KEY POINTS:
The father of a Tauranga 20-year-old who died after being hit at an illegal street race at the weekend said today that confusion and anger was probably the reason some young people become boy-racers.
Scott Finn, 20, died instantly when he was hit by a speeding car in Mt Maunganui early on Saturday morning. He had been the starter in a series of races in an industrial area of the town.
His father Shaun said this morning that his son was his best mate and had a huge heart, but like a lot of other kids was probably a little confused.
"They're looking for something, a lot of them are probably angry," he said on National Radio today.
Two teenagers are facing manslaughter charges and a post mortem was due on Scott's body today.
But Shaun said the feeling Scott's death had generated among the youth of the city was "absolutely incredible".
He added: "They had a drive around for him last night in Tauranga and I hear there were 90 cars. There were a couple of idiots, but the majority drove around at 40 to 50km/h with their hazard lights on and the police were quite happy for them to do that," he said.
"They just drove around his favourite spots and it was quite amazing."
He said his son was passionate about cars, especially Fords.
He knew his son went to the street races, but at the time of his death he did not have a car. "As for participation and petrol drag racing he probably did, but we didn't know," he said.
A 16-year-old youth was due to appear in the Youth Court in Tauranga today on manslaughter charges.
An 18-year-old appeared on Saturday in the district court where he was granted interim name suppression and remanded on bail to appear again next week.
- NZPA, NZHERALD STAFF
