Dear Reader,
As I write this today, which is actually yesterday, which if you’re reading tomorrow is actually two days from now (lol), I realised something.
I never even introduced myself when I started churning out stories for Velocity.
I just kind of appeared.
And, in fact, most people don’t actually know who I am.
For two years, I did all my interviews and conducted stories via the phone because race tracks were either closed or Auckland, where I live, was cut off from everyone else.
I was in a position where I couldn’t actually be at motorsport to write about motorsport.
On top of that, for some reason, many people thought I was a professional journalist doing Velocity as a full-time job.
I have no idea why they had this impression. If you ever saw me trackside or at press events, I was always the young kid with my backpack on, ready for class and wearing a backwards Chicago Blackhawks hat.
I didn’t exactly look like a journalist.
Instead, the truth is I wrote my first story two years ago while in Seventh Form. I am only now entering my final few months of a tertiary degree in radio and journalism.
Every story I ever published with my name listed as the author was written while lying on my bed either before school or at night after it (or during class…if you know, you know).
Even this one.
All 2,464 of them were.
Let me tell you too, it takes a heck of a long time to do just one of those. Doing 2,464 meant I sacrificed a lot out of my life.
But for some reason, the fact I’m just a kid who likes to write about race cars surprises a lot of people.
I never once wrote a story because I had to or because it was a job.
No.
Instead, all I ever wanted was for someone, even if I had never met this person, to read one of my pieces of work, get to the end, smile, have a chuckle, or have a grin on their face.
That’s all I wanted. Just to tell stories that make people happy.
It explains why a lot of my stories are of young Kiwi drivers you might never have heard of or about things that have happened away from the race track.
Some of my favourite yarns to write involved grassroots Kiwi motorsport, family adventures and just tales about all-round good people.
It might not be to everyone’s taste, but if you know me personally, you know very well I’m pretty darn good at not caring what others think.
Some people just seek fault in others as if it were a buried treasure.
But, to get to my point, this is the last Velocity story I will publish. I thought it would be a neat way to wrap it all up.
I’ll be moving into the radio industry soon, working in the same building as everyone’s favourite journos: Mike Hosking and Jeremy Wells.
What a lucky guy I am.
And I owe it all to you: to everyone who took time out of their day to read one of my pieces of work.
I just hope I made one person smile.
If I did, I’d say my time writing for Velocity was a success.
Your friend,
Zane.
P.s: Miss ya Tobs