A beauty queen with drive
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On Saturdays you will find her at pageant practice; on Sundays she’s getting grimy at the race track.
Emma Gribble, 22, was crowned Miss Auckland in 2018 and is a finalist in Miss World NZ – but being a beauty queen is not her only passion.
Gribble is a ‘‘motorsportobsessed’’ racecar driver and has been competing on dirt tracks since she was 15.
‘‘When you’re on the race track, you don’t think about anything else,’’ the Helensville resident said.
‘‘The adrenalin is crazy, and in that moment, you forget all about the life dramas and the life stresses.’’
Gribble said she started going to Meremere Dirt Track, just south of Auckland, at the age of 10 when her dad and uncle got into racing. She knew ‘‘immediately’’ that this was what she wanted to do.
However, her obsession with racing is now competing with her newly found love for pageants, inspired by their charity work.
‘‘I never even thought I would get through to the interview stage, I didn’t tell anyone, but then I became a finalist which is crazy in itself. Then I ended up winning it.’’
Juggling the greatly contrasting commitments is difficult but ‘‘it’s nice to live a bit of both worlds’’.
On March 24, Gribble is hosting a charity race at Meremere Dirt Track to raise money for Brave, a sexual-violence education and support charity.