Supercar crash cash coverup
show for free following last month’s Kaikoura quake.
‘‘We just saw it in the States too with the fires in the Smoky Mountains... the first responders, they do amazing work, and no one knows who they are. They never get any thanks, and I thought it seemed right.’’
Urban, who moved to Australia with his parents at age two, said he had magical memories of visiting his grandma in New Zealand, but that Nashville was where he now called home.
But he didn’t mind Kiwis claiming him as their own – ‘‘I’ll take that,’’ he said. WHENthe big money McLaren supercars rolled into town this week, they were very keen to put on a show.
They courted the media photocalls, parading their wonderfully exotic multi-million dollar cars to baying media.
But when the most ostentatious of the fleet – a $20m 1994 McLaren F1 capable of almost 400kmh, and one of only 64 ever built – crashed into a ditch yesterday, all of a sudden they weren’t so keen on the cameras.
Freelance photographer James Allan was first to the scene on the Queenstown-Glenorchy Rd but was warned off by people involved with the McLaren rally – the Epic Tour.
‘‘He said ‘how much to make this problem go away’. The guy who came up with the idea was an organiser. He just said ‘what’s it worth to you’ and I said X amount for the memory card.’’
But he knew his surprise payday was over when other media showed up a few hours later and began filming.
The driver and owner of the supercar, a 65-year-old Australian, was taken to the Queenstown Medical Centre with minor injuries to his thumb.
The sole passenger was uninjured.