First published in the February 2002 issue of Street Machine

It’s hard to believe the shy young woman who wanders up to greet us is the World Burnout Champion. Surely this young lady in black can’t be the best tyre shredder on the planet? Then we notice the car she rolled up in, a slightly tatty but still horny-looking ’69 Mustang fastback, and the penny starts to drop.

Quiet and self-effacing, Debbie Gray is the first of the fairer sex to receive the coveted Summernats trophy for the best coupla minutes of smoking rubber this side of a tyre-dump fire. Hubby Peter built their burnout car, a tough ’67 Camaro, and completes the best carbon-black double-act in the business. They met over Debbie’s back fence when Peter’s sister moved in next door. Debbie noticed his worked EH ute and a mutual love of things mechanical turned into, well, love.

What got you into cars?

DG: “We used to go to Pete’s father’s workshop and work on his car. I showed interest, so Pete started to show me how to do things. Then we went into autocross in a Corolla and I learnt a lot about car control on the dirt.”

PG: “When Debbie was racing in autocross she shared the car with me and my dad and, one season, the car got first, second and third in every race. The next year she beat two guys who could really drive and won the (class) championship. The car only had 55hp but she’d often beat the top two-litre cars.”

When did you do your first burnout, Deb?

DG: “It was at Shepparton in 1997, in the Camaro. We had some second-hand trailer tyres and popped those on. Pete was in the car with me and said, ‘Do this and that, and when you go down the straight, pick which way you’re going to go and do some figure eights.’ It was all going fine and after I did the second part of the figure eight, Pete said, ‘You’ve got it, just keep going!’”

How did you feel after it?

DG: “I was just rapt, over the moon. Before the burnout I was on the verge of throwing up. I was so worried about damaging the car or doing something silly in front of so many people. At the end I had the shakes and got out of the car screaming, ‘That was great!’”

PG: “She won the female class that day. She’s a natural. She’s had excellent mechanical feel from the first time she did a burnout. She doesn’t just stand on it and valve-bounce it. From her first burnout she was doing figure eights and donuts and I gave up giving her instructions. I knew she had natural ability.”

Now that you’ve beaten the blokes, do you think there should still be a separate class for women?

DG: “For me now, it’s not necessary, but for other up-and-coming females, yeah, definitely. It gives them confidence to get in their boyfriend’s car and have a go.”

PG: “There are positives and negatives. Debbie’s won Shepparton five times in a row. Sometimes we think about Debbie just doing a demo or putting her in another car to give other girls a go. But there’s no need. Rosemarie Dall’acqua was very unlucky not to win Top Female. Her first burnout was better than Debbie’s. We’re not really dominating, we’re just staying ahead, so it’s good that there is competition now, we love it.”

Do you think you’ve been an inspiration to other women?

DG: “Yeah. Girls have told me that I gave them the idea to give it a shot. It makes me feel good. It’s no use going out if you’re the only player, you need competition. Give it a shot, girls. You might like it!”

What’s your burnout procedure?

DG: “I start in the dry, not the wet, because that gives you instant, continuous smoke. Usually at the start I check my oil and water temps and revs and just slowly make my way down the straight, on and off the revs, not hard on the revs.

“I start in first [two-speed Powerglide, 3.6:1 diff], shift straight into second and slowly creep down the straight. I turn the wheel a little bit rather than just drive straight down. When you get to the donut area you decide where you’re going to go. I don’t have a plan because you don’t know if there’s water down or how much grip there is.

“People always ask, ‘How do you know where the fence is when you’re covered in smoke?’ But you get a mental picture of where everything is and just try to remember that. It’s not as bad as it looks from the outside. You get gaps in the smoke but there have been times when I’ve almost been caught out.

“Generally too, you back the revs off so you get some handling back rather than trying to fight it.”

Good racing drivers can ‘feel’ a car. Can you feel whether the car is staying on course when you’re shrouded in smoke?

DG: “You can’t explain it, but you get so used to the car that you know what it’s going to do. Occasionally it’ll surprise you, but you can definitely feel it. You can feel it twitching through the wheel as to which way you’re steering. You know what it’s going to do.”

What’s the best part of the burnout?

DG: “Probably about halfway through, when you get to the donut pad. Before that, your heart’s thumping away in your chest, you’ve got the shakes and you’re feeling mildly sick. When you head down the straight you’re stressing about how it’s going to go.

“But once you head into the donut pad and can throw it around a bit and feel everything’s working OK, you start to feel better. At the end I can’t help myself. I get out of the car and go [flings her arms around] Y-E-E-A-A-H! And the crowd is the same. It’s such a great feeling. And both males and females are just so fantastic towards me.”

How long does it take you to come down after a burnout?

DG: “At the end of the day you are physically and mentally drained, but it really takes about a week.”

Do you like to blow the rear tyres?

PG: “Yeah, we go further! Debbie’s actually got some rims that have the bead worn away. The crowd likes nothing better than to see magnesium sparks as you’re coming out the back door. I don’t know that the officials like it that much!”

What about safety?

PG: “We run a tailshaft loop, but after Gary (Myers) had an auto let go a few years ago, we’re going to run a shield under the floor around the torque converter area. We’ve got good tailshaft mountings, the best Teflon-braided auto lines, I make sure the throttle isn’t going to stick and before every meeting I check fuel lines. Before a show it always goes on a hoist and I reckon I find something loose or needs attention every time.”

It sounds like burnouts are your life?

PG: ”Yeah. It’s all we ever do. The car doesn’t owe us as much as you might think but we don’t wear nice clothes, our house looks like it’s rented, we don’t have a nice garden and we don’t have a nice car – we usually drive a rusty Torana on the road. And we’ve been extremely lucky to have friends like Gary Myers who will give advice knowing I could be more competitive against him.”

What’s the future for you, Debbie?

DG: “I’d like to go to the US. Apparently the Yanks chock the wheels and do burnouts on a concrete patch on the spot. As a joke, I said we should go over and show them how it’s done.”

PG: “We’d love to do that. I often say I’m going to become Debbie’s manager. She’s more marketable and better looking than me! I’d be quite happy to take a back seat if things got bigger. Promoters have already rung and tip-toed around the subject: ‘Would you mind if Debbie drove and not you?’ Great, fantastic!

So, who is the better burnout artist?

PG: “Debbie. I’ve been at it twice as long but she’s better. I know a lot of people that have let their wives or girlfriends drive and nine times out of 10, the girls are smoother, quicker and get a better time than their blokes. It’s just a feel that women have.

“For years women have been told they can’t do it but the only difference between Debbie and any other girl is she gave it a go. Debbie’s a lot better than me under pressure – I’ll try too hard.”

DG: “Yeah, but Pete’s been a good teacher.”