Self-confessed petrolhead Ivan Fahey found some youthful exuberance when his name was pulled from a hat at Highlands Motorsport Park, making him the new owner of a 2014 Lamborghini Huracan.
“I leapt into the air and threw my hands up and whooped and yelled and carried on like a schoolkid. I probably made a proper fool of myself,” he said.
The 81-year-old pensioner was at the Cromwell raceway on Sunday, where the once-in-a-lifetime giveaway was held to mark its 10th anniversary of operations as a motorsport facility.
Highlands chief executive Josie Spillane said the two-seater car, which can accelerate from 0 to 100km/h in 2.9 seconds, was bought by Highlands’ owner, the self-made pet food baron and multi-millionaire Tony Quinn, in 2014 and fitted with a roll cage for use in the Targa NZ rally.
It was then brought to Highlands, where it was used as the track’s fast-dash car and later sent to sister track Hampton Downs to be its hot-laps car.
It returned south earlier this year and has since been on display at Highlands awaiting the giveaway.
A keen motorsport spectator “for pretty much my entire life”, Fahey said making it onto the track himself had always been financially out of his reach.
“It’s an expensive sport, but there are good friends of mine who have been competitors and I’ve always supported them and attended race meetings and been to various racetracks around New Zealand ... I’m a bit of a petrolhead, but not a competitive racer.”
He had owned his fair share of vehicles over the years - “but nothing like a Lamborghini”.
“We currently have a 5 Series BMW, which is quite a nice car, but back in the day I had one of the original, lovely old Nissan 280Zs” - and back in his era that was a really good car, he said.
“Probably one of the best cars I had was a Toyota Supra, a twin-turbo thing, so that was a nice car ... But other than that, just family cars.”
Fahey said he was keen to get the supercar on the road, but wasn’t sure how often he would take it to the track - if at all.
“I’ll just take it out for a few days and holidays, I think.
“You wouldn’t get a lot of groceries in the luggage compartment, it’s not designed for carrying big suitcases or groceries,” he said with a laugh.
“But of course all my nieces and nephews and friends all want to have a ride in it, so that will keep me busy for a while.”
He said he got to take the car for a few laps at the Highland track on Monday with professional driver Paul Blomqvist, who showed him the ropes before getting into the passenger seat and giving the wheel to Fahey.
“It’s easy enough to drive, and the handling is amazing.
“This is an eight-year-old car, and you would expect it to have a few things that you would notice, but no, it’s just so tight and strong. It’s incredible.
“It’s a proper supercar.”
Having been a coach driver for multiple companies in the North and South Islands for 16 years - “which was a wonderful job” - and operating a driving school in Westport for several years, Fahey said he wasn’t at all nervous to take control of the Lamborghini at the track.
Now “truly retired”, Fahey said he was a keen cyclist and often hit Central Otago’s trails with a group of mates, and he also sailed remote-control yachts competitively - though his new car wouldn’t relegate those hobbies to the backburner.
“I wouldn’t be able to put the bike on the back of the Lambo, and I certainly couldn’t get the yacht inside, so I’ll still keep up with those things ... You’ve got to do something to keep yourself active,” he said.
With all the commotion following his huge surprise on Sunday, Fahey said he didn’t get the chance to thank Highlands and congratulate them on their 10-year anniversary.
“It’s an amazing motorsport facility, and arguably one of the best circuits in New Zealand - possibly one of the best circuits you’d find anywhere,” he said.
“The whole operation is so professional, so congratulations to them and thank you very much to the owner, Tony Quinn, for offering this car as a giveaway.”
Spillane said the car couldn’t have gone to a better recipient.
“The fact that it went to a Cromwell local, who, in our first couple of years, gave up his own time to come and support us at the park as we were doing our events, driving our hop-on hop-off bus,” she said.
“He lost a mate last year who was one of our members, and they’ve had a really special relationship together around the love of cars ... Tony [Quinn] said he felt goosebumps, we just felt that it couldn’t have gone to a better recipient.
“We’re just really chuffed.”