We all know that in drag racing things can get hairy quick, however the risk doesn’t stop us from chasing that adrenaline and pushing our machines to the limit. James Stevens, from Stillwater, Oklahoma, is no stranger to chasing that rush. Unfortunately, this past weekend at the PMRA World Finals he found out first-hand just how quick things can go wrong when he went for a wild ride in Tulsa testing his 08′ Honda CBR1000 drag bike.

Stevens launched off the starting line and the front of the bike started coming up immediately. He tried to keep the bike under control but there was nothing he could do as the nitrous-fed Honda threw him backwards off of the bike and flipped over. Ace photographer Patrick “Red” Williams was in the right place at the right time and captured the entire sequence of the incident and shared them with Dragzine.

“We were tuning it and made a couple passes and had no luck with the nitrous,” Stevens said. “On that pass the nitrous came in while I was on the two-step and I thought first gear was still locked out in the nitrous controller, but after checking later it wasn’t. It was on a progressive controller and I was 3-4 seconds into it when I left the line; shot size unknown.”

Fortunately, Stevens walked away from the accident virtually unscathed, just a “little sore.”

As for the bike, Stevens said it was “damaged but made it out okay. No motor, frame, swing arm, or rim damage. Snapped triple trees, front stabilizer, rear subframe and bent the rear offsets, as well as some body damage,” with estimated $2,500 to 3,000 in damage.

“It’s fun unless they throw you off,” Stevens said with a positive attitude and a great sense of humor. “I’ll rebuild and add an ‘Oh Sh**’ sticker to the bottom of the oil pan. It’s part of the sport — you can’t be upset if you crash or trash an engine. It’s part of going fast.”

As is true in most cases for drag racers, when things like this happen, we see it as an opportunity to re-design and rebuild bigger, better, and faster than before. Stevens is already itching to make the repairs to his bike and get back out there.

“I figure it’s best to get back on the horse. Next season I’ll be back out and plan on making my first pass out on spray.”