A 15-year-old Tauranga girl whose huge love of life stretched from dance to speedway died driving her ministock car on Saturday, sending shockwaves through the local community. Samantha Mouat was racing at Kaikohe Speedway's Easter Stampede and Demolition Derby when she crashed into the wall just after 4pm. She was part ofa big contingent of family and friends who travelled to the Far North meeting, including her mother Lisa Strydom and Samantha's boyfriend Sam Pitman of Rotorua, who was driving in the same race that took her life. The death of the popular Otumoetai College student has stunned all who knew her, including classmates and teachers, the speedway fraternity, and everyone at Matua's Dance Education Centre. Her funeral service will take place at her home track, Tauranga's Baypark, this week. Samantha was an ardent speedway fan, and distantly related to the Mouat family who are well known in Bay of Plenty speedway circles. Her father is Mike Mouat. Samantha attended Tahatai Coast School, Pillans Point School and Otumoetai Intermediate. She was a Year 11 student at the college and has a brother Carl in Year 10. Baypark Speedway promoter Willie Kay said Samantha's death was a tragedy of the worst kind. "She was bright and bubbly, a lovely girl. Everyone is in tears - we are totally shocked." He described the Kaikohe track as a country track, not a Speedway New Zealand track. Willie Vermeulen, a former ministocks representative for the Bay of Plenty Speedway Association, said that when ministocks kids and their families travelled out of town they were very close knit and stuck together. In a moving tribute, all the ministocks kids walked the Kaikohe track yesterday, followed by a Maori ceremony to lift the tapu that followed the death. "The kids have been hit pretty hard," said Mr Vermeulen - For the full story - see today's Bay of Plenty Times.
