Boy racers get bad rap from ageing rebels
By ROSEMARY MCLEOD - Sunday Star Times | Sunday, 15 February 2009


The one redeeming outcome of the disaster in Victoria is how it sidelined the panic over boy racers. Death sure has a way of putting things into perspective.

In Christchurch people turn feral at the very mention of the problem, a satisfying result for the boy racers, surely.

Don't we all remember what it was like to be young and rebellious, though, and don't we recall previous panics? In hindsight, what did they amount to?

There were bodgies, ages ago, who got drunk and upset blossom festivals in Alexandra and Hawke's Bay. An annual orgy of outrage could be counted on over their antics.

We don't have blossom festivals any more, or borstals to send bodgies to, and I guess they got married, made homes, had kids and got boring like everyone else.

Their kids became hippies who wore bare feet and lived in communes. How outrageous. Long-haired schoolboys were made to have army haircuts for no real reason other than to humiliate them, and old men wrote letters to newspapers wanting to bring back public floggings, or send them to compulsory military training. T

he Beatles, they said, were the spawn of Satan. Time makes idiots of all of us if we're not careful.

More recently skateboarders were the scum of the earth - until we came to our senses and built skateboard parks where they now congregate instead of hooning around car park buildings.

Now it's boy racers. As far as I know, they're not noted for serious criminal activity and they don't kill anyone; they even drive their own cars, which means they don't want to wreck them.

But they drive in an intimidating way, risk their own lives and those of other people, act aggressive, and make an appalling din.

For this we want to take their cars off them, squash them, and - just to show them who's boss - make them watch. The closest parallel I can think of is a certain kind of rape.

For every outburst from a policeman, a politician or a mayor, boy racers give an equal and opposite reaction. As young people do. And yet again we're amazed at the effrontery of youth.

What on earth gets into us? Aren't there laws about speeding? Is it really legal to have such noisy vehicles? Can't you already be booked for dangerous driving and drink-driving? Haven't we got laws about riots and unlawful assembly?

And what do we really expect when we send a sole policeman out to deal with 100 boy racers and their girlfriends? That they'll cringe and slink home with their tails between their legs? High school teachers will tell you how realistic that is.

I'm shocked at the clamour to destroy these kids' cars, the only thing they own that really means a lot to them. That should be a truly desperate last resort, only for repeat offenders, and perhaps might apply to other lawbreakers while we're at it.

What about the middle-aged creeps in business and the law who've stolen fortunes from investors and trusted clients, only to go home after jail to their mansions in leafy glades, where their purring BMWs wait in the garage, and all their assets are untouched because they're in family trusts?

Which is more antisocial - the cocky kid who keeps you awake at night, or the sleek private schoolboy who gambled away your life savings, condemning you to poverty in old age? Whose car would you wreck first?

Not so long ago we had public floggings, and not long before that we still had public executions. Some people still feel nostalgic for their special charm. But there are other ways of dealing with social pests, surely, than by just taking an aggressive stand against them.

These boy racers, like their parents before them, will have their own kids, make homes of some kind, get a job, grow older - and deep down they know it. But until that happens, we all live in an eternal now.

We found places for skateboarders to use; why can't we find somewhere for boy race

Drift South Points System
1st=30, 2nd=26, 3rd=23, 4th=20, 5th=18, 6th=16, 7th=14, 8th=13, 9th=12, 10th=11, 11th=10, 12th=9, 13th=8, 14th=7, 15th=6, 16th=5, 1 point allocated to all unsuccessful entrants. For rounds where battles aren't used to determine positions 9th-16th, qualifying positions will be used to sort positions. Up to 10 points can be deducted for drivers breaking the rules out-lined at drivers breifing. (at judges descretion)

1st - Simon Hunter 70 points
2nd - Nick Shrimpton 66 points
3rd - Paul Tomlin 65 points
4th- Gene Rhodes 49 points
5th- Cody Collis 46 points
6th- Tiger White 43 points
7th- Kahu Campbell 40 points
8th- Troy Forsythe 39 points
9th- Glen Pupich 38 points
10th- Mike Scott 29 points
11th- Shawn Alston 25 points
12th- Mark O’Hara 24 points
13th- Jamie Nelson 23 points
14th- Chris Protheroe 22 points
15th= Blake O'Connell 19 points
15th= Mitchell Stenning 19 points
17th Anthony McQuoid 13 points
18th George King-Turner 12 points
19th Steven Smith 11 points
20th= Matthew Smith 8 points
20th= Aden Omnet 8 points
22nd= Anthony Ralston 7 points
22nd= Robert Tomlin 7 points
22nd= Ashley Thompson 7 points
25th Michael Court 5 points
26th= Robbie Te Huna 3 points
26th= Andrew Gnad 3 points
26th= Nikki Pilcher 3 points
26th= Blair Absalom 3 points
26th= Nathan McClure 3 points
26th= Brad Uren 3 points
26th= Lee Bennett 3 points
26th= Beau Cogle 3 points
34th= Shannon Kupher 2 point
34th= Richard Todd 2 point
34th= Matai Watson 2 point
37th= Will Gossett 1 point
37th= Steven Douglas 1 point

POINT SYSTEM 1st=30, 2nd=26, 3rd=23, 4th=20, 5th=18, 6th=16, 7th=14, 8th=13, 9th=12, 10th=11, 11th=10, 12th=9, 13th=8, 14th=7, 15th=6, 16th=5, 1 point allocated to all unsuccessful entrants. For rounds where battles aren't used to determine positions 9th-16th, qualifying positions will be used to sort positions

Results after 5 Rounds

1st Brent Eatwell 132 points
2nd Troy Forsythe 99 points
3rd Glen Pupich 96 points
4th Gene Rhodes 94 points
5th Kent Shrimpton 85 points
6th Dave Gardner 71 points
7th Tiger White 67 points
8th Kahu Campbell 56 points
9th Matai Watson 45 points
10th Chris Protheroe 43 points
11th Paul Tomlin 41 points
12th Michael Court 40 points
13th Shaun Alston 35 points
14th= Jamie Nelson 29 points
14th= Ben "Dover" Smith 29 points
16th Nathan McClure 28 points
17th Simon Hunter 24 points
18th Greg Graham 21 points
19th= Matthew Smith 20 points
19th= Mark O'Hara 20 points
21st Cody Collins 13 point
22nd Jamie Blair 12 points
23rd= Steven Bailes 9 points
23rd= Brogan Mooney 9 points
23rd= Robert Tomlin 9 points
26th= James Munroe 8 points
26th= Hamish Hawkins 8 points
28th= Patrick Prendeville 7 points
28th= Ashley Thompson 7 points
30th= Andy Au-yeung 5 points
31st= Anthony McQuoid 2 points
31st= Travis Baird 2 points
33rd= Mike Smith 1 point
33rd= Gary Gardner 1 point
33rd= Lee Bennet 1 point
33rd= Nikki Pilcher 1 point
33rd= Mitchell Stenning 1 point
33rd= Will Gosset 1 point
33rd= Richard Todd 1 point
33rd= Aden Omnet 1 point