21 January 2011
Thanks for the thoughts and concerns we have received since last week's Queensland Flood Crisis. With tens of thousands of people having lost all their worldly possessions it may take months for things to even seem normal here.
As far as the racer community goes it was hit pretty hard as one could imagine with race cars in sheds etc. Here's an update on our team members and fellow racers that we know about:
Benny’s crew chief…Jamie Page who runs a chassis shop called ET Chassis was totally covered with over 20 ft of very fast running water through his shop and home. He lost everything. We have his cars here at Team Bray workshop doing what we can to salvage them but dirty water is everywhere. They were completely submerged for days and engines transmissions and barwork is full of water.
Patrick…Team Bray transporter driver lost everything as the water hit the eaves of his new home…He tells me he is very happy though as he saved his lovely wife and young son with only minutes to spare.
Top Doorslammer driver…Ray Bernard had 25 ft of water through his transmission shop for a couple of days. He will be busy salvaging what he can for weeks if not months.
Top Doorslammer driver…Stuart Bishop’s beautiful riverside home was inundated with water. he and his mates were cleaning what they could when I phoned.
Rob Oberg…Long time Drag racing announcer and administrator had water through his home and has days in front of him cleaning up.
The problem with this particular flood was the speed of the water; it was just horrendous and took whole towns at its origin. There have been over 20 deaths with some still missing and our thoughts are with their friends and family.
As far as property damage, the whole of flood affected Brisbane looks like a war zone with absolutely massive piles of household contents everywhere, street after street.
Willowbank Raceway suffered minor damage while many bridges and roads throughout Brisbane are very badly damaged.
Most of the bridges were damaged by containers that hit them at high speed and continually bashed against them until the flood was over.
There are some food shortages as many roads are blocked and there was enormous damage to crops.
I am sure there will be many more racers affected by these horrific floods that I haven’t heard of yet and we wish them all well.
Our thoughts are with all affected racers and crew as well as the tens of thousands of homeless victims who will hopefully recover sooner than later.
Victoria is also suffering floods this week from heavy rains, plus with the Queensland inland flooding continuing to move south, the story is not over by a long shot.
We at Team Bray suffered only minor water damage and are grateful for that, but many of our sponsors also suffered bad with the high fast flowing water.
Victor Bray – Team Bray
http://www.teambrayracing.com/
If you wish to Donate to the flood relief appeal, go to the Queensland Government page HERE