Motorsport runs in the family

Marguerite Leitch flanked by her sons - Damon (left) and Brendon (right). Picture / Bruce Jenkins.

A former kart racer enjoys watching her sons race

It must be hard for a mum to lean against a pit wall and watch her young son being flung around a racetrack in a bathtub on wheels at up to 230km/h. Now try and imagine what it must be like for a mum to watch two of her offspring doing it at the same time.

South Island resident and mother to two racing sons, Damon (20) and 18-year-old Brendon, Marguerite Leitch is one such mum who was at the opening round of the Toyota Racing Series in Teretonga, Invercargill, last weekend.

Her lack of overt concern might just stem from the fact that in her youth she too was a bit of a petrol head along with husband Barry.

"I met my husband, Barry, when I was 16, when he was racing karts and I would always go out to track with him," said Marguerite. "In the end I said that looked like fun and I'd like to have a go at it. I'm quite a competitive sort of person so I got a kart and went racing.

"I was pretty good at it and raced until I was 20 doing a few of the Island championships and things like that. Then we got a house and I thought that was more fun than racing, and then a number of years later we had Damon.

"Damon was keen on driving, building and creating stuff with his dad and was karting when he was 6 and so the cycle started again with the kids."

As with all mums, dads, team owners, managers, engineers, mechanics and race organisers, safety is paramount.

"From a safety point of view I'm just happy the boys have the best safety gear they can get and they're in good, safe cars. So I don't worry about the safety point of view, as if everything does what it's supposed to do they'll be okay," says Marguerite.

"It's amazing these days what they've got with the HANS [head and neck support] device available and all the other new materials. Technology has moved so far so fast now. Any sport has its dangers but it's a lot safer than horse riding, rugby or even fishing."

Other than hoping nothing untoward happens to her boys, Marguerite's only other concern is that they have a good time and do the best they can and stay out of trouble on the racetrack.

"All I really think about is they do the best they can and everyone else doesn't do nasty things to them or push them off the track. I do get upset as a mum though when someone on the racetrack does something silly and causes an incident and isn't fair.

"You get that sort of unfair, silly stuff in tough competition but I don't like it and get upset when I see it. It's like I want them to leave my boys alone. At the end of the day, if they've done the best they can and enjoyed it and it's been a good, clean race, I'm happy they've had a good day," says Marguerite.

Motor racing is a tough sport and while drivers understand it's a roller coaster ride in motorsport, for a parent it can be frustrating.

"It was really sad Damon had a part failure [rear wing] on Saturday when he was sitting in second motoring away quite happily. I felt really sorry for him. That's sport and he took it on the chin and said tomorrow is another day.

"That's the great thing about any sport - kids learn that when things go bad you have to pick yourself up and move on to the next thing. It's good character building stuff. I was pretty upset but you have to move on, as you can't really do anything about it but it kept going around and around in my head thinking if only ... but then I go and try and do something else to take my mind of it."

Racing is expensive, and while Damon will do the entire series, it's not looking like his brother, Brendon, will be doing all five rounds unless more sponsorship can be found.