Drag Illustrated Issue 136, September 2018 | Page 40
Special Section
WHEN WIDESPREAD POLIO VACCINATIONS WERE BECOMING POPULAR IN THE 1970S, THERE WAS A ONE IN 2.4 MILLION CHANCE
THAT THE ORAL VACCINE WOULD LEAD TO PARALYTIC POLIO. AT 2 YEARS OLD, JAMIE FOWLER WAS THAT ONE IN 2.4 MILLION.
HE WAS AT FIRST PARALYZED FROM THE NECK DOWN, THEN ONLY HIS RIGHT LEG WAS DAMAGED AFTER HIS FEVER BROKE. BY
THE TIME HE REACHED MIDDLE SCHOOL, FOWLER’S BACK AND HIP HAD DETERIORATED TO THE POINT HE REQUIRED A WHEELCHAIR
TO GET TO SCHOOL. WHEN HIS CLASSMATES WERE TRYING OUT FOR THE FOOTBALL TEAM, HE WAS STUCK ON THE SIDELINES.
“Growing up in school with a physi-
cal handicap, I always wanted to be
that quarterback or that star base-
ball player,” Fowler remembers. “I
wanted to do all those cool things
and I never could because my leg
always held me back.”
Today, Fowler isn’t letting his handi-
cap hold him back from living his
dream of racing fast doorslammers.
He’s competing in the PDRA’s Mag-
naFuel Top Sportsman, wheeling a
Tommy Mauney-built ’63 Corvette
tuned by Pro Nitrous veteran Todd
Howard and powered by a nitrous-
assisted Fulton 738 ci engine.
“When we shut that car door, for
those few brief seconds going down
the track, I’m as equal as anybody
out there,” Fowler says. “I don’t
have a physical handicap. My leg
does not hold me back. In a sense,
for those few seconds, I’m the quar-
terback. It’s an adrenaline rush. It’s
good for the soul.”
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40 PDRA660.com
STREET RACE
Fowler realized at an early age that
a strong mindset could help him
overcome some of the limitations
forced upon him by his underde-
veloped leg. He started spending
his evenings in the weight room of
his local gym, gradually building up
strength in the parts of his body
that hadn’t been affected by polio.
“Polio is a muscle disease. It eats
muscle,” Fowler explains. “If I sat
around and tried to be a couch
potato, the muscle is going to de-
teriorate a lot quicker. In my mind,
in order to combat the post-polio
effects that happen later in life, I
said, ‘Well, if it wants muscle, I’m
going to give it muscle.’”
After countless hours of training
sessions, Fowler’s gym buddy en-
couraged him to enter a bodybuild-
ing competition. Never one to back
down from a challenge, Fowler got
a spray tan that Friday and was on
stage Saturday morning competing
against some of upstate South Car-
olina’s best bodybuilders.
“I got on stage and for those few
seconds when I walked out on
stage, it made everything feel
normal,” says Fowler, who finished
in the top 10 in his first competition.
“The adrenaline rush, the lights, the
crowd – it’s a lot like drag racing.”
Fowler enjoyed an illustrious career
in bodybuilding, even striking up a
product endorsement deal with Jay
Cutler’s Cutler Nutrition supplement
“TO ME, EVERYONE IN THE DRAG RACING WORLD
IS FAMILY. IT DOESN’T MATTER IF IT’S PDRA,
IHRA, NHRA – THE DRAG RACING FAMILY IS
SECOND TO NONE.”
line and placing solidly in the Arnold
Classic, Arnold Schwarzenegger’s
world competition in Columbus,
Ohio. But Fowler ultimately found
that his handicap would only let
him go so far in the bodybuilding
world.
“Sure, I looked great on stage and
I was proud of myself and the hard
work, but bodybuilding is a very
subjective sport,” Fowler says. “I
was a crowd favorite – I lit up the
crowd when I came out – but it was
because of the challenges I over-
came in life to get there. I totally
get that and I appreciate it, but at
the end of the day it comes down
to the scorecard.”
Rather than accepting defeat,
Fowler decided to take on the chal-
lenge of returning to his first love:
drag racing. He had sold his Rick
Jones-built Top Sportsman 2001
Camaro when he started a family
with his wife, Kelly. The void created
by selling out of racing was filled