A Last Dash For The Yellow Canary

Chris Land‘s ‘Yellow Canary’ saved his life.

The Bowen local and accountant by trade credits his off-road buggy, which helps him fulfill his passion for roaring down the dirt-track of the Don River that cuts through Bowen at 140-kilmetres per hour, with giving him a new lease on life.

Given the avian moniker for its diminutive stature, Chris’s ‘Yellow Canary’ holds a special place in his heart, having joined him as part of Team Land racing shortly after a bout of major sickness, which at its worst had him 48 hours away from dying.

He recognises the Canary helped him conquer the mental battle which comes with coming so close to death.

“I had retired from speedway and flat track racing on quad bikes at the age of 52; I kept waking up in hospital. I had always raced – done it all my life – and I just thought after one too many times: nope, that’s enough,” Chris said.

“A few years after that, I caught melioidosis, a tropical disease out of the ground, and spent three months in hospital, three weeks of that in intensive care. I was supposed to be dead; none of them expected me to live through it.

“They said I had less than 48 hours to go. I was skin and bone when I came out of hospital, it had eaten away all my insides, and to get myself motivated again, a friend reached out to me.

“Dave Muir, a mate, had bought a buggy, and started racing and said, come back in with these because we have a cage around us, we won’t get hurt.

“Just to get me positive, and I started feeling like living again. That was my mental turning point, it gave me an ambition that I’ve never stopped.

“That was when I bought the Yellow Canary.”

Chris has had the buggy – a Yamaha 1000R 2016 - for six years, and it brought him to the sport which he loves “for the family feel. Everyone is so welcoming”.

But it may be the pairs last hurrah according to Chris, who, likely, is the Don River Dash‘s oldest competitor at 65 – and one of the event’s founding fathers, having been instrumental in its genesis four years ago.

He’s tried the Dash every year in the ‘Yellow Canary’ and never finished, and this may be his last chance as he plans to retire the buggy at the end of the racing season.

“Each time it’s broken down; once when we did five pirouettes in the air and landed and of course it couldn’t keep going. I’m gunning to finish it this year, and it would be great to do it in the Canary,” Chris said.

“Every time I’ve had to retire out broken, I’ve been in the lead. This one will be the last race and to finish in it as a winner on the home track, that would be something.”

Chris will be just one of the competitors from Bowen to race in this year’s Don River Dash on September 9 to 11. So, keep an eye out for him in his Yellow Canary for one last race in yellow down the home strait.

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