Jacqueline Smith introduces you to a petrol-head - with a difference.

Marie Person's passion for V8's has pulsed through her veins since birth.

Her Avondale home is adorned with posters, flags and car collectibles to prove it.  She even stores a race car, that she built from scratch, in her garage.

"I'm a Westie, and proud of it", she says.

The V8 love affair stems from the stories Marie's father would tell her when she was young.  As a teenager, he would tear around West Auckland's gravel roads with Bruce McLaren, who went on to international racing fame.

With a masters in chemistry Marie, 36, is not your average petrol-head.

Over the past two years she's combined her brains, skills and love of racing to realise her ultimate dream: owning her own V8 racing team.

It's rare for a woman to own a team, and Marie expects she is the only woman in Auckland to do so.  Her team, Bartercard Racing Team, launched its first race car last Wednesday and raced it at Pukekohe's track during the weekend.

The team focuses on employing New Zealand's young, talented motor sport specialists - it has contracted Christchurch's Eddie Bell as its lead driver.

"There is so much young talent out there," says Marie.  "I want to help those people prove what they can do".