Thirty year old Ben Bray is second generation drag racing royalty in Australia. His dad, Victor Bray is their country’s John Force. The guy is known in all corners and his career arc is much like Forces. Ben is not a guy who rode his dad’s coattails to success. The kid has earned his way and has proven himself to be a hard nosed and very successful in his own right. Today he lies in a hospital with a back injury, the second of his career. This is a serious hurting put on a guy who already went through the trauma of a fractured vertebrae in 2006 when the lift gate on a trailer failed, dropping the car he was in to the ground from a significant height. The way he struck the wall in this wreck, you knew it was going to hurt, but no one expected to hear that Bray had sustained bruised lungs, six broken ribs, and three broken vertebrae. Those are excruciating injuries…and Bray actually got himself out of the car and walked to an ambulance. The guy is a bad ass.

Ben was racing in both Top Doorslammer and Factory Extreme at the 2014 Fuchs Winternationals. This class is full of pro stock style “import” cars running engines native to their body styles and turning elapsed times in the very, very low six second range. The car that Bray was in had a Nissan Altima body and a turbocharged four cylinder engine. As you will see, these cars are as nasty as any type of boosted doorslammer you can imagine and when you see what happened to Ben Bray you’ll understand that they’re just as unpredictable and dangerous.

We surely hope that this is not the end for Ben Bray. If it is the end for Ben Bray in the driver’s seat, everyone else should try to get on his good side because if he goes all Al Billes on the Aussie Doorlsammer scene and becomes a full tilt tuner, the guys he turns wrenches for will be bad fast. We’re sending our best to Ben Bray after learning of his injuries. Here’s to hoping for a full recovery and a long career for Ben Bray.

PRESS PLAY BELOW TO SEE BEN BRAY’S VIOLENT FACTORY EXTREME WRECK FROM THE 2014 FUCHS WINTERNATIONALS –