A racecar is more than just a car to its owner — it’s an embodiment of their money, hard work, and time spent in the shop. It’s never easy for the racer when the smallest thing goes wrong with their car, but losing the entire vehicle is a devastating experience. Street Outlaws star James Goad, known the world over as “Reaper” lost both of his prized Camaros in a horrible trailer fire on the way home from a recent race.

Goad and his wife, Stacy, were traveling home from the Reaper’s All Star No Prep event that took place at Xtreme Raceway Park in Texas when the fire occurred. According to Stacy, they were somewhere in Oklahoma when she noticed something strange coming from the trailer.

“I started to see a glow or spark coming from the trailer and I called James to let him know. He didn’t see anything in the mirrors and thought it was the safety chains sparking. I saw the sparks again and let him know, but then the trailer lights went out and I still saw the glow. He pulled over and when he approached the trailer, he saw the glow through the cracks of the door,” Stacy says.

At that point, Goad rushed back to the RV and grabbed some fire extinguishers to deal with the fire. When Goad opened the side access door he discovered the entire front of the trailer was engulfed in flames. Seeing how dire the situation was, Goad took some extreme measures to try and save both of his cars.

“He broke the window out of the Reaper Camaro since it was on the bottom and pulled the fire system to try and stop the fire, but it didn’t do anything. At that point, we just had to sit on the side of the road until the fire department got there, but by the time they arrived, it was too late. The cars were full of methanol, we had two jugs of methanol in the trailer, so there was plenty to fuel the fire. We don’t know what started it. It was concentrated in the front where there is a battery that operates the lift and jack for the trailer,” Stacy says.

The pictures and videos speak for themselves; both cars are a total losses. You can see how intense the fire was in this video that Goad posted to the Reaper SS Facebook page by clicking here. Right now, James and Stacy are both still in digestion mode trying to come to terms with everything that’s happened. Putting so much into racecars of this caliber takes a lot, and to have them both tragically taken away is a tough pill to swallow.

“Right now, James is pretty devastated. At this point, he’s really feeling like he’s done with racing. Our life has revolved around these cars for the last five years, between Street Outlaws and No Prep Kings. It seems like we never leave the house without them…they’re like our children. There’s been a lot of late nights and miles covered with them, I just can’t express in words how much this hurts. To walk into the shop and see them sitting there in skeletal form, and going from beautiful cars to shells is just heartbreaking,” Stacy explains.

We here at Dragzine wish James and Stacy the best and hope to see them back at the track in the future.