At least five cars were damaged in the attack over the weekend. Photo / Supplied
At least five cars were damaged in the attack over the weekend. Photo / Supplied
Car enthusiasts say the term "boy racer" is an outdated slur and the branded bad-boys of the streets are on a public relations drive.
Several members of a Wellington car club spoke to the Herald about an incident in Upper Hutt over the weekend in which a man allegedly took to a steamroller and damaged several cars.
Due to safety concerns, they all requested to not be named.
The club said labelling people as boy racers painted ordinary car enthusiasts in a bad light, many of whom work hard to "show off" their rides off the streets.
"I've been around motor vehicles for a while now and speedway, they have their place to go and no one gives them a bad name," one member said.
"If we could get the young fellas of the streets where they could show off their cars without hurting people, the problems of people complaining, that'd be good."
At least five cars were damaged in the attack over the weekend. Photo / Supplied
A younger member of the club said if there was somewhere cheap for them to go to, there would be nothing to give them a bad name.
"The main problem is accessibility, there's no access to people who aren't essentially made of money."
And while they will continue to debate who has the better set of wheels, they can all agree on one thing - they need somewhere to safely meet together.
"Skateboarders have skateparks, rugby players have rugby clubs, [meets are] our way of showing off our cars," one man said.
"It's a way to hang out with our friends. We don't do it a stupid time when there are kids out on the street, we wait until no one is around.
"There is no actual place for us to go, we try going out in industrial areas - when we do it in the city's we get harassed from everyone."
The man was in Upper Hutt when a road-roller drove into several cars and injured a number of people during the rampage over the weekend.
A 47-year-old Porirua man has name suppressed when appearing in the Hutt Valley District Court at the weekend, charged with endangering transport and drink-driving. Police say the incident could have ended in tragedy.
The man allegedly driving the steamroller was arrested on scene. Photo / Supplied
Police are ramping up security measures to protect the man who allegedly drove the road roller.
It follows threats being made against the man on social media.
A witness to the carnage in the early hours of Saturday morning has described the chaos as the roller was used to damage and push a number of parked cars on Eastern Hutt Rd in Silverstream.
Harley, who did not want his surname used, claimed people were injured by cars as drivers "frantically" tried to flee the area.
Harley said a group of car enthusiasts had met at the site of what's believed to be a new subdivision to check out each other's cars and "network" - sharing tips on paint jobs and vehicle upgrades.
They were on a public road and were not causing any damage to the area, he said.
"All of a sudden this roller starts up."
He thought someone might have been fooling around with the equipment and went to confront them, but soon realised it was nobody from the car scene when the roller began "ploughing through a Mitsubishi Lancer".
The man operating the roller was yelling, Harley said.
Harley stayed at the scene to try to make sure everyone got out of the way, and saw several near-misses where people jumped out of cars as the roller advanced towards them.
He claimed to see the roller throw a yellow Altezza around "like a rag doll".
Another member who has been involved with car meets for nearly two decades said authorities, the public and enthusiasts once had a good relationship.
However, following the actions of a few "bad eggs" the relationship soured and things have never been the same again.
To avoid future incidents similar to the one over the weekend, the enthusiast suggested allocating them their own space, be it freely gifted or cheaply accessed, where they could work alongside the community and authorities.
"If there was a place for us to go ... we could definitely sort it out and get it cleaned up and respect it," a member said.
"If we had somewhere for us to go there would be less damage to peoples' cars and people in general.
"At the end of the day we've all got families and we can't go anywhere and just be safe - that's all we want, somewhere to be safe and enjoy what we love."
