Queensland Modified racer Stephan Gouws has upgraded ahead of continuing his battle for the lead of the Queensland Drag Racing Championship – but not in the way he would have liked.
Gouws, the current 400 Thunder Modified champion, was competing in the final round of the fifth QDRC series event when he crashed his SCG Electrical dragster in the braking area.
“It was the last thing I thought would happen to my old car,” he said. “It never set a foot wrong at all, ever.
“In the final it was just another ordinary run. Nothing felt out of place and the car was glued to the track. As I crossed the finish line, the car just went instantly left. I hit the wall nose first at 160mph then flipped a couple of times in the air and landed on my side. I proceeded to roll another couple of times and finally came to a stop.
“The paramedics came and checked me out, I was conscious for the whole accident. The first question I asked was ‘did I win?’” (Unfortunately it was a breakout run, Ed.)
Gouws got the wreck home and started to take stock.
“We found the engine did not have a scratch on it, but everything else was wrecked. So we had a choice: build our current Top Alcohol Dragster into Modified or get a new car.”
The team decided that re-wiring the TAD chassis would have been an expensive and time consuming proposition and with the next round of the QDRC series pending on September 16, the choice had to be for a new car.
Conveniently, Rob Harrington’s low seven second Modified dragster (pictured below) was up for sale.
“Dad joked on the night of the crash and said ‘well, at least we can go buy Rob’s car now.’ We have always liked his car. So the week after the crash we decided against the TAD idea and we decided we want to defend the Modified championship with one of the best Modified cars in Australia.
“There are a lot of cars for sale at the moment but who wouldn’t want the second quickest Modified dragster in Australia? Rob has also proven it turns on win lights – I wasn’t able to beat him!
“So now it’s just on to testing to get used to the car, try and win the next two rounds of the QDRC and then start my 400 Thunder championship defence in Sydney on November 4.”
