Overcoming the Odds.

i’m going to tell you a little bit about

how i got here how i my family made a

huge difference and why i did it so

bear with me um

and i was going to use that thing about

anthony hortons

so i’ve got to quickly skip over that

i thought a lot about what while i live

i grow meant to me i could have used a

cliche like

we all start out as seeds that were not

seeds that grow in the bush

we don’t stay in one spot and most of us

you know don’t look like a tree or grow

like a sunflower

we move around we experience the world

and we grow with the experiences we gain

it is not always a straight path or a

clear one

humans are kind of like butterflies

changing and evolving

getting better and wiser at each stage

and as each stage is a big event for

butterflies

so too is it for us the human being each

event shapes us

and gives us the chance to grow and

change

change can be good or bad it can be

something we learn from or something we

better ourselves

from being adopted changed my life

while it didn’t immediately make me grow

it changed the path that i was headed on

i understood the meaning of love for a

child you did not give birth to

it is a rare and special love which can

give a child a chance

it was only later in life that i found

out how strong that love can be

growing up in a family that while on the

surface seemed to have everything

but at home was missing time

time we couldn’t get back

time you spent with your parents it made

me grow

my mother died when i was 11. it changed

me

it made me grow my best friend died in

my arms a week later

so at 11 it made me grow

my brother who is intellectually

handicapped and autistic

was my responsibility

at 11 so that made me grow

i didn’t understand why my father went

to work every day

all day it was his way of healing it was

his way

of growing and mourning the loss

of my mother my father was a workaholic

a little emotional but my father really

knew the meaning of the words that we

see tonight

every experience he had from being in

the concentration camps

to arriving in this country brought home

the message

of while i live i grow

being alive when so many people family

and friends were not

made him grow but he did not live in

despair

he remembered that while he is alive he

would grow their memory

he would grow to be the beacon for his

family he knew life was to be celebrated

and revered

his first job in this country was at

anthony hortons

and exactly how their motto is is many

many many years later he told me about

their motto and his other motto was

he who has health has hope and he who

has hope has everything

my story is a bit of a strange one by

the time i reached 40 i’d had three

mothers two fathers and ten grandparents

and out of this lot i’d only met four of

them

i grew up in the eastern suburbs and i

went to skeggs then kambala

i was a rebel without a cause a pain in

my father’s side

a pain in everyone’s side actually and

not finding the thing i needed to grow

to be me i always did things the hard

way

and trouble was just something i tried

to get out of as i tended to get into

trouble a lot

i questioned everything and i had

tendency to argue to get my point across

but then something changed i stopped

growing

i accepted i did the right thing i got

married i had two sons

and lived the perfect eastern suburbs

life

then one day i didn’t i got divorced

there were a lot of oohs and ours and

then i met a man who would change me and

show me what

living was and help me to grow into the

person i didn’t even know i wanted to be

my father shunned me my community

shunned me

but i started living and growing again i

learned the hard way

that there are no fairies to clean cook

put away your clothes or take care of

your problems

i gave up a life of fairies to follow

love and quickly learnt to get up early

and make lunches clean house

buy cheaply and be a normal person in a

normal world

this was my balance point my tipping

point this is when i grew

i now understood people who i had never

ever had interaction with normal people

and at the time i did not realize that

this growth

and this time was to prepare me for my

dream which was years away

we had a son bringing the total to three

sons

and in time my father accepted me and my

family back into the fold

i started working for him but now i had

an idea of where i wanted to go

another a big event hit me at 38 my

father died

and this was the turning point in my

life this is when the worst thing

my world shattered at 38 i was now an

orphan

again but as i came out of mourning

i felt my wings emerge and this is where

i decided to turn my life around and

live

and grow on my terms but i would give it

all away

just to have him back for an hour i

could not even dream to fill my father’s

shoes

his footprint was gigantic and he did

things i could never ever hope to do

so i didn’t try i curled up in that

cocoon that i’d made for myself

and decided uh what i wanted to do with

my life

so into that cocoon i went an eastern

suburbs businesswoman

and emerged a tattooed purple-head

motorsport loving butterfly

it is amazing what you can do when you

feel really feel

the life around you the growth that

happens and the feeling of satisfaction

so my life in motorsport was about to

start

after sponsoring a driver for a while my

husband daniel and myself spent the next

few years

working up the ladder of motorsport as a

team starting in

f3s which are the little little tiny f1s

and ending up at gt cars winning the

bathurst 12 hour race

and being one of the most respected gt

teams in the world

um but this was not enough for me i

needed to go further

i needed to see what was on the other

side of the grandstand so to speak

there was never a doubt in my mind that

i didn’t belong there it felt right but

explaining this

to daniel and the ceo of erebus was a

bit tricky and i got the eyeball roll

oh my god here she goes again so our

journey into the world of supercars

began

a short lesson on what supercars are to

those of you who don’t know

it’s that big race every october at

bathurst

that’s what it is starting a team and

setting up everything was not easy or

cheap

but we did it in record time a supercar

season can start in late february and

finish in early december

and you are on the road every two weeks

living in motels eating in tents

but i wouldn’t change it to fund a

supercar team

it takes sponsors and it’s hard to find

them it’s always been our policy that

the team has to generate their own money

they have to pay for the series

themselves which is a basic level for a

two-car team is between

eight and twelve million dollars a year

sounds a lot to drive two cars round and

round

i spent the first couple of years with

the mercedes brand then we made a big

change

we moved the whole business from

brisbane to melbourne

left mercedes and went to holden it is

not the life for everyone

living in close proximity with 400 other

people

smelling like you have cuddled a

homeless man who reeks of ethanol

if there is anything that would this

world teaches you it’s how to handle

rejection

25 cars go out onto the track and one

comes back a winner

and sometimes your best is just not good

enough

you learn to accept this and realize

that you can’t

get over something in this sport in 15

minutes you are

in the wrong sport you do this

three times a week end as in there are

three races so you go out there three

times

and then you pack everything up

you go home monday night you are dead

and you do it all over again until the

season finishes

we are a traveling circus we are a sport

a business and an

entertainment series we have our

gladiator and we send him out in his

chariot

and we go racing we work up to 20 hours

a day

from -5 to over 40 degrees and in the

car itself

during the race it gets to about 65

degrees

there is politics arguments but the race

itself is amazing

the strategy is vital and we deal in one

thousandth

of a second decisions have to be made

instantly

preparation has to be perfect a 50 cent

o-ring

can ruin a race for you you have to

trust the people around you

you have a man’s life in your hand and

any decision you make

can and does have consequences i was the

first woman to start a v8 team

the highest motorsports series in

australia i was the first woman owner to

win the bathurst 12 hour

and i was the first woman owner to win

the bathurst 1000

but i am lucky motorsport is one sport

where gender really does not play a huge

role

you can’t fake being a mechanic you

can’t fake being an engineer

so if you do your job well you get the

job

the average wage in this sport is

between 50 and 80 000

a year so yes most of these people do it

for the love of the sport

along the way did i grow yes i did

i grew as big as jack’s beanstalk did i

live

yes i did i found what gave me the joy

of living

of knowing what living is about and

joining motorsport on one side and

having my sons and their families my

grandchildren

my sister and my brother on the other i

thought i had it all

motorsport is a male dominated industry

and i fought hard

to be respected by the other owners some

of them have been in this sport for over

30 years

it wasn’t always easy when i came into

the sport i was known as the girl who

had too much money

and would be bored of the sport in a

year or two

in fact it was really hard at times

i became tough i became hard i grew into

someone who loved

who they were and what they did and when

covert struck

we started erebus medical and supplied

free face shields

and transparent boxes for hospitals for

free

the crew would assemble thousands of

shields and deliver them to the

hospitals in all states

and the terrace tower charitable arm

donated the funds to do this

it was an amazing thing to watch nurses

crying

when you delivered the shields erebus

has now

started airbus garage and

so now we’re also in the in the business

of revamping old cars for people

a lot like a plastic surgeon

i found it hard to be in the real world

for a while we would go to a wedding and

my husband would say

not everyone wants to talk about

motorsport but as i grew i learned to

switch the motorcycle off

and at a function my mono my motto

quickly became think pink

because nothing in my world is pink so

if i think pink usually i can get away

with a few things

growth is never is a never-ending

pursuit it is something we do our entire

lives

when we stop growing we die when we’ve

achieved everything we think we can we

stop

and that is the core of what i’m saying

keep thinking you can achieve more

you can grow more you can be more and

you can live

never stop aspiring to grow as a person

many of you may know my sister monica

i know she’s here somewhere we are 19

years apart and we grew up in

at different times in different places

with different ideas

but she is one woman who grows every day

but as all sister do

sisters do i don’t agree with her most

of the time

and sometimes i do but we have each

given

each other room to grow and live the way

we want to and for this

and my family i thank god our father

instilled into us the gift of giving

monica’s mother clara instilled into us

the gift of cooking with love

and my sister monica has taken both of

these qualities and established the

charitable arm of the family business

and of course cooking cooks unbelievably

so i’m proud of her growth

it is amazing to see her learn and grow

and give

my three sons have each gone their own

way and i’m so proud of them

they are all married and i have five

grandchildren i may not be the best

grandmother

but my heart’s in there and i do buy

good toys

but remember we all influence each other

we touch

lives that sometimes we don’t even think

about sometimes a minute’s

interaction with someone you will never

see again ripples through time

more than someone you’ve known all your

life

we once met a little girl at a gt race

and we let her sit in the car

for five minutes at track because she

loved the amgs

a few years later we were at uh adelaide

racing

and we after a 20-hour day we faced a

fire a three to five kilometer walk

back to the hotel and a man in a buggy

stopped and offered us a lift

so after working for so long it was a

blessing and it turns out his best

friend

was the little girl’s father and he was

just paying it forward

motorsports and the fans of motorsport

have taught me what it is to be humble

to see the sacrifices made for their

children and the love they have for the

sport

i still find it hard to think i have

fans the people who actually want to

hear what i have to say

remember that while you live your life

has meaning

it makes no difference if you dance in

the rain in spandex

or run a multi-million dollar business

you have meaning

and you will grow you grow when you

touch other people’s lives you grow when

ideas hit you

it is the entrepreneurial spirit that

drives you to be better

to do good and to work hard towards your

goal and above all

to be true to yourself this not this

does not make you a nerd

it makes you amazing

while i live i grow is not a cliche it

is a motto

to push you into changing into growing

into changing the world start today

change something small and see the

ripples it has

across your lifetime thank you very much

you