Dale Gummow is as excited as any person could be as she waits with great anticipation on the arrival of her new toy, a 1428cc Suzuki destined for Modified Bike duties this season at the Perth Motorplex.
Gummow, who has not raced since 2003, has been itching to get back on the saddle after helping her husband build and prepare their national championship winning Competition Bike.
She has raced in Modified Bike at Ravenswood Raceway and in the early years of the Perth Motorplex and has also raced on the East Coast including at the Winternationals at Willowbank Raceway.
She still smiles about racing at Willowbank where the announcers often referred to her in the masculine.
“You would think the pink livery would be a dead give away,” she laughed.
Dale lives and breathes drag racing, having worked as drag racing event administrator at the Perth Motorplex, bracket marshalling at events and that is when she is not pulling the clutch out of husband Kevin’s 7 second supercharged Kawasaki.
She said being a crew member is far scarier than actually racing down the quartermile at over 250kmh, referring to a recent mishap at the workshop.
Husband Kevin was warming up the CC/Comp Bike when the idler pulley flew off, striking Dale in the leg.
Kevin enquired, was it alright? She said her leg was okay. Kevin replied, “Not your leg, the pulley.”
The Gummows are heading off to the Fuchs Nationals in Sydney in early September where Kevin will compete in the Rocket Allstars season opening event in Competition Bike.
While at the event they will pick up the new bike from Victor Bray who transported it down from Queensland.
The bike will be completely stripped down and rebuilt before it debuts at Perth Motorplex.
