The word "break" is not a regular part of many motor racing drivers' vocabulary for obvious reasons.
Suffice it to say, New Zealand Formula First Championship driver Michael Shepherd has had his share of good breaks in life to clinch a record fifth title in Taupo at the end of the Easter weekend last month.
For the Hastings-born man the crucial break that triggered off a rash of cumulative ones came when he was a teenager at St John's College.
A group of Napier drivers - Andrew Hollywood, Roger Greaney and Colin Grant - had set up Africa Racing (which, incidentally, stood for "Another effing race I can't afford").
"I got a taste of big cars through these guys before I bought myself a Formula V," says the 31-year-old Toyota New Zealand employee, who now lives and works in Palmerston North.
"They had a car they let me drive. I probably didn't appreciate it that much at the time, but I was very lucky because I was only a 15-year-old then and had just got my driving licence," he says.
With the help of other sponsors from Hawke's Bay and around the country, Shepherd was able to graduate from a successful karting career to the higher octane starting grids of motor racing.
His racing career always gravitated around his father, John Shepherd, of Hastings, who was a mechanic and relished travelling.
"Our record was 15 weekends of karting," Michael said of his father, who is an engineer/machine setter at Alto Packaging in Pakipaki.
For the decade from 1990, Michael was a champion in every class of Bay karting, thus earning the distinction of becoming the Kiwi Kart factory driver in this province.
"I won the New Zealand senior karting title in 1998 with four straight wins from five races, which is something that was unheard of at the time. I used to start from grid 27 and places like that," says Michael Shepherd, who graduated to the higher echelons of Caltex New Zealand V8 racing not long after Ashley Stichbury died of cerebral haemorrhage in 2002.
A timely break for Shepherd's record-breaking feat in Taupo over Easter came about a fortnight before he got on the race track with a 151-point lead, considering a maximum of 225 points were up for grabs that weekend.
His pregnant wife, Kate, who was due that long weekend, delivered the double bundles of joy early as twin daughters Hazel and Addison arrived to the delight of their other two daughters, Greta and Ruby.
"They [the twins] are our third and fourth children, so they're definitely the last," Shepherd says with a laugh.
Qualifying that Saturday, Shepherd took pole by just a second from championship hopeful Ryan Hellier, who had to use a back-up engine for the weekend, with Matt Higham and Oliver Gordon after them, respectively.
A victory in race one would see the title in his hands, and Shepherd did just that, leaving nothing to chance as Hellier and Kyle George made it to the podium with him.
The drivers then faced the arduous task of stopping Shepherd win the final race on Sunday and making it a breath-taking ninth on the trot.
With the barometer plummeting and rain threatening as the drivers left the pit lane, Team Shepherd showed it wasn't a season of flukes. Shepherd had nailed 16 out of 21 races in the season and finished on the podium for every single outing.
In the end-of-race ritual, the engines of the top three place-getters were stripped before the marshalls gave the thumbs up.
"It's a Volkswagen Beetle engine but it's heavily regulated," Shepherd explains, adding it can only be souped up to provide a 1200cc grunt.
"It can hit up to 200km/h at Pukekohe, so there's lots of slip-streaming and it's good fun," he says, adding the regulations make the cars pretty even in strength.
"So it comes down to driveability rather than how big your chequebook is."
He thanked his sponsors Go Rentals for the backing of his car's chassis, and Innov8. "Dad has done a great job in preparing the car and I must thank Selby Alison who has built our engines from the very first season."
With wife Kate expecting a helping hand with the twins, Shepherd has handed over the driving duties next season to his brother, Rowan, of Hastings.
Rowan, who turns 18 on May 26, is a scratch amateur golfer with the New Zealand Golf academy and a former karting champion.
Twin joy at home and on the track
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