The most excited person at the Newcastle Supercars track on Saturday morning was Merewether woman Aly Brody after her boyfriend, Cody McKay, proposed to her in front of the TV cameras by plastering "Will you marry me" on the side of his race car.
Cody, racing in the Aussie Racing Cars support series at the Newcastle 500, made the grand gesture while Aly was being interviewed in pit lane.
She saw the sign and clasped her face in shock as Cody sped around the street circuit.
The couple quickly swapped the sticker for a "She said yes" replacement after a beaming Aly raced into Cody's arms in the pits.
Sporting a huge diamond engagement ring, the 29-year-old told the Newcastle Herald the proposal had come as a shock.
"Absolutely. I was standing with Cody's sponsor, Dean Singleton from Singo's Meats, and I was saying, 'Oh, look, they're doing a close-up of your car,'" she said.
"And Dean knew. I had no idea. And then they panned to the side of the car and I was like, 'Oh my god.' It's unreal. It's really exciting."
Aly, who was born in America, studied at Wellesley, the prestigious Massachusetts all-women's college portrayed in the Julia Roberts movie Mona Lisa Smile.
She came to Australia in 2017 on a scholarship and met Cody on her second day in the country at the Honeysuckle Hotel.
She now works as a legal officer at Newcastle Permanent while Cody owns Radical Mechanical on Darby Street.
