By Rhonda Bartle

Hard-core petrol head

Julia Huzziff has a cool haircut, a winning smile and a total need for speed.

It's the perfect combination for a hard-core petrol head who has been leaving rubber on the road since she was a girl.

Recently, when she turned 21, her birthday cake came bright pink and with wheels. "Yep," she says. "It was pretty flash."

She says she's the only girl she knows who drank a 'yardie' on her birthday though of course, this girl would never drink and drive.

"No way," she says.

When she drives, it's alcohol-free and in a manual V8 Commodore with all the toots and whistles. And that's only for the road.

When she races, it's in a shocking pink Holden Commodore VX, emblazoned with fluoro green sponsor signs and painted bright yellow inside.

As she says, the love of fast cars runs in the family. She reckons she can blame her dad for her racing addiction.

All in the family

Dave Huzziff, of Huzziff Motors, has been into racing all his life, from drag teams to jet boats to karting.

These days, though, it's definitely daughter Julia who's making all the smoke.

Right now, she's the only female driver in the Motorsports V8 Premier Class, and "you can't get any higher up than that in New Zealand."

The class consists of a series of seven rounds per year during the summer months, and this is Julia's third time in it.

The first event will be held at Pukekohe, followed by three rounds at Christchurch, Invercargill and Timaru.

After that, competitors front up at Manfeild, Taupo and Pukekohe again.

"Then in April, the Australian Super cars come over and we race in a sport class of those as well," Julia says, "and that's probably the biggest event of all."

Mean machine: Julia give her pink car the once-over

Girl racer

So, what makes a girl want to get into racing? The wind in the hair, the heart beating fast, the chance to meet boys?
 
"The huge adrenaline rush as you get up to speeds such as 230kms per hour and being the only girl in the class, makes it more exciting, makes you want to beat those boys!"

And as for meeting boys, being the fastest girl in the sport often makes that difficult.

"I guess it gives them something to talk about, guys who are into their cars, and they think it's pretty cool, chicks doing it.

"But there are some drivers out there who are good and fast, but their attitude sucks. If they lose, they get in a huff."

A keen karting kid

Julia was just a kid when she first put her foot down hard on the gas.

"I remember Dad made me a cart out of an ironing board. I think I just liked things with wheels.

"And then when I was about 11 or 12, I started karting. I had a girlfriend who was also into it.

"Out at the Waitara track one day, she let me have a go and it was like, 'Dad! Dad! I want a kart!'

"I loved it. Took me a while to get used to it but I'm still doing karts. I had a break for a couple of years once I got into car racing, but I realised I still loved it, so we bought a cheaper one, nothing flash, a budget model, and I've been doing quite well.

"I recently won the Hamilton points series in so I was quite rapt."

Little soup coup

Julia bought her first car as soon as she had her driver's licence.

"Yep, quite a good-looking little Mazda," she grins. "I used to go round Friday nights, with all my friends in the car. I went through that stage.

"Then I stepped up to car racing aged 17 or 18. And I've basically been doing car racing every since.

"I guess you could say I'm a speed junkie. I'd find it pretty hard to live without racing. I'd have trouble finding anything else as exciting."

Me and my car: Julia in Huzziff Motors Garage

Not a bad paint job

Currently in her fourth year of a graphic design course at WITT (Western Institute of Technology in Taranaki), Julia figures her tutors are getting a little weary of her race designs.

She wouldn't blame them at all for thinking, 'Can't you do anything other that that?"

But as she explains, racing is her passion, it's in her blood, and she holds career plans to combine racing and graphic design in the future.

Already, she does a lot of graphic design for racing posters and apparel.

"I think it would be quite cool to be the graphic designer for a race team, or for my own team.

"I don't see why it wouldn't work and I enjoy doing the merchandise and the marketing."

Sponsorship

Finding sponsorship continues to be one of the hardest things of racing.

"We've struggled for sponsorship these last three years we've been in this class," Julia says, "and this is probably the most expensive class you can be in.

"Every year, the profile of the class is getting higher and higher, almost to a Super Car Class, but our sponsorship isn't huge.

"Some teams seem to get sponsorship all right, but most of what we've got is just what dad and I have got by ourselves from people we know.

"I plan to try to market myself better, so anyone who wants to sponsor me, please come and see me. I don't mind who it is."

Real pink and pretty

So what's up with the bright pink car? Julia grins. "Well, Dad said 'What colour? And I said pink. And he said, 'I don't know about that…'

"But I thought it would be quite cool to have a pink car, so we went to the paint shop and they mixed up all these different pinks.

"Took me a while to decide on the final colour, but now everyone's glad because it works so well in the media."

Later, the budding graphic designer added touches of her own.

"The first year, I did a design for the race car. It was pretty simple. Now I look back and go 'what was I thinking!'

"But last year was better and this year I think it's the best I've done. Pink with fluoro green. I think it's the best combination you can get."

Accidents and miracles

If you ask her if she thinks she might become a granny racer, Julia says 'probably' though she tries not to look too far into the future.

But ask about the coming Premier Class series, and she sounds optimistic.

She's raced at Pukekohe before and had some good experiences there - and one really bad one, in the wet.

"The demisters stopped working and it was real heavy rain and I couldn't see anything. I was going down the back straight, trying to find where the track was.

"I was trying to radio Dad and he couldn't hear me properly, so I came in, and I could hardly see where the pits were. I was pretty anxious after that race."

But like a real pro, it would take much more than that to put her off her dream of winning.

"You just have to think, 'we've fixed it, it won't happen again'. I think the next time I went out in the rain again, a few months later, I had that feeling again, but it wasn't too bad."

The worst accident she's ever had was a broken ankle while karting.

Wherever her racing takes her, she knows her family will be there, cheering her all the way around the track.

"Mum comes away to all the race meetings and my sister Angela loves to come. My other sister is in Australia, but she'd come too if she could. It's the real family deal," Julia says.

Girl torque rules!