JASON Rapoff brought his VH Commodore all the way from Western Australia to take on Summernats for the first time. So what, you say? Well how about the fact that Jason is a wheelchair-bound paraplegic, and he didn’t just come to Summernats as a car nut, he came to compete in the burnout comp! His VH runs a 416ci blown and injected methanol-drinking LS motor making around 750rwhp. It’s connected to a full-manual Powerglide transmission and the throttle and brake are hooked up to hand controls. We caught up with Jason for a quick chat.

This was your first time at Summernats, why has it taken you this long to get here?

I’ve always wanted to come but it’s just been something that I’ve never got around to doing. Now that I’ve done it, I know what I’ve been missing out on all these years. I should’ve come 10 years ago!

How was it?

I had a blast! I drove over here with five other mates from Western Australia who all had never been to Summernats and we had a blast! Every day was epic, we just cruised around in the car, ran in the burnout comp and had fun.

How did you go in the burnouts?

It was also the first time I’ve skidded the car with mechanical injection and we forgot to turn the fuel pump on [which feeds the header tank] during qualifying, so the motor gave up pretty early and then we had a little fire in the rocker covers which burnt some wiring. I’m going to pull it all apart tomorrow and see what damage has been done. I still had fun though, and the crowd was nuts!

The crowd really got behind you

Summernats is the biggest burnout comp in Australia so the crowd is just on another level, but it was great to hear so many people cheering even though the burnout didn’t last too long.

What’s next for you and the car?

I’m going to do some work on the car over the weekend and fix any damage that occurred during the Summernats skid and it should be ready for Motorvation. Then I’ll probably go to power steering and a dry sump, otherwise I’m really happy with the car.