Chris “Nitro Voodoo” Matheson Shares Thoughts on his Scary Top Fuel Crash

Certainly no one can deny that Australian Top Fuel Motorcycle superstar Chris “Nitro Voodoo” Matheson is one of the toughest, most resilient, most steadfast and persistent racers the sport has ever seen. 

After purchasing a Larry “Spiderman” McBride-built Top Fuel Motorcycle off United States superstar Jimmy “Hulk” Brantley, Matheson sustained several devastating crashes and high-speed incidents that can been seen in the video below. 

Matheson would go on to overcome all this hardship to achieve what he coveted most, Australia’s first five-second motorcycle run in May of last year.

While reflecting on his Hall of Fame career, Matheson sent along the following account of the first crash, seen in the video above, after debuting his bike a couple of weekends prior at Sydney Dragway in  2010.

“We were on a high after winning our first meeting and re-setting the track record at Willowbank in the process. Arriving at Sydney I was quietly confident but very cautious knowing we had a new team and limited experience,” Matheson said.  “This came back to bite me as we had top-qualified the meeting with a 6.1 the pass before and reset the track record. So I did not need to go out for the last pass. However my crew chief that I had at the time, wanted “ more data” and  unfortunately against my better judgment I ran the last qualifier pass for the night.

Unfortunately during the service between rounds an oil line fitting was overlooked and came loose, creating chaos on the final run.

After a good, quick, straight run nearing the finish line the motor blew off the oil line, dumping some two gallons of engine oil onto the back tire and rear brakes causing the bike to head for the wall.

My first thought was to avoid the handlebars from impacting the wall, as that would be potentially be fatal at that speed of 230 mph.

I leaned over as much as possible, avoiding the wall. Then once I regathered control I grabbed the front bakes as hard as possible, smoking the front tire under the pressure as I could see the end of the track fast approaching.

The oil all over the rear tire and brake ensured I could not get any braking to help stop the bike so it was inevitable I was going to crash, hitting the sand at over 100 mph.

I hit the trap hard but luckily avoided being impacted by the tumbling bike. I went to hospital that night while my team and a number of other teams helped repair the bike for racing next day.  Despite the damage of an all-nighter from the crew, several broken ribs and a fractured pelvis we got to the semifinal and were eliminated. I had never been so happy to put the bike back in the race trailer and head home to recover for our next round of racing . Minor errors on these machines can be catastrophic , the attention to detail is critical for survival .

Thank God for nine lives , I was now down to about four remaining!”

Please join us in congratulating Chris “Nitro Voodoo” Matheson on an a magnificent career.  The next quest is conquering the Top Fuel Harley class as a crew chief.