I Crashed My Dragster and Broke My Neck

My Dragster Crash was in 1984 at the Meremere Dragstrip South Auckland New Zealand. This was the Collett & Taylor dragster I raced with the late drag racing legend Ron Collett. Oil leaked out of the engine and onto the right side tyre. After further examination I was found to have broken my neck and back and foot. Fractured C6, C7 & T4. Fortunately no permanent spinal cord damage, recovery took 2 years and now living life to the max. The car also caught fire but methanol flames are invisible in daylight. The flames burnt through 4 of 5 layers on the backside of my fire suit. After the car came to rest I didn't realise I was on fire, I lifted up the visor on my helmet and my eyebrows and eye lashes immediately went up in smoke. Yep put the visor back down but it quickly melted. Thanks to my alert crew & close friend Trev Tolhurst for getting me out so quickly I didn't suffer any serious burns.

[@johnhelwig3813]

Hi Greg, I remember watching this incident unfold from the pit mound. It still remains the most violent crash I have witnessed in all my years of following motor racing. I recall Warren Anderson back-flipping his altered the previous day on what was to be an extremely action packed weekend. Nothing came close to the sight of you tumbling down the return road in a cloud of dust and smoke (and fire). We were there with a group of racing friends from Cambridge and Hamilton and made our way to the Pukekohe Hotrod cub rooms for the after function and prize giving. Your crash was however everybody's primary concern and topic of conversation. We stayed in a motel in Manukau that night (it was the Sunday of a long weekend). The motel manager Knocked on our door the following morning and greeted us with a hand full of newspapers and the news that "your friend made the front page of the NZ Herald". I didn't have the heart to tell him that I didn't actually know you personally. The paper carried the famous shot taken by Mal Bain from the cherry picker that you opened your video sequence with. The crash occurred in front of one of the largest crowds ever at Meremere and I remember over hearing random conversations in pubs for months afterwards from people who were there (and maybe some who weren't) describing what they had seen. I'm glad to hear that you eventually recovered from your injuries. I had been trying to locate the footage of the crash for a long time. Thankyou for posting it. Cheers. JH..

[@xtreme3minutevideos887]

Hi John, great to hear from you. Yes Mal Bain indeed was in the cherry picker and was a little bit too close for comfort but he still managed to get that epic shot which is still on the wall at the Puke club rooms. You have a good memory, it was a long weekend, it was Waitangi Day weekend and yes Warren Anderson made it onto the same page as me in the NZ Hot Rod mag for flipping his T-Bucket altered the day before like you say. All the best, Greg

[@suttonsplash14]

God bless your crew and Trev for getting you out of there!

[@RemusDragon91]

you're lucky to be here to post that vide you are a lucky man !

[@chillindude5471]

hey greg. im happy your alive

[@suttonsplash14]

Not extreem :( God bless you brotha. Hope you made/ are making a good recovery.

[@opaleirobrasil657]

It's a miracle!

[@CrazyFunnyCats]

Things happen so fast 🙏

[@ledgeri]

If you have them, could you share X-rays? Also, by footage, do you have (and the doctors) idea what kind of force, and when caused the main injury?

[@xtreme3minutevideos887]

Hi, I don't have the X-rays anymore but my spinal injuries were all caused by my helmet impacting on the roll cage as you will see at 01:51 the car goes up in the air and slams upside down on the roll cage. Even though I was tightly strapped in there was enough give for my helmet to impact the roll cage. This caused burst fractures to 2 vertebrae in my neck and a compression fracture in my back. It is a bit like someone hitting you on the head with a sledge hammer. A burst fracture is like a number of radial fractures which is better than a lateral fracture which usually causes spinal damage. I did have bone fragments pushing on the spine but in time these fused and the numbness and pins and needles went away. After this accident, everyone started building cars with a taller roll cage, that is a bigger clearance between the helmet and the roll bar.

[@ledgeri]

@@xtreme3minutevideos887 Thanks for sharing this!

[@wmc9482]

Wow well done Greg, i always knew you were a little mad.....

[@williamlewis6328]

Damn dude! Guess you would have to say you were lucky to live.

[@xtreme3minutevideos887]

Yes, was very lucky not to have a serious spinal injury and/or burns

[@vaughan1963]

That sure was a decent shunt Greg! You were bloody lucky and that could have ended a lot worse. I see my Dad's mate Ron Collett near the end of the clip in the cowboy hat. That was his dragster you were driving that day right? I remember seeing Ron at Ruapuna when I was a kid hitting the track edge on a run in a rail, puncturing a left rear tyre and rolling across the timing light for fastest time of the day. He only broke an arm that day and like you was bloody lucky to walk away. Did you ever work out how it all got so out of shape? Cheers, Vaughan

[@vaughan1963]

Sorry just read the full story. Oil on the back tyre no fun at that speed. Glad you made a full recovery.

[@xtreme3minutevideos887]

Hi Vaughan, yes Ron and I built this car together and were partners in the dragster for many years (Collett & Taylor) You're correct before I was racing with Ron he did have a roll over at Ruapuna and break his arm. Sadly Ron passed away about 10 years ago from a heart attack. Ron's son Glen who is manager of Aero Flow Performance in Sydney has a Fiat Topolino dragster based in New Zealand with a very powerful supercharged engine. Unfortunately with Covid Glen hasn't been over to race it much lately.

[@vaughan1963]

@@xtreme3minutevideos887 Thanks for the reply Greg. My father worked with Ron for many years at Fletchers in Mandeville st and stayed in touch regularly after they both left. Dad was an engineer like Ron and the did bits and pieces for each other. Dad went to Ron's funeral then passed away a couple of years later from a heart attack as well. I remember Ron had a Fiat Topolino altered in the early days and I think a few of engineer boys at Fletchers used to fabricate parts for that car. I also remember the old bus Ron repowered to take the rail around in. Good times!

[@xtreme3minutevideos887]

@@vaughan1963 Yes, that's exactly right, Ron was at Fletchers. Another guy from Fletchers who was racing with Ron in the early days was Clive Shepard. Yes he started with a Fiat Topolino powered by a supercharged 6 cylinder Vauxhall Cresta motor. My friend Murray Buckingham found the old Cresta powered fiat a few years ago and restored it. Murray also built the new Fiat altered with Ron's son Glen. Yes Ron had 2 buses over the years that we used for transporting the dragster up and down the country. Those bus trips were legendary, we went to drag meets and hot rod events all over the country. It's an old saying but "those were the days"

[@vaughan1963]

@@xtreme3minutevideos887 I remember Clive, he had the big black porn star mustache🤣🤣. He was always at the drag strip with Ron. I remember Murray Buckingham racing at Ruapuna and I remember when Glen started driving the rail. Also remember Eddie Fairburn and his wife racing. Was Ron one of the founders of Pegasus Bay drag club?

[@BrandonShort-dh2ui]

They missed broken vertebrae in your neck and back? How does that happen? The first thing they would have done is x-rays on your skull and spine and ct scans. They put a neck brace on you at the track but the medical facility didn't do initial x-rays on your skull and back, just on your foot? I'm glad you're okay, but I'm not buying it.

[@xtreme3minutevideos887]

Firstly the TV news item was only about 3 hours after the crash, it was over 1 hour by the time I got to the hospital and another couple of hours before I got seen by a Doctor. That is the New Zealand health system. When they X-rayed me that TV report had already aired. Even then they could not clearly see the fractures because they were a burst fracture of the C6 and C7 and a compression fracture of the T4. The burst fracture is like a radial fracture, the vertebrae is fractured into triangle shapes like cutting a cake. This was caused by slamming into the roll bar upside down at 0:25 after this crash all cars were built with a bigger clearance between helmet and roll bar. It was not until I had a CT scan that they got a clear look at the fractures and I was put in traction. I suffered severe loss of feeling in one arm and my legs but I was not paralysed. I spent 3 months in a traction device attached to my head and shoulders and then another 3 months in a neck brace. Rehab and physio continued for 18 months. The orthopedic surgeon said if they hadn't treated me as a spinal injury and immobilised me at the track the bone fragments would have almost certainly pierced the spinal cord and I would have had a whole different outcome. If you're not buying it, that's fine but all my friends and fellow drag racers who visited me in hospital and helped with my recovery know what happened and that's all that matters.

[@BrandonShort-dh2ui]

@@xtreme3minutevideos887 Well whatever they messed up on, I'm glad you're still with us. I'm not a religious man, but someone was looking out for you that day. The kind of g-force created on an impact like that is enough to kill. You're a very lucky man. It makes my palms sweat just thinking about it.