Volunteers heart of Highlands
SOMETIMES they are behind the wheel, other times they are behind the scenes.
But either way, it was a ‘‘great day out’’, and their volunteer roles at Highlands Motorsport Park were a way of helping other drivers, Queenstown men Lindsay Read and Mike Sheehan said.
‘‘This is my way of giving back to motorsport,’’ Sheehan said. ‘‘We get to race sometimes, and we get to help others sometimes.’’
The two were among more than 80 volunteers who helped each day during the threeday Highlands Festival of Speed at Cromwell, and illustrated ‘‘the other side’’ of highspeed racing, Highlands chief operating officer Josie Spillane said.
She said volunteers were the ‘‘lifeblood’’ of Highlands events and helped in various areas such as race control, in rescue vehicles and acting as ‘‘runners’’.
There were also flag marshals, fire brigade volunteers and the allimportant ‘‘lunch ladies’’.
‘‘You always have to feed the crew. You don’t want hungry volunteers.’’
Read normally raced his Mustang Cobra at Highlands, but at present it was undergoing repairs following a ‘‘minor altercation’’ at a previous Highlands event when it was rearended by another car.
Sheehan races a Ford Fiesta R2 in the New Zealand rally championship.
He was acting as competitor relations officer at Highlands, and Read was an accident investigator.
Volunteer fire crews were also at Highlands last weekend, including Clayton Andrews, of the Cromwell Volunteer Fire Brigade, Luke Morrison, of the Tarras rural brigade, Megan Colling, of the Colac Bay brigade, and Darren Brown, who was previously a volunteer with the Invercargill brigade.
Andrews said he had only missed one day of Highlands events, volunteering at all the others because he loved motorsport so much.
Spillane said volunteer training days for various Otago and Southland fire brigades had been held at Highlands, and other ‘‘special thankyou days’’ were held at Highlands for volunteers to ‘‘have a go on the track’’.
A record field of 216 competed in last weekend’s Festival of Speed, which featured the last two rounds of the ‘‘Battle of the Mature Champions’’, a ‘‘grudge match’’ between Highlands owner Tony Quinn and champion driver Kenny Smith, of Hampton Downs, Spillane said.
Smith (76), who has raced in 48 grands prix, won the first round of the series at Hampton Downs and Quinn won the second round at Highlands on Saturday.
It came ‘‘down to the wire’’, and Smith won the third round at Highlands yesterday and the overall title, Spillane said.