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As smooth as silk P H OTO G R A P H Y BY H E L E N L E A WA L L
Tamara Silk’s introduction to drag racing involved eight-hour family car trips up and down the country. Now she’s rated as the quickest woman in New Zealand. Alice Soper writes.
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ilk is a name made for the headlines, and one that is synonymous with drag racing in New Zealand. Robin Silk was a veteran of the sport, for many years one of the wildest drivers competing in the Wild Bunch class. He later worked in one of the top hot rod shops in America as a fabricator, showcasing Kiwi ingenuity. Robin’s occasional disregard for personal safety led to stricter enforcement of competition rules, but also helped get his kids out on the track. “I think he had to stand on the back of my car while I drove it. I said he had to come with me,” Tamara Silk, Robin’s youngest daughter, recalls. “My sister said to Dad, ‘Can you do that on the racetrack too?’” For the Silks and many others in the drag racing community, the sport has always been a family affair. The location of the drag strips in Meremere and Masterton meant a lot of roadtripping for the Kāpiti whānau. “It was the norm that you’d hop in the car on a Friday night to drive for eight hours to Meremere,” Tamara remembers. “Unpack a whole lot of stuff, go down the track in about eight seconds, three times. Pack it all back up again and drive all the way home.” Robin, ever the optimist, would instigate these trips regardless of the forecast. If there was a 70% chance of rain, “Dad would always say, ‘But it might not.’” His enthusiasm for drag racing infected his daughter and son. On the strip, “I am known as Robin’s daughter which is a great feeling”, Tamara admits,
“but you want to have your own identity because you’ve earned it.” And Tamara is making a name for herself. Now the quickest woman in New Zealand, beating Karen Hay’s 2014 record with a time of 5.853 seconds over the quarter mile. This equates to a speed of 109.59 metres per second. Hay had beaten Faye Grant’s record, which had stood for 24 years. The rate at which women are now breaking records in this sport mirrors their speed on the track. Tamara broke the record with Robin proudly trackside. Now her participation in the sport has taken on an added importance. “One of the last things he said to us before he passed away was ‘Don’t give up drag racing.’” Tamara is keeping her promise alongside her brother, Cory, who provides essential maintenance. Her Mum, Vicky, has also been recruited into her race-day team, helping her daughter reverse into the starting blocks, just as she did for Robin. Their father’s absence means they now must turn to each other and the drag-racing community to replace his encyclopaedic knowledge. Cory has spent most of his career racing in Tamara’s hand-me-down cars but is considering sharing with his big sister next season. These siblings have largely avoided rivalry by driving in different classes, only officially taking each other on once, when Cory came out on top. Competing directly is unlikely to disrupt this bond, as New Zealand drag racing is a good clean fight.
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