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A Bend in the Road – Christina Vithoulkas
“A bend in the road is not the end of the road… unless you fail to make the turn.” – Helen Keller
Helen Keller wrote those words as a woman who, deaf and blind in the 1900s, refused to be limited by the roles society gave to disabled women.
More than a century later, Christina Vithoulkas embodies that same defiance. Like Keller, she faces two battles at once: the assumptions placed on people with disabilities, and the roadblocks women encounter in male-dominated spaces. Through dirt bikes, drifting, and a refusal to accept limitations, Christina constantly shows that strength is found not in avoiding the bend, but in making the turn anyway.
Christina’s story begins in Barmera, in South Australia’s Riverland, on family property where dirt bikes and the outdoors were part of the air she breathed. Raised in a tight-knit Greek Australian family with strong values of resilience and hard work, she rode as often as she could, training on local tracks, entering motocross competitions, even trying freestyle motocross jumps. The rush of speed and the flight off a ramp were the rush she had so long sought after growing up.
In September 2018, at the young age of 23, Christina attempted a jump at a track she knew well. A moment in which nothing more than a misjudgement would change her life forever. The impact on the other end of the jump broke her spine and left her with fractured ribs, skull, and a ruptured spleen. She permanently lost all feeling and control below her T5 vertebrae. From that moment, her life would change forever.
In hospital, things like balance, temperature regulation, control of bodily functions, all of which we take for granted, were gone.
But her mindset? That never left. The stubbornness she jokes about, her Greek heritage, her love for adrenaline, all added fuel to her fire.
Around a year into life post-injury, Christina was invited to a drift event. She accepted this invitation without knowing what lay ahead for her. The moment she first slid a corner, she felt the same rush she used to chase on dirt bikes. That feeling of flight, of risk under control. It was familiar. It was healing. It was proof: that even paralysed from the chest down, even with the body changed, parts taken, she could still find joy in speed. No more than a fortnight later, she was the proud owner of a Nissan Silvia S13 rolling shell, and the build commenced.
Every part was considered: bluetooth satellite hand controls for throttle and braking, an LS motor for clutches initiations, chassis bracing, suspension, fire suppression, all purposefully selected to suit, and the final piece of the puzzle that held it all together, a Haltech engine management system featuring a Rebel LS, Can Keypad and uC-10 Dash.
Christina commenced her drifting journey in early 2024, and through relentless practice and a never-say-die attitude, recently featured in the ‘Yeah The Girls’ Drift Demo at World Time Attack Challenge in Sydney, Australia. An international event with packed grandstands.
The world would have been understanding if Christina had disappeared quietly after her injury, amongst the odds that were stacked against her. But instead, Christina is at racetracks across the country enjoying her life the only way she knows how. Her inspirational stubbornness and tenacity in the face of adversity is what makes Christina a Haltech Hero.
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