News Archive
Dangerous Dougie Leaves Us
Oct 05It was with extreme sadness that I was informed yesterday morning of the death of fellow chassis builder and all round good guy Doug (Dangerous Dougie) Stewart.
I first met Doug at the ‘old’ Canberra drag strip, (a converted piece of state highway) in the early ‘80’s when we were both young men. His enthusiasm for life, was the one striking feature of this little guy, who let nothing spoil his day. That he had to endure cancer on and off for the last 13 years of his life, defies belief for those who new him. He was the life of the party wherever he went. He was the most generous man with his time, as many Canberra racers (amongst others) will testify, working into the small hours to ensure a racer could compete, often not charging. His phone calls were a source of much mirth; I often thought an Indian call centre had rung as there would be a long pause, before the exclamation ‘good morning Mr Andrews’; very polite, tongue in cheek. One was never sure whether Dougie was ‘taking the piss’ or not. I have many memories of Doug, some of which I wish to share. I am not sure that this is the correct place, but it’s all I’ve got!
Dougie was a founding member of the 'Tuggeranong stick shifters' a group that drove only manuals, and cast scorn on the 'Kandah cable clickers' who drove automatics. Much good natured scorn was directed at automatic drivers. (Why these names were chosen god only knows! Probably rimmed well as they were Canberra suburbs.) Doug eventually succumbed and became a member of Kandah (LOL). I think he was also a foundation member of 'Two Dogs Racing'. I will leave the rest up to you.
On one occassion I acccompanied a customer of mine with a new car to the 'new' Canberra facility. As was Dougies habit he ripped the door open in the staging lanes to examine the tin work. After looking at the swage lines etc he looked me in the eye and said ' I gotta give up drinkin! I can't get lines that straight'. We both rolled about laughing.
We raced on only a couple of occasions, and the one that springs to mind is when he red lit by a country mile, to deliberately loose so that he could join his mates on the hill for a beer, as they had toasted him as he went in to stage. He saw this and decided that the hill was a better place to be.
I was the ANDRA NSW DD for a time in the early ‘80’s and attended many Canberra meets and presentation evenings. One night, at a place and time that escapes me, we were at a function centre that had a sunken dance floor. I was dancing with my wife at the lower level; Dougie was bullshitting (as was his want), back to me at a table at the higher level. I decided to ‘pants him’, unfortunately getting his undies as well. He turned around, beer in hand, flashing everyone and said ‘ I will get you for this Andrews’, prior to bursting into laughter and pulling his pants up.
At another sad event a few years ago, he soon had everyone roaring with laughter with his tales of the rocket he built and launched, setting fire to the surrounding grass and having to duck for cover as gravity took over!
I’m sure these are few of many anecdotes that Dougies friends will be able to regale you with. The world is a much poorer place with his passing. If only we could all have his enthusiasm and resolve, even in the darkest hours. He told me just recently that after enduring so many blood transfusions, medical staff told him they could do no more and that he had 10 hours left, he pointed to the huge blown up photo of the Oztin doing a wheelstand that was hanging on his wall in the hospice and said ‘I did that last Saturday now bloody well do something!’. He raced again 3 weeks later. The last time we spoke he said ‘they said I wouldn’t make August. It’s now September.’ He looked at me and smiled. We shook hands for the last time. I said 'See you next meeting Doug'....................
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