skip as they get unsettled by the notorious bumps on the circuit and where standing water often develops.

I can now tell you in a split second of time - a mere moment in our lives some terrible things happened that will change a number of lives for a long time to come. Both drivers were injured and one driver was seriously injured - so seriously that the circuit was closed for several hours as they stablised and transported him to medical facilities. Now my understanding is that the driver is on life support but expected to pull through - but the injuries were life threatening for several days.

I'm not a person who advocates surrounding oneself with cotton wool - hell anyone who knows me reasonably well would know that for sure. There are plenty of risks I have taken over the years skiing, scuba diving, sailing, playing soccer and other team sports and all the travel adventuring. Lots of times where if luck and a lack of preparation had failed - the lifestyle I lead today could be so different - really different. But at the end of the day, I've been exceptionally lucky, continue to be and lucky to have a bunch of friends who too enjoy life to the fullest.

But on mornings when the afterglow of adrenaline fades, while I wait for my ibuprofen + codeine to kick in as my knees remind me of all the stupid things I've subjected them to it starts me thinking about the stark consequences of the risks we have taken and reminds me about how things and lives can change in a blink of an eye...

Like I said I love motorsport but there are days where I could just go find a shovel and bury it where it lies.

are you an author? because you seriousley have the most articulate and well-worded posts i have ever read. every post sounds like you put your heart and soul into it.

its one of those things that you love it for the reasons that you also hate it.:rolleyes:

enjoy the enjoyment while it lasts

NZ Herald - Published Saturday, April 05 2003

BERN

Barry Walter. At Auckland Hospital as the result of an accident at Pukekohe Raceway. Cherished husband and best friend of Brenda. Dearly loved father, fatherinlaw and stepfather of Janine and Paul Manuell, Angela Bern-Roberts and Nicholas Roberts, and Sophia and Glen Verner. Loved grandad of Amber, and Nathan and Cameron. Poppa of Danielle, Jamie, Sean, Breanna and Caleb. A service for Barry will be held in the Hamilton Park Chapel Newstead on Tuesday 8 April at 1.00pm. In lieu of flowers, donations to the Critical Care Unit, of Auckland Hospital would be appreciated, these may be posted to Private Bag 92-024 Auckland or may be left in the chapel foyer. All communications to C/- PO Box 117, Hamilton. Hamilton Funerals FDANZ Ph 853-9074