These days, Dawson Porthouse spends whatever spare time he has watching Formula 1, Supercars, and endurance racing — whatever is on.
"The sound of a well-tuned engine is music to my ears," he said.
So it is not surprising the 18-year-old motorsport enthusiast is now studying automotive engineering at Otago Polytechnic, and that he relished yesterday’s opportunity to be a small cog in the greater workings of the car scrutineering process for this weekend’s 50th anniversary Otago Rally event.
The in-depth inspections involved rigorous safety checks of the competing cars, including roll cages, harnesses, seats, race suits, documentation checks, installation of Rallysafe tracking units, and verification of compliance with safety criteria before the cars hit the roads for racing.
When Mr Porthouse was a youngster, his dad took him to speedway events on the weekends, and he would offer to help with less-than-glamorous jobs like scraping mud off cars.
In more recent years, he has made a point of attending Otago Rally events religiously, checking out the large lineup of international and local cars as they raced around the district.
"It’s like a scene out of Fast & Furious.
"You can get so close to the cars racing through the stages."
Despite studying towards a New Zealand certificate in automotive engineering (level 3), he said his main goal was to one day become a professional racing driver, and ideally compete in the FIA World Endurance Championship, which includes the 24 Hours of Le Mans race.
"My dream race would be either 24 hours of Le Mans or Rolex Daytona 24.
"I would love to join the list of New Zealand motorsport greats like Hayden Paddon, Scott McLaughlin, Sir Scott Dixon, and Liam Lawson."
Knowing what goes on under the hood was important to a professional driver, he said.
"I think, hopefully, when I start racing next year, I’ll obviously need to know what to repair and when to repair it if something sounds off or something doesn’t quite feel right. Knowing how to tweak it to make it go faster is also part of it.
"From an early age, my parents have known that I’m really interested in racing, and I’ve always told them that that is my main goal — to one day make the world stage.
"It’s my dream and I’m going to do everything I can to go for it."
