FINDING out you no longer hold the world record in your chosen sport is not news to be welcomed.
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But imagine if it was your own son who snatched the title from you?
Or your dad.
It's what has happened to drag racing legend Victor Bray and his son Ben Bray.
"I'll take one off him, then he'll take one off me, then I'll take one off him again," Ben laughed. "I guess it's like anything, it doesn't matter who's in the other lane when you're racing, they're always your enemy."
And what does Victor think of his son taking world records off him?
"There's not much you can do about it," he laughed.
"You think you do (teach him everything he knows) but obviously he's picked up a lot of stuff from elsewhere."
Both Victor and Ben will contest the fourth round of the Australian Eighth-Mile Doorslammer Championship at Portland's South Coast Raceway this weekend. A crowd of more than 3000 is expected to witness the exhilarating action.
"We travel over 200 metres in 3.9 seconds at 300 kilometres an hour," Victor said.
For the stalwart to describe it as "very, very fast" sounds like an understatement.
To most people, it is unbelievably quick.
Ben said the first 18 to 24 metres when racing was "like someone has kicked you in the butt".
"There's probably about half a second where your body and brain have to catch up with the rest of you," Ben said.
"When you drop the clutch, you're gone."
While Victor has been in the south-west since last week, which included a visit to Premier Speedway to watch the Australian Sprintcar Championship, Ben will arrive in the region today.
The duo’s Brisbane homes were both spared from the floods but unfortunately a couple of Ben’s crew members were not as lucky.
“One of my friends lost pretty much everything,” he said.
“He had what they call a whitewash.
“All the walls were washed out into the backyard.
“We took a couple of days off right after it all happened to help him out.”
While Ben is third in the 2010-11 Australian Eighth-Mile Doorslammer Championship standings, Victor is fifth.
Leading the championship is Melton’s Peter Kapiris.
“We’re hoping to run (Kapiris) down this weekend,” Victor, 53, said.
“I’ve heard about Portland for a long time so I’m really looking forward to it.
“The track looks really good for a regional track.”
The last of Victor’s six consecutive championships came in 2000-01 while Ben has two titles to his name, from 2002-03 and 2004-05.
Ben also has a decorated background in the top alcohol funny class, including a championship in 2005-06.
The 26-year-old said the aim for most doorslammers in Portland would be to run 3.9 seconds as no one has achieved the time yet in the three events this season.
The doorslammers are headlining this weekend’s event, which is the biggest drag race meeting to hit the south-west.
Action will start tomorrow with two rounds of qualifiers and testing, followed by a full program of racing on Saturday.
Other classes include outlaws, super sedan, super street, modified, junior dragster and modified bike.
Gates open 10am tomorrow and 7am Saturday.
