Skid pad should hit right spot
A tarmac tearing motorsport enthusiast has plans to make it a whole lot easier for Taranaki’s boy racers to avoid tangling with the law.
Anthony Valvoi plans to build a mechanical workshop and a ‘‘rather large’’ skid pad just outside New Plymouth.
The Stratford man said incorporating the skid pad, to be located adjacent to the garage’s carpark, into his business plan was his solution to getting boy racers off the streets.
‘‘There’s definitely a big market for it,’’ he said.
‘‘A lot of these kids meet on Friday and Saturday nights and if they’ve got somewhere they can go where they’re off the road and they can hangout, and with the skid pad available to them as well, it will certainly give them a much better option.
‘‘They keep their licence, they keep their car and it just stops a whole lot of problems.’’
A motorsport enthusiast himself, Valvoi knows the attraction of tearing up the tarmac and said the region needed a place for people to legally burn rubber.
Valvoi said there would be an alcohol ban at the facility, which would also provide two complimentary tyre-changing machines, and it would be available to hire for events.
Taranaki has been without a designated boy racing skid pad since 2013 when the former Ferndene Speedway near Egmont Village was closed to skidders.
Valvoi said the size of the pad was yet to be confirmed as it was dependant on financial support. He estimated it would cost about $200,000 to build.
‘‘Concrete’s not cheap,’’ he said.
The 28-year-old, who works as a manager at Taranaki Base Hospital, is meeting the project’s business related costs but was seeking hoped to garner financial support for the build of the skid pad.
He aimed to have the garage open early next year and the skid pad installed by August.