PAARL – Paarl resident Guy Davies (62), cut down by a severe rugby injury that left him as a wheelchair user, will compete in a specially-modified Porsche 911 at the Speed Classic Cape Town on 26 October, proving that disability does not limit ambition.
Born in Inverness, Scotland, he spent his early years in England before he and his family relocated to Paarl in 1995.
Davies runs a company called Disability Solutions, a Paarl-based accessibility consultancy that works nationally to improve access for people with disabilities.
Some accessibility projects in the Western Cape Davies has had a hand in, including at Green Point Stadium and the MyCiTi bus system.
But outside his work his passion lies in motorsport, which began long before his accident.
As a young man in England he competed alongside his father in vintage motorbike and car hill climbs, and he also played rugby at school and university, and for the York Rugby Union Football Club. However, in 1985 he “snapped” three vertebrae in a rugby accident, after which his first fusion failed in 1999. Since then he had the initial fusion redone and has had to have a fusion in his lower back and neck.
“I have had multiple surgeries on wrists, elbows and shoulders as they take the brunt and wear and tear.
Adjusting to life in a wheelchair after that injury was not easy. “Like many other people who experience becoming disabled, it was quite an adjustment,” Davies shared.
“Initially one questions ‘why me?’, only to find out eventually that the answer is actually ‘why not you?’ But at the end it is a normal human being reacting normally to abnormal circumstances.
“I was depressed for a while, as initially I felt couldn’t perform my roles as partner, father and breadwinner properly. Eventually you realise that you are the same person as before, but life must be approached differently.”
Despite the challenges Davies’ lifelong love for cars never faded. “I have always been a ‘petrolhead’ and initially enjoyed vintage bikes and cars, mostly British makes, like Scott, Rudge, and Alvis.”
He cleaned a neighbour’s 911 Porsche as a teenager and promised the neighbour’s “very pretty daughter” that he would one day own one too, especially as Davies, and the car shares the same birth year.
Forty years later that dream has finally come true; in the two-day Speed Classic Cape Town on 26 October Davies will compete in class A2 for standard road-going cars.
He is of the opinion that this race, in Philip Kgosana Drive, will be a fast course with speeds of a 170 to 200 km an hour in the class he will be participating in.
Davies’ Porsche 911 has been specially modified for him as a wheelchair-user featuring a unique hand-control system.
“My car has hand controls, which comprises of a lever to the right of the steering wheel. The lever is connected through rods and cables to the throttle and brake pedals, so I pull to operate the throttle and press down to brake.”
To prepare for the event Davies has been training on the Killarney Race Track.
This will be his third event since returning to competitive racing, all of which he has done in his Porsche 911. He said he hopes to add a classic Subaru to his collection in the near future. Prior to this, he competed in a considerable number of vintage motorsport events across the UK.
For Davies racing is not just about speed, but a statement on ability and inclusion. “By competing I am making the point that people with disabilities can compete directly with non-disabled, or temporarily-abled, drivers. Sometimes the approach has to be slightly different, but I am the same ‘petrolhead’ that I was before my injury.”
- The Speed Classic Cape Town is a two-day motorsport event, taking place from 25 to 26 October.
