Big day out for petrol-heads

By CATHERINE MASTERS

Holden slugged it out against Ford in the burning Pukekohe sun, their petrol-head supporters as biased as the clothes on their backs.

A sea of Ford caps bobbed in the crowd but it was not to be their day.

The tidal wave of red Holden T-shirts, badges and face paintings were overwhelmed at the win of race two by their boy, Kiwi Greg Murphy.

Fast cars, big engines, lots of noise, screeching, skidding, fumes, smoke, vroom, vroom, vroom.

People love this. Their faces light up as the supercars zoom past, again ... and again.

The man selling ear plugs is doing good business at the V8 Supercar meeting at the Pukekohe race track.

Pukekohe is sacred petrol-head territory, a pilgrimage for the big-car fans. They come from all over the North Island and further afield.

It's a place where the commentators crack jokes like: "It's a fine time to leave me, Loose Wheels."

It's a place where something is always going on even when the racing is not.

Some fans are happy in the grandstand or sitting on the muddy banks further back where you can see the fumes, even if you can't see the cars very well.

Others stand on the fence line, as close as they can get to the action, so they can smell the fumes and feel the vibrations.

Wherever they sit, they all take sides. They back either Holden or Ford and the rivalry is intense. "There's too many Holdens," yells one well-oiled clown.

VB beer girls Kate McElwain and Jacqui Le Prou, dressed in minuscule skirts, crop-tops and boots, do not agree. Holdens are sexy, says Le Prou, 19.

"Yeah, I've got a Holden," says McElwain, 18.

The girls are among the hordes of scantily clad young women whose job it is to be sexy at the race track. They get to wander around handing out posters and have their photo taken over and over.

No, they say. They don't get too much sleaze lobbed at them. Nothing they can't handle.

Up walks a punter asking to buy tickets to the race party.

"Are you going to be there?" he asks them. "If you save me a dance I'll buy two tickets."

As the V8s vroom round and round the track in front, the girls reach their own celebrity status.

They attract a small crowd all wanting to have their picture taken with them. Handily, they carry around a polaroid camera for these occasions.

Hey, here come the Yellow Pages girls in their short yellow frocks. The girls all team up to have their picture taken. Quite a few men among the crowd are clutching polaroid pictures.

All eyes suddenly turn from the girls. Something even more exciting for the blokes is bouncing by. Two topless girls wearing nothing but a painted T-shirt. They don't stop for a photo.

Even so, it's a family day out at Pukekohe and while the women may be outnumbered, there are plenty of them about.

Dawn Ingall from Whangaparaoa loves motor racing. She went to Bathurst a couple of years ago and the cars go so fast "it brings tears to your eyes".

"I love cars, big fast cars. I always have."

But she has a good reason to love cars and to get a bit emotional about it all. Little brother Russell Ingall races Holdens and was on the track at Pukekohe yesterday.

Petrol-head syndrome is in the blood for this family. Dawn Ingall's daughter Tanya Nolan was watching, too - she says she's probably more a speed-freak than a petrol-head.

But there are fanatics. Brock Taylor, 3, from central Auckland, was at Pukekohe yesterday and you could say he was born into fanaticism.

Wearing his red Holden jumpsuit despite the afternoon heat, he and dad Warwick Taylor were glued to the track.

Taylor is a mate of legendary Bathurst driver Peter Brock and while young Brock won his name by the toss of a coin, now he is earning it with his love of car racing.