| A Passing Of A Passionate Drag Racer And Friend Of Many. |
The Staff, Volunteers and Administration of Western Sydney Dragway and the sport of ANDRA Drag Racing nationally - regretfully announce the sudden and shock death of local Modified Bike Racer Darren Shepherd.
Shepherd was participating at the Sydney venue’s regular Track Championship events in Modified Bike, before leaving the venue as the incident occurred.
Shepherd was found to have suffered an accident outside the WSID competitor gate on the exit to Ferrers Road, Eastern Creek.
The accident, tragically proved to be fatal for a racer who was not only a Rocket Allstars Points leader and prior venue Track Champion – but Darren Shepherd was genuinely regarded as one of the most generous, pleasant and passionate racers to ever participate at Western Sydney Dragway.
Shepherd was respected by his rivals, admired by Drag Racing followers and a favourite of all of the Western Sydney Dragway track staff and volunteers.
Darren’s passion for the sport was clear for all to see, having recently won a National Round after travelling 3800kms to Mackay in Queensland and back for the Sunstates event there.
Famously, ‘Shep’ rode his bike across to Perth, Western Australia for an event, before racing the same bike down the quarter mile and then riding his Harley Davidson ‘Deuce’ back home again to Sydney!
He really lived and loved Drag Racing.
The Shepherd tragedy also followed a nasty racing related incident involving Super Sedan racer Allan Ostey.
Ostey’s Porsche car suffered a rear axle failure at high speed during the Track Championship event.
Ostey’s plight resulted in multiple hard impacts into the WSID safety wall.
Due to the nature of the accident, a determination was made by the on-track Paramedical services to have Ostey cut from the car and was then transported to Westmead Hospital.
Ostey is in a stable condition and in good spirits despite injuries to his ribs, a punctured lung and vertebrae.
In what was obviously a difficult day, the Western Sydney Dragway Administration would like to thank the Paramedical Services, Jeff Pattison, Kyle Pearson and the entire WSID Safety Safari Fire Crew for their extraordinary efforts.
In closing, I am sure many Drag Racing pundits can recall many fond memories of Darren Shepherd. It may help us all in the healing process to document our memories of a responsible and skilled racer and more importantly – a wonderful bloke.
Email us your memories of Darren at dean@andra.com.au.
A list of comments will be published publicly within a week or so.
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