New Idea Magazine 2008

' Tracey Donaldson - Love In The Fast Lane

October 2008

Kylie Minogue, Elvis Presley and the band Garbage have all contributed to Tracey Donaldson’s love story, but when the TV3 motorsport presenter thinks of her husband Ashley Page, she hears the deafening roar of the race track rather than music.
Tracey, a weekday DJ on radio station The Rock, says motorsport is the common theme which underpins her relationship with Ashley, who she wed last year. So much so that the couple celebrated their first anniversary at the V8 Championships and Grand Prix in Melbourne earlier this year.

‘Ash and I bonded over our love of motorsport straight away,’ says Tracey, who is presenting coverage of this weekend’s Bathurst 1000 event. ‘In fact the first few weekends we spent together we’d just sit on his couch for hours on end and play Gran Turismo, the Playstation racing car game. ‘Sunday afternoons in London were strictly for watching the Formula One Grand Prix on TV, but now we’re back in New Zealand and the races are on in the middle of the night that ritual has gone out the door, sadly.’

Tracey, 34, has motorsport in her blood as her father Bob Donaldson used to race cars in the 80s and 90s. Thankfully Ashley, 33, shares her fervent support for Kiwi drivers, especially Paul Radisich. The slender blonde and her British husband met in London 10 years ago while working at Mushroom Records – Tracey, on her OE, as a receptionist, Ashley as international promotions manager. It was not love at first sight. ‘We got off to a really bad start,’ Tracey admits. ‘I thought he was really jumped up.’ Ashley says his future wife did not make a good impression either. ‘I was travelling around the world for work and I remember coming back into the office and getting phone calls from people asking me how my holiday overseas was,’ he says. ‘I found out there was a new receptionist who had been telling people I was on holiday!’

But fate intervened, and after two years of working together Tracey found herself falling for the music executive’s charms. ‘A few of us went to an office party for Elvis’ birthday,’ she recalls. ‘I'd started liking Ashley before that and when I found out he was going I decided to go too. We got together that night, and Elvis’ birthday has been our anniversary ever since!’

Once they started dating, Tracey and Ashley decided to keep their relationship quiet from all bar a select few colleagues. On one memorable occasion, a very big star got in the way of their secret romance. ‘He worked upstairs and I was downstairs, and he would email me and say, “Can I get you a coffee?”’ she recalls. ‘I remember one time he offered me a coffee and then Kylie Minogue came into the office. She went upstairs to meet with Ash… and my coffee never arrived! I was like, “So Kylie Minogue gets preference over the new girlfriend!”

When Tracey’s four-year working UK visa had run its course, the couple had a very big decision to make. ‘I didn’t think he would come back to New Zealand with me,’ Tracey admits. ‘He was giving up an amazing job over there.’
Ashley, shrugging, says he was happy to take the plunge, even though it cost him the opportunity to work with the band Garbage on their new album. In Auckland, he quickly landed a job at Warner Music, and after settling in another big decision loomed – marriage.

Although the couple had loosely talked about an engagement, it took eight years for Ashley to pop the question, on the way back from a holiday in Sydney to celebrate their anniversary. ‘It was a long time in the planning,’ Ashley says. ‘I’d spoken to Tracey’s father in Hamilton and I’d bought the ring. But every bit of planning you do goes out the window on the day. I probably expected to propose to somewhere more romantic than an airport lounge, but it never felt right until that point when we were waiting for our plane.’

It was another 14 months before Tracey and Ashley exchanged vows – and true to form, the location was overseas. Ashley was sent to the USA for work, so the jet-setting pair decided to extend the trip into a holiday and make it an occasion. ‘We eloped to Vegas,’ laughs Tracey. ‘We didn’t tell anyone except our parents and brother and sister! We only had six weeks to plan it, so it was all done over the internet and the phone.’ The rush-rush wedding took place at Caesar’s Palace in January 2007, at 11am, in front of just four guests – Tracey’s father and stepmother, her brother and his wife.

‘We wanted a morning wedding so we could celebrate all day long,’ Tracey says. ‘We didn’t want to wait around to get married. We got up, got ready and had a champagne breakfast. It was really nice. ‘But getting married in the morning means you’re hungover on your wedding night!’ There was one blemish on Tracey and Ashley’s beautiful day, with their intimate gathering missing two key people. ‘My mother couldn’t come because she doesn’t fly,’ Tracey says. ‘And it was such a short timeframe Ashley’s mum couldn’t make it either. We had a big party in Auckland for friends and family.’

The Auckland couple certainly knows how to party. For their first wedding anniversary this year, they went to Melbourne, where Tracey was presenting TV3’s coverage of the V8s. and next January – Elvis’ birthday – will mark 10 years since they started dating. There is a bottle of Cristal on hold, but the details are sketchy. Chances are, with these keen motorsport enthusiasts, it will involve cars in some form.

By Trudie McConnochie
Pictures: Carolyn Haslett