Feel for the wheel

Graeme Mackay has channelled the pain from the loss of a son into a program to stop other parents suffering the same fate.WHEN Graeme Mackay lost one of his seven sons in a 2004 Emerald car crash, his whole world turned upside down.
“It was about four o’clock in the morning on a Thursday outside Emerald Secondary College and he was 10 days off being 21.”
Mr Mackay said Ashley, his third youngest boy, was coming home from a trip to Ferntree Gully’s Pool Room with his friends.
“He left his car at a mate’s place and they went down there together,” Mr Mackay said.
“Later he insisted he was right to drive home because it was only a short distance.
“But it was a wet road and speed was involved.
“He hit a tree and we’re told he would have died instantly.”
Mr Mackay said he went downhill fast following his son’s death.
“I didn’t realise it at the time, because I was trying to be strong for my family,” he said.
“I just became a useless person who didn’t care. I lost something that was very, very close to me and I didn’t know where to go or what to do.”
Mr Mackay sought help from beyondblue, who suggested he attend one of their meetings.
“I didn’t think I needed it but before long, it hit me,” he said.
Mr Mackay started to move forward about six months ago, spurred on by his biggest dream.
“I want to try and save young kids from doing what my young bloke did and I feel the only way to do it is to give them somewhere to go to practice their driving and have fun in a controlled environment,” he said.
The Mackays are keen horse riders. Graeme started the Cockatoo Rodeo 25 years ago and has recently used the event to honour Ashley.
He also uses his son’s love of cars to remember him.
“Myself and one of my other sons race speedway cars,” he said.
“And our team is called Ash Racing.
“The motor I use in my car is one Ash had specially built for his car.”
Three years ago, Mr Mackay started donating a quarter of the Cockatoo Rodeo’s proceeds to the Mackay Foundation – a charity he set up for hills kids. Local car club, Car 26, is one of the beneficiaries.
“I took a busload of kids to Drouin Speedway last month to show them what it is and how much fun it can be.
“They were keen straight away, so we’re going to build up a couple of cars and go racing.”
Mr Mackay said he could get kids as young as 14 into cars to learn how to handle the machines as early as possible.
“If the car in front of them loses control, they learn how to take evasive action and they do it in a fully controlled environment,” he said.
“We’ve got all the safety measures – as good as NASCAR.
“But they also understand that if they hit a wall, it’s like hitting a tree.”
Mr Mackay said the cars would get smashed around, but nobody got hurt.
“It just makes them understand that unless they know how to handle a car, they can end up in a bad situation,” he said.
“But where can these kids learn how to drive properly, in normal situations?
“Sitting beside mum and dad, driving up the road?
Mr Mackay said young drivers were crashing because they simply didn’t know how to handle their cars.
“We all considered Ash a good driver because he grew up around cars, but kids tend to go around a corner at 60 today, tomorrow we’ll try it at 70, and then we’ll try it at 80.
“That’s when they lose it. Cockiness.
“But on the track, they can try to do that but they’ll see that it won’t work.”
Mr Mackay said the more experience young drivers got, the better they became.
“If they start at 14 on places like Speedways, where they can try their cars out in safety, by the time they get to the open road they’re not going to want to do it because they know what can happen.”