When Sellars met Stinga

SunMedia's Kathy Sellars is ready for the racetrack.

Meet Stinga – the banged-up 2001 Suzuki Aerio with four wheels, no windows, one seat and a steering wheel. 'I was getting acquainted,” says SunMedia's Kathy Sellars.

Because Kathy is swapping her family car for the battered Suzuki on January 7, when she bashes and crashes her way around the speedway track for the SunLive Baypark Speedway Demolition Derby.

'I've named her Stinga,” says Kathy. It relates to her Zodiac sign. 'I'm a Scorpio, and so is the boss. It runs in the SunMedia family.”

Although she's still trying to choreograph a lady-like way of climbing inside the window of the bashed up derby car, Kathy isn't nervous about getting behind the wheel on the big day.

'I'm not nervous. I've got a good feel of what it might be like behind the wheel. When I found out I could go full throttle and there's no speed restrictions I was like: ‘Yeah! I can't wait'.

'Although my kids aren't so keen. They said they don't want me to get killed. Isn't that sweet?”

Kathy's dodged possums and handled the winding corners of the back roads of Welcome Bay and Pyes Pa roads all her life, but this January she'll be speeding around Baypark Speedway's terracotta track.

'I've never driven on a track before but did grow up driving the local back roads in the days before it was sealed, dodging possums and handling corners,” says the mother-of-two.

Kathy says the daily battle of negotiating Tauranga's commuter traffic has honed her driving skills, revving up her excitement to take on the derby.

'Driving to work each morning in Tauranga has certainly given me a taste of what it might be like at Baypark Speedway – except on the roads you have to dodge cars and at Baypark I'll be allowed to hit them – yes!”

Kathy will be driving a car especially prepared for the event by Baypark Speedway. It will be appropriately modified, fitted with the right safety gear and Kathy will be wearing the correct clothing, footwear and helmet to keep her safe.

The January demo-derby is the first of two this season, with the second scheduled for April 15.

The event will also feature the second round of the Champion of Champion Sprint Car Series, saloons, mini stocks and six-shooter V6 wingless sprint cars.

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