KEY POINTS:
Engines were revved and buzzing loudly yesterday, as keen racers flocked to the Amifield Dragway racing competition in Tokoroa.
Run by The Streetrodders drag racing club, the event attracted 84 racers of all ages and a record crowd, organisers say.
Included were a junior dragsters race, and street car and street bike races.
Among the junior dragster racers was 9-year-old Janelle Lawson, a year 5 pupil at Woodhill Primary School in Auckland who began racing when she was 7 years old.
"Sometimes I feel scared because I go too fast, but it's really fun, I love it. Other kids should do it."
Her father, Adam, said his "small girl" was a keen and fearless racer.
"They can go up to 100 miles an hour but they [juniors] are restricted to 75 miles an hour. She's gone 8.4 seconds - that's her fastest - but they're not allowed to go faster than 8.5, so we have to get her to go slower.
"She does ballet, netball and swimming too. But she loves drag racing - if she had to give something up, it'd be out of the other three," Mr Lawson said.
Fellow junior Amy Wilson, 14, who ran her first race as an 11-year-old, says racing against the boys is always fun.
"Sometimes they get a little scared. They come up to you and say, 'Hey, we're gonna beat you' - but then they don't."
She said that although she had never crashed, nerves were still a part of racetime.
"You get a bit of an adrenaline rush when you rush out, but I get nervous just before the race. It's really cool - half the people I know don't know how to drive, but I do."
Event organiser Richard Banfield said the event - and drag racing in New Zealand - had fast become popular.
"It was an awesome day. We had lots of racers."
