MACKENZIE on MACKENZIE

MACKENZIE ON… Growing up and breaking the law!

My dad Neil was an engineer and born in Inverness. He went off on a boat to India, was a tea planter and married out there and had three kids. The marriage broke down but he had a major result when we came back home as he was in his late 50s when he met my mum Amelia who was in her 30s – it was a massive talking point in the village, apparently! I was conceived when he was aged 60!

Dad had bikes when he was younger and he loved cars, he wasn’t hard on me but disciplined, so I knew where the limit was. Sadly my dad had a heart condition and he passed away when I was 13. Mum brought me up right, had a secretarial job, but after dad passed away I had a bit more scope to do things and was perhaps a bit wilder than I should have been.

I had the odd incident or two with the police: I learned to drive young and not legally, but I was always the ‘nominated driver’. One incident stands out. My mate’s parents went out to work and didn’t come back ‘til late so we’d borrow their car – a Fiat 127. Of a lunchtime we’d drive around with four of us in it, put it back, then we’d get cocky and pop back to school to give mates a lift home. Pretty soon the cops were warned…

So, one evening we’d pulled up, discussing where to go and – suddenly – there are the blue lights behind us. I floored the throttle, lost the police enough to be able to pull over and make a run for it. I was up front with Shanksy – my best mate and son of the owners of the car – with pals Stoney and Bunny in the back. Sadly, we’d left the child locks on their doors, so Bunny and Stoney were trapped. It didn’t take long for them to fess up and we were all nabbed and I got a hiding from my mum. From then I tried to behave. Stoney and Bunny would later reappear at Phillip Island in 1989 out