Using his student loan to fund his first go kart launched Auckland barrister Gary Hughes on the road of screaming engines and fast little race cars.
Gary - who describes his recent help in establishing Akarana Chambers in Auckland's High Street as "a leap of faith"- races in the Star Touring Cars class, for light weight single seater cars powered by motor bike engines.
- Name
- Gary Alan (Gary) Hughes
- Born
- Auckland.
- Age
- 44.
- Entry to law
- Graduated LLB(hons) and BCom from Auckland University in 1995. Admitted in 1996.
- Workplace
- Akarana Chambers, Auckland.
- Speciality area
- Regulatory, commercial, insurance and finance.
His most recent race car –which he has just sold – weighed 600 kgs and is powered by a Suzuki 1300 high booster super bike engine "something like an oversized faster go kart…"
"Time commitment is the hardest part now."
"The cars are purpose built for the track and are good on the power to weight ratio… Mine has a screaming engine that will rev out to about 11,500 rpm, with a maximum speed of about 230 kph, which is enough to give me a bit of a fright occasionally… But it is all about handling on corners rather than straight-line speed," says Gary.
After 12 years of racing and having just sold his race car he is looking out for his next project.
"My dad – who trained as a motor mechanic and driving instructor - used to race cars and he did the national rally of New Zealand in the 1970s, winning his class in a beat up Toyota Corolla… I've always grown up with motor sport interests in the family… All our spare time was at the race track…
"My wife Cyndi - a part time in-house lawyer more in the commercial, contracts and M&A space who has two days a week at home with our primary school aged son and daughter - thinks I'm in retirement but I am in between race cars…
"I'd like to have a go at the Targa Rally… I've done gravel rally, speedway dirt car, and drove at Brands Hatch circuit in England in a single seater…
"I could never kid myself I would be a professional race driver but I won a series once… Time commitment is the hardest part now… It's a competitive sport and needs a team approach to make it work properly…"
A former soccer player and now committee member of the Western Springs soccer club, Gary coaches his son's junior team after getting to the stage "when my knees and ankles spent too much time on the physio table…"
"A lot of our holidays are driven by soccer and in 2010 I took the family to South Africa when New Zealand qualified for the World Cup…
"More recently we are back from a big trip to the United States built around the Indianapolis 500…
"My father always wanted to go there, so for his 70th birthday we built a little trip and took everybody up…
"My long suffering wife comes along on these things… Years ago doing our OE in England I decided we should visit Corsica… Cyndi was baffled but it happened that a round of the world rally championship was on there at the time and we spent half a day following that…"
The first lawyer in his family and attracted to law after being dissuaded from a journalism career – "I always liked words and stories but my school principal pointed out that journalists don't get much money" – Gary was surprised to find he enjoyed law and decided to stick with it.
"I grew up in humble south Auckland and I think I was the only one from my school at law school… I didn't come from the Remuera end of the legal fraternity…
"I like fusing logic and argument and trying to tell stories that people need help to articulate and present in right way…
"Law is a nice mix of intellectual challenges and sometimes a competitive element but all within a measured logical way that's seeking to hear people's story, whether it's right and where the merits of justice lie…
"I wish I had more time for reading and like good fiction, sometimes an autobiography, and English novelist Sebastian Faulks…
"We have been sucked into watching The Voice on TV, with the kids voting people on and off… I like the US House of Cards and Deutschland 83 on Lightbox, a drama series with unexpected gems set in Germany before the fall of the Berlin wall…
"We are going to Coldplay at end of year and I like Cold Chisel and obscure English bands such as Manchester rock band James… I learned a little bit of guitar but have fallen by the wayside… A friend I worked with who is in Auckland band Clap Clap Riot has given me some lessons and is teaching my boy the ukulele…
"With most of my spare cash spent on race cars, I drive a pretty modest Holden Commodore which I'm trying to sell and would like a Toyota GT 86… Something good to handle…
"A bunch of parents were asked on TV who they would have round for dinner and they all came up with famous figures – Michael Jackson, Madonna… Their primary school kids wanted Mum and Dad… The parents were mortified…
"I would have Bruce Springsteen, John Maynard Keynes and Milton Friedman but a simple dinner with family and friends keeps you grounded and reminds you where you are…"
As the International Bar Association's anti-corruption New Zealand officer, Gary has seen the anti-corruption division growing in importance internationally.
He says New Zealand is still seen as "a bit of a shining light of low corruption" but he takes issue with people who believe corruption is non-existent in New Zealand.
"The anti-corruption division works to promote the rule of law and good strong clean systems throughout government and for lawyers to promote and uphold those…"
He provided some insight from New Zealand for an IBA submission to a current Australian government investigation into bribery and corruption laws and how those laws could be improved.
He says much of the IBA anti-corruption division's focus is on the role lawyers can play in advocating within their country and the system they work in.
"Part of it is in some countries keeping lawyers and the judiciary out of the challenges of corruption, but the remit is much broader than that…
"New Zealand is not quite a shining example and you do not expect that problem in the judiciary or most of the legal fraternity, but in other countries there is a real risk…
"We have tightened and improved our anti-bribery laws a little through the Anti-Corruption and Organised Crime legislation… New Zealand is in a good place but we can't be too complacent…
"As a frustrated race driver I got into car racing as a late teenager – too late to be a professional…
"I was going to be an economist but it became too mathematically driven… So maybe there's an alternative career as an event manager organising Bruce Springsteen's world tours…"
Timaru-based Jock Anderson has been writing and commenting on New Zealand lawyers and New Zealand's courts for most of his career in journalism. Contact Jock at jockanderson123@gmail.com.