Next weekend Hamilton hosts ITM400, the biggest V8 Supercar event in the country. Susan Edmunds went to a meet at the Meremere dragway for an early whiff of V8 fever.
They might love their cars with a proudly obsessive devotion, but the crowd of V8 enthusiasts at the Meremere dragway are keen to point out that they aren't boy racers. They wouldn't go near an event where safety didn't come first, or where they didn't feel they could bring their
children as well as their mates.
For an uninitiated outsider, it can all seem a bit bewildering.
There's a lot of noise, the smell of burning rubber, the roar of engines and groups of people standing around poring over machinery that they seem to almost hope will have something go wrong with it - just so they can get stuck in and fix it again.
For husband-and-wife team GT and Ethyl Norris, it's been a 25-year love triangle involving the two of them and an engine. Sometimes more than one.
GT was at Meremere the first day the dragway opened in 1973 and has been coming back ever since, except for the years he was in California, meeting Ethyl. "I like it. The sound, the smell, the atmosphere ... it's in the blood," he says, not really looking at me as he watches members of his team circle his car.
For GT, it's the family connection that keeps him going. His wife and daughter are signwritten crew members on the car. His daughter's baby is only 12 days old, but they are expecting to see the new mum down at the track, with their latest crew member in tow.
Ethyl says she's been into cars for 50 years. Her father used to take her to the track when she was a girl growing up in Bakersfield, California. She remembers hours of work leading up to an event and early-morning, pre-race coffees over a gas stove. She says the basic essence of V8 racing hasn't changed: "I love the smell, the noise, being part of a great group of people."
Although you might think an environment like V8 drag racing would be about as blokey as you can get, she assures me it's not.
There are lots of women involved and "everyone pitches in, and is nice and friendly".
"Everyone's appreciative of the fact that you get out and give it a go".
The couple divide the work on the car between them. Ethyl works on the engine, GT likes getting behind the wheel.
"I've tried driving down the strip," Ethyl says, "It's okay. But I enjoy sitting around, working on the car." GT interjects: "Mostly sitting around."
Their first date was to a drag race, and Ethyl suspects he only asked her out so they could talk about cars. Since then, they've spent many weekends going to every swap meet around, picking up pieces for engines they were working on. "We've been collecting bits and pieces for the car for more than 30 years," Ethyl says.
They say they have made lifelong friends and it has become a true family obsession.
Their grandson is 4 and has already decided the car that they're racing is his car.
"He's doomed," Ethyl says, "His first words were 'hot rod'."
So why V8s, not something like rotaries? They look at me as if I'd just sworn at the Pope.
"They have power, there's nothing like it.
"I don't care whether it's a race car or a street car, there's nothing like a V8," GT says.
Start your engines
Auckland V8 clubs:
* Early Ford V8 Club of America (Northern Region), contact Euan Gardiner, ph (06) 844 5733
* NZV8 Touring Car Association, contact Jane Perkins, ph 027 296 0003.
* Auckland Car Club, contact Bob White, ph (09) 620 9797
* Early Holden Club of Auckland, contact Gai Bishop, gaib@fxute.co.nz
Be in to win!
We have two three-day tickets with paddock access to this year's ITM400 Hamilton, valued at $270, plus a range of exclusive V8 Supercar merchandise, to give away to one lucky reader. Email your contact details to life@nzherald.co.nz with "ITM400" in the subject line by Monday April 11.
NB: Transport to and from the event, and accommodation, if required, will be at winner's expense.
