85-year-old racer shows no sign of slowing down

Shirley Faull is an 85-year-old granny who drives around in a Toyota Corolla.

Nothing too shocking in that statement – except for the fact the car is fully equipped with a roll cage, racing harness, and sponsor’s livery.

That is because Shirley races the Corolla around off-road circuits all over the Waikato and Bay of Plenty.

It started around nine years ago when, at the age of 76, Shirley bought a new sports car, a 1990 Toyota Celica which she describes as “a beautiful car with lovely pop-up head lights”.

A short time later she made a decision that would lead to the unlikeliest of new passions.

“I discovered there was a social car club for enthusiasts, so I went on a few social runs with them. One of them had his car set up for the Targa Rally. I had always been a motorsport fan but I didn’t know much about rallying.

“He gave me a ride in it on a club hill climb and I thought, ‘now this is fun I’d like to do this, I think I’d like to be a rally driver’.”

There was no stalling or second thoughts from that point on, she raced out to join the local Bay of Plenty competitive car club and begin studying to gain her New Zealand rally licence.

No sooner had she gained her licence, than the phone rang. On the other end was a car club member who told Shirley  a rally competitor in Rotorua was advertising for a new co-driver.

“I knew what a co-driver had to do, but wasn’t sure if I would be able to do it at speed.”

She applied for the role, got it, and set off to learn all about what it took to be a co-driver in New Zealand’s largest competitive rally series.

Around nine years later Shirley has just about seen it all when it comes to club auto racing and has no plans to slow down any time soon.

“It’s amazing the adventures I have,” she says. “I’m not doing gravel events any more, it’s a matter of changing over the wheels…and it got very hard lifting them into the boot myself.

“Every year when it comes time to renew my rally licence I think ‘Oh well I’ll have another year’.”

So well-known around the scene now is Shirley that fellow competitors barely bat an eyelid at her presence come race day. However, it isn’t always that way she says, recalling a “run-in” with a police officer during a routine warrant of fitness check in her home town of Te Puke.

“A rally car is fully road legal and I always wear a full racing harness…when I stopped in front of the young officer his eyes nearly popped out…he must have seen the car coming and made up his mind what was driving it, it wasn’t what he expected.”

These days racing is very much a family affair for Shirley with two grandchildren, Jason and Kris, competing in drifting and off-road events respectively.

In one final thought about what inspired her to become involved in car racing Shirley recalls her career as a draftswoman, firstly for the railways and then in the Ministry of Works, where ironically she had a lot to do with road design.

“All knowledge comes in useful sooner or later.”