''An absolute adrenaline rush. The best fun you can ever have on a road,'' was the verdict after three flat-out runs in Mr Fridd's rally Toyota Starlet on the Waimate 50 gravel hill climb on Saturday - good enough to win their class.
It was the first time the Oamaru woman had been in a racing car but by the end of the day, after hanging around with the drivers, she had even started to pick up some of the lingo.
She texted motorsport- and car-mad daughter Amma Crooks in Invercargill.
''I asked her what her diff ratio was,'' Mrs Crooks said.
''It sounded good, but I don't have a clue what it means.''
An avid Formula 1 fan, who had followed races while overseas, her daughter was also sent a photograph of her Mum
kitted out in the car ready for the first run.
''She'll be so envious, so jealous,'' Mrs Crooks said. Her inaugural car racing day out came because of a custom of Mr Fridd and his wife, Cherie, who is usually the co-driver.
A competition licence was not needed for a hill climb co-driver, so they offer the passenger seat to friends or workmates. Mrs Crooks qualified as a workmate of Mrs Fridd's.
The gravel hill climb was part of two days of motorsport in and near the town for the McKeown Petroleum Waimate 50 weekend.
It combines three different sprints: Saturday's gravel sprint, a tarmac hill climb and then the round-the-houses sprint in central Waimate, which harks back to the original Waimate 50 race first held in 1959.
The weekend attracts more than 10,000 spectators, drivers and crew into the town, injecting more than half a million dollars into the community, the event's organisers calculate.
This year, a longer circuit was introduced that was almost the same as the track for the original Waimate 50, except for the hairpin at the south end of Queen St.
The event had Motorsport NZ approval to run four races on Saturday and Sunday, each with 20 vehicles.
Other entertainment included a top 10 shootout yesterday, drifting, a street cruise of top custom and street cars, burnout and races with historic muscle cars.
