Series Information

Midget speedcar racing began in Brisbane on Saturday February 22, 1936, when a couple of Englishmen and some drivers from interstate took to the dirt track at the Exhibition Grounds. It was the start of something that continues today, nine decades later. T he meeting was promoted by Frank Arthur and Bert Pryor along with their associates Vic Huxley and Roy Starfield.

The Englishmen were Jean Reville (actual name Eric Gene Reville) and Bud Stanley whose name was really Stanley Budd with Reville supplying both their cars. The interstate contingent was comprised of many of the pioneers of the sport in Australia including Charlie Spurgeon and Bill Sticpewich. Both of whom had previously raced speedway motorcycles.

The cars were mainly powered by motorcycle engines with some driving the front wheels.and others with a chain driving the rear wheels. The problem with front -wheel drive was they could drive over the car in front or climb the fence. Within a couple of year s, they had been banned.
Midgets, as they were called at the time, first raced in Australia at the Olympic Park track in Melbourne during December 1934. Sydney followed at Wentworth Park in 1935 and Camden Park in Adelaide later the same year. The first ‘official’ Australian Midge t Car Championship was held at Olympic Park on May 3, 1935, with Bob Finlay crowned the first champion. Cars had raced on the dirt speedway track at Davies Park at West End in Brisbane in the late 1920s, but they were small sedans and raced clockwise.

There were only five meetings in the Brisbane season with the motorcycles also racing at some of the shows. Renowned American stuntman Orren ‘Putt’ Mossman and his troupe appeared at the last show on Monday March 23 after rain had postponed the meeting fro m the previous Saturday.

Reville showed that he was a very accomplished driver winning many of his races with Stanley also tasting success. Others to shine were Sticpewich (JAP), Spurgeon (Harley -Davidson), Lance Wilson and Norm French in his Amilcar powered machine. There was only one Brisbane driver during this season with Bill Jeffers in a Rudge powered car from the south. Jeffers owned a motorcycle shop and was a successful sidecar racer. One interesting car was the machine used by Mark Cox. Cox was a blacksmith and had built h is own car utilising a rotary hoe engine. After some fine tuning the car was competitive.
Midget racing was also introduced to Rockhampton in 1936 with the first meeting on Thursday October 22, at the local showground. The promoter was Mr B Kemp who had four midgets and six motorcycles along with some cyclists to entertain the crowd. The carsh ad been built in Sydney by Frank Stewart who took the cars to Rocky and stayed to drive one. Six fortnightly meetings were held with Stewart eventually taking over as promoter.

Today we take visiting American drivers for granted as usually there is at least one at our major Australian meetings. Back in the 1930s it was no different. Paul Swedberg and Beale Simmons ventured here in 1939 and returned the following year. Swedberg br ought the first Offy powered car to Australia in 1940 and eventually sold it to Wally Read in Sydney. Unfortunately, the Yanks didn’t make it to Brisbane, and we would have to wait until post WW II to see any American visitors. Swedberg and Simmons had pas sed by then with the former killed in a racing accident in California in 1946 while the latter was a victim of the war.

What happened to the Englishmen? At the end of the tour Reville sold his cars to a Melbourne buyer. Stanley returned home while Reville settled in Brisbane. He purchased a reasonably large property on the top of the big hill on Cavendish Road Mt Gravatt, o pposite the college, as you travel from Creek Road.

This was the end of speedcar racing in Brisbane for the time being and with Australia involved in the War from 1939, speedway was not run on a regular basis until after the hostilities. There was also a chance that with no local cars that it would be the e nd of it, or would it?
What occurred when speedway resumed in Brisbane in 1946 was extraordinary. The next chapter ‘The 1940s – Boom Time’ will cover what was a very exciting time in Brisbane speedcar racing.

Acknowledgement and thanks Barry Lane

We continue our story about the 90 year journey of speedcar racing in Queensland. Our next chapter covers the tremendous popularity of speedcar racing after World War II. 1940s – BOOM TIME

In early 1946 the hostilities of World War II were winding down and people were getting back to normal life. During the War any kind entertainment was limited so when it was announced that speedway would return to the Brisbane Exhibition Grounds on March 9 , 1946, with a program of speedcar racing, the promoters knew they were guaranteed a big crowd.

However, it wasn’t a big crowd, it was a HUGE crowd! There were so many people they forced the gates open and even though the Police tried to restore order, they were hopelessly outnumbered. The Police wouldn’t allow the crowded trams to stop as they would only add to the problem. The newspapers reported there were between 40 and 50 thousand people on the grounds. They were up the light towers, the trees and on the roof of buildings, anywhere they could see the action.
The program consisted of speedcar racing along with cycling and trotting events. The seven speedcar drivers were Ray Revell, George Bonser, Johnny Read, Jim Cross, Bob Playfair, Belf Jones and Fred Barker, all from Sydney. Promoter Frank Arthur had contrac ted them to stay in Brisbane for a couple of months to establish the sport here.

Another attraction on the first night was the appearance of the ‘Rocket Car’ which was Revell’s car fitted with multiple rockets that looked spectacular when fired as he trave lled around the track at speed. There was no feature race on the opening night with Revell the winner of the first feature race, 10 laps, the following week. Revell had been racing since the late 1930s and was regarded as one of the best in the country. Two New Zealanders also came to Br isbane, Jack Malcolm and Max Hughes, for a couple of international contests and some major races. Revell won the first ever Queensland Championship on April 4 while Hughes won the first World Derby (20 laps) on May 10.

Most drivers of the time were using Ford A engines, a 4 -cylinder side -valve engine of about 200 cu in. with three main bearings and gravity fed oiling system. It was prone to getting hot when used for racing so most feature races at that time were 10 laps. Other engines used included Rugby, Continental Beacon and the Ford V8/60.

When the second season began in September 1946 many local drivers had purchased or built cars including Allan Belcher, John Maxwell, Ron Strong, Fred Allen and Chas Whatmore. Whatmore had done some racing on road circuits prior to the war. Revell dominated the season with 10 feature race victories. Whatmore won the ‘Closed’ Queensland Championship on December 21 that was only open to Queensland resident drivers.

At the end of the year Fred Allen, Lew Murphy, John Maxwell, Jim Cross and Ken Wylie travelled to Perth to kick -off speedcar racing at the Claremont Showground track. They stayed about 6 weeks with Wylie winning the first Western Australian Championship. W ylie sold his car to Chas Lindberg in Perth and Lindberg then travelled to Brisbane via Sydney to race.

Early in 1947 American drivers Cal Niday and Perry Grimm came to Australia to race primarily in Sydney and Brisbane. Both had cars powered by the Ford V8/60 engine fitted with Edelbrock performance equipment. Niday’s car was a Solar while Grimm had one of the new, sleek tube frame Kurtis -Krafts. They cleaned up most nights as the local drivers and cars were no match for the American professionals. The only driver who offered some competition was Ray Revell.
On June 7, 1947, Brisbane held its first 50 -lap race. It was won by Kev Gallaher (NSW), driving a car powered by a modified V -Twin motorcycle engine, with Ron Strong and Chas Whatmore following him across the line. Gallaher would lose his life in a Sydney racing accident in 1949.

In August 1947 a group of Brisbane drivers promoted some meetings at the Lismore Showground featuring speedcar racing. To be able to put on a show they transported cars on one of Ron Strong’s trucks. The meetings were reasonably successful but when the new Brisbane season commenced, they found it very difficult to both race and promote. At the end of the year former driver Doug McDonald took over the promotion which lasted until the early 1950s
.
Speedway was also being run at the Ipswich Showground on Friday nights and the speedcars appeared there every couple of weeks throughout the season.

Niday and Grimm returned in 1948 and this time Niday brought the first Offy powered car to Brisbane. It was a very smart looking unit and while here Jim Cross took all the dimensions and built a couple of copies. Grimm returned with the same car but with a new paint scheme. Once again, they were very had to beat and at one point, Niday won six straight including the 50 -lap World Championship. The Americans had encouraged Ray Revell to try his luck in the USA so when they returned home, he soon followed.

Brisbane drivers were now looking to improve their equipment after witnessing the capabilities of the Yank cars. Curly Ryland was one who had a tube frame car built and one of the first times he drove it was on Main Beach at Southport where a race meeting had been organised on the sandy beach. All went well until a large wave swamped Ryland and Ivor Broughton. When Revell retuned in November he had a new car. It was an Offy from the Johnny Balch stable in Los Angeles that had won a lot of big races. He was again based back in his hometown of Sydney as the local scene was now very strong with lots of local drivers and cars.

In 1949 the visiting driver of note was Frank Brewer. He was advertised as an American but, in fact, he was a New Zealander who had been racing on the west coast of America for many years. He drove a very fast Kurtis -Kraft with a Ford V8/60 engine that was fitted with many racing bits from Eddie Meyer. Brewer was known as ‘Satan’ as he raced like the devil.

When Brewer and Revell raced on the same night there was plenty of hard -fought action and they shared the honours between them, but Brewer was the victo r in the Brisbane ‘50’. He was used to the long races in the USA where he had won a 250 -lap event. The last season of the decade had finished on a high riding the crest of a wave of popularity, but could it continue? Look for the next chapter ‘1950s – The Fall and Rise’.

Acknowledgement and thanks Barry Lane

The local speedcar scene was very strong in the 1949-50 season with the local stars Allan Belcher, John Maxwell, Ron Strong and Curly Ryland providing plenty of good racing with Ryland also winning the Queensland Championship that season.

The 1949 Australian Grand Prix was held at Leyburn on the Darling Downs and even though it wasn’t speedway, it did involve many from the speedcar fraternity. Chas Whatmore and Rex Law were entered while ‘Cappy’ Woods Hudson powered speedcar, which was fitted with larger diameter wheels, was also on the start line. The race was won by John Crouch who had raced speedcars in Sydney during the 1930s.

The Exhibition track hosted a ‘Australian Championship’ with Frank Brewer the winner while Ray Revell was too good in the World Championship. It was during this period that Hollywood thought it was a good idea to have movies about racing. Both ‘The Big Wheel’ starring Mickey Rooney and ‘To Please A Lady’ with Clark Gable and Barbara Stanwyck were about a driver who started in midgets and ended up in the Indianapolis 500. The latter was a better production.

The following season set the local speedway scene back many years. The main arena of the Exhibition Grounds was unavailable as major work was being carried out. It meant no racing took place until well into 1951 and then it was only bikes. One new bike rider was Keith Blicharski who would race speedcars in the late 1960s, early 1970s. The local speedcars were invited to race at the Gatton Showground after some of the members helped build a fence. Only a couple of shows were conducted and after a car went through the fence, racing stopped.

The 1951-52 season proved to be very poor. Competitor numbers in both cars and bikes had fallen and likewise the patronage had dropped. With very little racing the previous season, people had found other things to do such as the movies, football, horse racing and the like.

A new track, Riverview Park, in south Lismore opened for afternoon meetings and the local drivers were joined by some from Brisbane including Steve Howman. Unfortunately, Howman was involved in a nasty accident when he struck a car that had stalled on the track. It was so dusty the drivers couldn’t see. Another driver who raced there was Dave Leonard who lived at Tweed Heads but eventually moved to Brisbane to live and race. Revell again cleaned up the major Brisbane meetings with Brewer following him home on each occasion.

Speedcar racing at the Exhibition the following season, 1952-53, was spasmodic with little interest shown by new drivers. Riverview was struggling and eventually the speedway moved back to the Lismore Showground. During May Frank Brewer won five consecutive feature races including the local ‘Australian Championship.’ Unfortunately, May 2 was a sad day for local racing when the popular Curly (Cecil) Ryland was killed during a heat race when his car rolled and he was thrown onto the track. He was a successful businessman from Maryborough who flew to Brisbane to race while his car stayed in Brisbane and was maintained by John Maxwell. The accident showed how dangerous the sport could be and as a result some of the drivers with families, retired.

The 1953-54 season was dismal for the speedcars. Very few drivers were still involved and consequently there wasn’t a lot of racing. A couple of big shows at the end of the season resulted in wins for Frank Brewer. Another interstate visitor was Kym Bonython (SA) who was not only a good speedcar driver but was also the promoter of the very successful Rowley Park in Adelaide.

The following season was dominated by Steve Howman (8 wins) and Allan Belcher (6 wins). The stockcars were introduced in January 1955 which improved the crowds dramatically and possibly saved speedway in Brisbane. The first local Holden powered speedcar debuted in April 1955 in the hands of Eddie Brennan and won first night out.

Things started to improve in 1955 – 56 with new drivers Lew Marshall, Bill Goode and twins Kevin and Les Jefferson. Promoter, Frank Arthur, introduced speedway at the Toowoomba Showground with meetings being held on Friday nights. Speedcars did run some shows, but drivers had to hurry up the range after work and the road was nothing like the four-lane highway of today. The speedcar association also promoted some shows at the Ipswich Showground on Wednesday nights but were not financially successful. Steve Howman had another great season with 11 wins including a Queensland Championship. Interstate visitors included Ray Revell, Kym Bonython and burly Jack O’Dea (Vic).

The new season again featured an influx of new drivers including Barrie Watt, Wal Tedman, Roy Barker, and Les D’Arcy. Watt would go on to race for 54 years while Wal Tedman had been a prisoner of war who now ran a fruit shop at Mt Gravatt. D’arcy had a short career, retiring after a very spectacular accident. American visitor, Dick ‘Jet’ Brown,’ had a successful stint in Queensland but was beaten by Bill Goode in a 10-lap ‘Australian Championship’ at Toowoomba. The speedcar association negotiated with the Redcliffe Council to run speedway at the local showground, however they had to fix the safety fence which was unsuitable. The members set about building a fence around the track which was a mammoth task as the track was 643 metres on the pole line. It was hoped the track would open during the second half of 1957.

Redcliffe opened on Saturday afternoon, 10 August 1957 with 4000 spectators witnessing the action of the solos, sidecars, gnats and speedcars. Meetings were soon changed to Saturday nights and ran most weeks until the Exhibition season began. Dave Leonard purchased a Holden powered car from Sydney and over the next couple of seasons turned the car into the very smart looking ‘Chromeline Special.’ Steve Howman added another Queensland Championship to his resume while the very tall Harry Neale (SA) won the other major events.

Redcliffe continued the following season with the crowds between 1500-2000. Being so big the track was hard on machinery and some competitors opted not to run there. Howman was now running a Repco-Holden engine which was the grey Holden motor fitted with a crossflow head developed by Repco. It was quite successful, so Howman decided to travel to Adelaide to contest some big races at Rowley Park. He was seriously injured in an accident there on 2 January 1959 and passed away two days later. It was a huge loss for his family and local racing. He had been the man who organised the Redcliffe shows and that role was taken on by Bill Goode. Roll bars were introduced and made compulsory later the same year.

The young Gibb brothers, Barry, Robin and Maurice, who became the Bee Gees, had their first paid performance when they sang on the back of a truck during the Redcliffe meeting on 14.2.1959 and people tossed money over the fence for them to collect.

The decade had seen a major turn around for Brisbane speedcar racing after things looked ominous six years earlier. However, the passing of the very popular Steve Howman was a loss felt for many years to come.

Things were about to get very interesting as the years turned to the next decade so watch out for the chapter - 1960s – A Great Era.

Acknowledgement and thanks Barry Lane

If the 1950s were an up and down period for local speedcar racing, the 1960s would see a huge resurgence in the sport. More drivers, better equipment and visits by many interstate and overseas stars.
Bill Goode, Allan Belcher, Barrie Watt, Kevin Jefferson, Des Kelly, Aub Knowles and Reg Longden were joined by many new drivers including the Finglas brothers, Brian and Ian, Roy Didlock and Blair Shepherd who had purchased the late Steve Howman’s Repco-Holden. Within a couple of seasons Shepherd would be the first to own an Offenhauser powered American built car in Brisbane. Over the years he owned many Offenhausers, and before the decade was over, he would be Queensland’s first national champion.
American Bob Tattersall had his first visit to Brisbane in 1960 and proved to be a real fan favourite, attracting large crowds to see him race. He would visit the River City every year for the next ten years. Frank Arthur and other promoters could see that with imported drivers more big shows could be held that guaranteed financial success. Consequently, Tattersall would often tour with another driver from the land of stars and stripes. Leroy Warriner, 3-time USAC champion Jim Davies, Sherman Cleveland, Mike McGreevy and Merle Bettenhausen were just some that joined Tattersall in Australia.
On many occasions their cars would be sold to local drivers. Bill Goode became the second Brisbane Offy owner when he purchased the car Jim Davies used during his 1964 tour and Barry Valentinna took over the car Tattersall used in 1965. In 1967, Joe James bought McGreevy’s car for Barrie Watt to drive while Des Kelly became the new owner of Tattersall’s car. All the cars had good histories and had been winners in the USA.
Another to join the ranks was a tearaway from the Hot Rod ranks, Ron Wanless. He bought the Dave Leonard Holden and set about making a name for himself. Within a couple of seasons, he also had an Offy and was a backmarker winning races. It is easy to see why Brisbane was known as the Offy capital of Australia.
During the 1960s, the Junior Speedcars (Compacts) were also very strong with lots of cars so it was no surprise that drivers of the smaller cars would move up to the speedcars. Gary Sacre, Bob Morgan, Danny Davidson, Brian Dillon and Keith Lavery are just some that transitioned with ease. Sacre ended up driving an Offy for car dealer Bert Marwood and was a smooth operator while Bob Morgan won many races in the Jim Cross Holden against the Offy brigade. In 1968 he joined Blair Shepherd’s team to drive an Offy.
In 1964, saloon car racing had been introduced in Brisbane and was immediately a big hit with hundreds taking up the relatively inexpensive way of racing. Once again, some joined the ranks of the open wheel speedcars. Eric Mitchell, Jim Holden, Kev Hobson and John Bell were amongst those that tried with varying degrees of success. Mitchell started in Bill Goode’s Offy and within a couple of shows was winning races. Eventually he joined with John and Keith Mulcahy in their Offy and enjoyed a lot of success during the 1970s. Holden only dabbled for a short time, but his best years were ahead of him when he obtained very competitive equipment.
Even though the Offies were purpose built thoroughbred engines that had been developed over a couple of decades there were other engines used in Brisbane that were also successful especially in the first half of the 1960s. The 6-cylinder Holden had also been developed and was a cheaper option for those on a budget. High compression pistons, race cam, better valves, multiple carburettors or fuel injection and if you could afford it, a Repco cross flow head, were all used to make it a competitive engine.
Early in the 1960s Dave Leonard, Barrie Watt and Kevin Jefferson all drove Holden powered cars to Queensland Championship victories. Jefferson had sold his V8/60 powered car to brothers, John and Keith Mulcahy, who fitted a former Steve Howman Studebaker engine before going to a Repco-Holden. Jefferson won the Queensland Title in December 1962 but was tragically killed at the Exhibition the following May.
Blair Shepherd (Offy) was the Queensland titleholder in 1963 and 64. Sydney driver Johnny Stewart (Holden) won in 1965 while Bill Goode (Offy) passed Blair Shepherd late in the race to win his only Qld Title in 1966. Former Solo rider, Stockcar and Hot Rod driver Keith Blicharski surprised everyone, except himself, to claim the win in 1967 driving a Renault powered car of his own construction. Another former Solo, Stockcar and Hot Rod competitor Peter Dykes, originally from New Zealand, closed out the decade with victory in a Holden.
The biggest race of the season was always the ‘World Championship’ as it featured the international drivers and the best from the other states. It was always over 50-laps so favoured cars with Offy engines. John Harvey (NSW) won in 1960 in a Holden, but it was the only victory in the 1960s with a local engine. Harvey had a distinguished speedway career before turning to road racing where he ended up with Peter Brock’s touring car team. The Americans Tattersall, Warriner and Davies won from 1961 to 1964, and it looked like the locals were never destined to win it.
Blair Shepherd had other ideas and drove to an impressive victory in 1965 and then repeated the following season. Tattersall won again in 1967 before Bill Goode continued his dominate season in 1968 and Ron Wanless claimed the last event of the decade. Des Kelly had always wanted an Offy and he managed to buy Tattersall’s car at the end of his tour in 1967. He adapted to the car very quickly but just as he was beginning to match it with the other Offy drivers, he lost his life in a first lap feature race accident in May 1967. In the USA, Bob Tattersall had been chasing the USAC National Midget Championship for many years and finally succeeded in 1969, it was fitting reward for the wily veteran.
In 1961, something new was tried with a 100-lap race. There was good prizemoney plus lap money for the major placegetters. Andy McGavin (NSW), driving Don Mackay’s former Warriner Offy, won the initial event and backed up again the following year. The very popular Jeff Freeman (NSW), also in a Mackay Offy, won in 1963 before Harvey, again in a Mackay Offy, won in 1964. Freeman raced many times in Brisbane and always performed well and proved popular with both his fellow drivers and the fans. Unfortunately, he was killed driving a Mackay Offy at the Westmead track outside Sydney, in May 1965.
Bill Goode liked the longer races and won the marathon race in 1965 and 1966 before capping a brilliant 1967-68 season with another win in 1968. Blair Shepherd was first across the line in 1967 but was eliminated by the officials for changing a tyre during a stoppage. The race went to New Zealander Ron Ross who became the only driver to win the 100-lapper in a Holden powered car. By the end of the 1960s Ron Wanless had developed into an accomplished driver and he enjoyed his only 100-lap victory in 1969.
Speedcar racing in Australia received a huge boost when the cigarette company, WD & HO Wills, inaugurated a true national championship for the 1964-65 season. It was promoted as the Craven Filter National Speedcar Championship, and every driver was eligible for points awarded for their result in feature races. The series ran for about four months before the driver with the most points was crowned the champion.
It wasn’t a perfect formula as some states had two tracks running on different days which gave the drivers in that state an unfair advantage. Rowley Park in Adelaide ran on Friday nights so Victorian and New South Wales would race there, drive through the night and race at their home track on Saturday and Sunday. Over the years the rules were amended to give every driver an equal chance.

The one exception was the State round run in each state which featured bonus points. However, this was done to encourage interstate drivers to travel and create a major race in each state. In accordance with the rules the Grand Final was held at the Sydney Showground.
The first series saw drivers travelling all over, but in the end, it was the very polished Peter Cunneen of Sydney, driving the Don Murray Holden, who was crowned the champion. Lew Marshall, who began his racing career in Brisbane but now lived in Sydney, led late in the competition but was pipped near the end. Brisbane star Blair Shepherd was third and it would not be the last time he would be in the top three.
In 1965-66 Johnny Stewart had to come from the back of the field in the Grand Final to win the title and that is just what he did. It was an amazing drive in his fuel-injected Holden that is still talked about today by people who witnessed it. Len Brock (NSW) finished second while Blair Shepherd was again third. At the end of the season Stewart sold his car and eventually purchased a former Tattersall Offy from Barry Valentinna.
Stewart wanted to repeat his win in 1966-67 but Shepherd was also determined to bring the title to Queensland for the first time. During the season they swapped the points lead many times but at the end of the series Stewart was again the champion with Shepherd a very close second and Bill Goode third. Once again Stewart changed his car buying another former Tattersall car. It was the Offy in which Des Kelly had lost his life in Brisbane.
Stewart was on a roll and made it three in a row with a win in the 1967-68 series finishing ahead of Howard Revell (NSW) and Barrie Watt. Watt had an amazing run of consistent performances not only at home but around the country to keep the flag flying for Queensland.
In 1968-69 Blair Shepherd, Bill Goode and Barrie Watt set out to contest the whole series and on a couple of occasions they filled the major places in the state rounds. Blair Shepherd achieved what he had been chasing, a national speedcar championship. Goode and Watt completed the top three for Queensland with Bob Morgan and Gary Sacre also in the top ten.
Blair Shepherd went about his racing in a very professional manner. He was very polished on the microphone and knew how to work the crowd and always had time for the fans. He had the best equipment available with his cars maintained by Billy Moore whose preparation was meticulous. His cars were known as the WRM Offenhausers. Shepherd enjoyed a big fan following which was also beneficial for his business, Performance Cars. Shepherd was good for speedway and speedway was good for Shepherd.
It had been amazing decade of racing with the only downside being the loss of Kevin Jefferson and Des Kelly. Their passing added impetus for the fitting of roll cages that were already in use in the USA.
With such a great era of racing during the 1960s, what would the 1970s
bring? Watch for the next chapter ‘The Spectacular 70s’.

Acknowledgement and thanks Barry Lane

The 1970s was a decade of change and technical advancement for speedcar racing. The first big change was the introduction of roll cages. Initially it was optional with Robin Hilder the first driver to fit the safety device in Brisbane. The other states were still ‘sitting on the fence’ and this would cause problems during the National Championship state rounds. Eventually common sense prevailed, and they were compulsory country wide in 1971. It was nearly too late for John Fenton. He had been using one while racing in the eastern states but when he returned home to Perth he was forced to remove it. That night he was in a bad accident and suffered serious injuries from which he recovered, but the outcome could have been far worse. The original cages were bolted on to the frame but as new chassis were developed, they became an integral part of it. Other safety features introduced during these years were full face helmets, five-point safety harness, multi layered driving suits and fuel tanks with bladders.
Up to this point most chassis were ‘home-made’ or put together by someone who had fabricating skills. This was unless you were fortunate enough to afford an American Kurtis-Kraft which were factory built. These frames were called tube frames as they utilised round tube instead of the ‘channel rail’ frames used initially. Renowned American chassis builder Don Edmunds developed a space frame design that is still in use today. A lot of Edmunds cars made their way to Australia and were used by many of the top drivers. The Gardner brothers, originally from Adelaide, set up a chassis building business on the Gold Coast and for many years their products raced on tracks all over the country. Other Australian manufacturers included John Sidney Racing, Infinity, Cox, MAC, FiG as well as others who did it as a part time business.
As the years rolled into the 70s, the power plants were also changing. One major development was the use of the VW engine. Some used a car engine with ‘hot bits’ added while others bought the purpose built American Autocraft or Scat. They were just over 2 litres in size, but their big advantage was weight as they were air-cooled and no radiator, water pump or hoses were needed. The horizontally opposed engine also provided a lower centre of gravity which made for better handling. The purists who wanted an inline engine could choose from a Chevy II or Sesco. They were both 4-cylinder with the Chevy used in road cars and marine applications. The Sesco was built by Ron Hoettels in Wisconsin and was a Chevy V8 cut in half length ways. Being Chevy, there were plenty of American racing bits available for both engines.
Up to the end of the 1960s the speedcars primarily raced at the Brisbane Exhibition but during this decade things began to change as more tracks opened. Ipswich had already opened and begun to offer the speedcars additional shows. This was even more so when Blair Shepherd joined Ron Johnson as promoters at Ipswich. He wanted the speedcars at Ipswich most Friday nights and this put him at odds with Bill Goode who was now the manager/promoter at the Ekka. Goode believed that the drivers could not sustain racing two nights in a row week in and week out, and as his shows were on Saturday night, he could end up with depleted fields.
Shepherd was determined and signed a contract with the QSRA for the 1971-72 season which meant the midgets would not be seen in Brisbane. It was, no doubt, a good monetary deal but in the long run the speedcars lost a big fan following in Brisbane. Shepherd sold the Ipswich promotion in October 1971 so the speedcars were back at the Ekka the following February. When negotiations with Goode were taking place for the 1972-73 season, he advised there would be no increase in prizemoney as the speedcars no longer had the crowd pulling power at his track that they once enjoyed. Other tracks that saw speedcar racing during this decade were Toowoomba Showground, Charlton, Surfers Paradise, Lismore, Yandina and Maryborough.
The 70s also saw a big influx of American drivers including the greatest driver of the era, A J Foyt. A four times Indy 500 winner he made it Brisbane in 1976 for his only visit and after attempting and breaking some lap records won the feature race. Bob Tattersall visited for the last time in 1970 and died in October 1971 at the age of 47, from cancer. Second generation drivers Merle Bettenhausen, Johnny Parsons and Rich Vogler were joined by Mel Kenyon, Hank Butcher, Bob Wente, Larry Rice, Ron ‘Sleepy’ Tripp amongst others. Wente, Tripp, Rice, Vogler and Kenyon were all USAC National Midget Champions.
The Craven Filter National Championship would continue until the 1972-73 season. In 1969-70 it was again dominated by Queenslanders with Bob Morgan finishing ahead of his car owner Blair Shepherd with Ron Wanless third. However, after finishing that season Morgan and Shepherd weren’t seen in action all that often. Shepherd became involved with Ipswich and as he was at odds with the Ekka promotion, he only appeared occasionally. If Shepherd wasn’t racing neither was Morgan. Shepherd then suffered a broken leg while racing during March 1971 and was out of action for months.
Neither would contest the National Championship in 1970-71 which was won by Ron Mackay (NSW) who repeated the following season at the Claremont Speedway in Perth. George Tatnell (NSW) won the first of his three titles in 1973 at the Rowley Park track in Adelaide and then scored his second at Redline near Ballarat in 1974. John Fenton (WA) had been knocking ‘on the door’ of a championship for a couple of years and broke through at Rowley in December 1974 and then he too doubled up to win on the pavement at Liverpool in 1976. He was the first driver to win the title on both dirt and pavement. The 1976-77 championship was held over four rounds at the Exhibition, Sydney Showground, Liverpool and Canberra with the last two tracks, paved. It was a real challenge for the teams. When the points were totalled, George Tatnell had his third title.
The 1978 championship was quite controversial. There was a restart late in the race and Ron Wanless swept past George Tatnell to win his maiden title. Tatnell alleged that Wanless had a ‘favourable’ restart that gave him an advantage which turned into a win. The protest and appeal were dismissed. It was back to Perth for the last championship of the decade with Wanless to defend his title. He wasn’t favoured to win as it was believed the locals would shine on the big, wide Claremont track. Never one to doubt his own ability Wanless won convincingly. Ace mechanic Billy Moore now had four Australian Titles as he had prepared the winning Wanless car for both his titles as well as the Shepherd and Morgan cars years earlier.
Ron Wanless won all his four Queensland Championships during the 1970s with saloon car convert Eric Mitchell winning two and proving he was a force in speedcar racing. Danny Davidson, Barrie Watt and Ron Mackay (NSW) all had single wins, Davidson in 1972, Watt in 1978 and Mackay 1979. Davidson was now driving an Offy for Neville Brennan and was a real talent while Watt’s victory came 17 years after his last title win in 1961 which was quite extraordinary, and it wouldn’t be his last. In 1979, the late Ron Mackay won the last Queensland Championship held at the Exhibition.

The 1970 100-lapper was conducted on a different format with twin 50-lappers and a 10-minute work break in between. The cars would start the second 50-lapper the way they finished the first one. It was no problem for Bob Morgan who led all 100 laps to finish ahead of his car owner, Blair Shepherd, and Barry Pinchbeck (NSW). There were no 100-lap races between 1971 and 1974 as it was believed that the tyres now being used would not last the distance. However, after trials with tyres that were retreaded, the race was re-introduced in 1975 as a non-stop event. It was won by Brian Dillon driving the Edmunds/Sesco he bought from visiting American, Dave Strickland. Veteran Barrie Watt beat a star-studded field to win in 1976 and then John Fenton won the enduro in May 1977.
A new event was introduced in April 1971 with a Queensland versus New South Wales competition run over 18 x 3 lap heats. The first encounter produced great racing with a 53 all draw. However, the re-match six weeks later saw a resounding win to NSW 61 – 45 when Shepherd, Wanless and Gary Sacre were unavailable. Sacre would pass away suddenly in January 1972 due to a severe asthma attack. Blair Shepherd had suffered his broken leg in March 1971 and came back to racing the following February to qualify for the World Championship event. The Time Trials were held the Wednesday before the race and after running his lap Shepherd announced his retirement from racing. The race was won by Ron Wanless ahead of Dave Strickland (USA) and Gus McClure.
The 1970s unearthed many new drivers who became very competitive. Former junior speedcar drivers John Boyce, David Jones, Alf Stanaway, Peter Gillespie, Robin Hilder and brothers Ron and John McFarlane all did seat time in the bigger cars. Boyce imported a very nice Edmunds/Sesco from the USA while Jones ended up with Shepherd’s Edmunds/Offy when Gus McClure sold it. Bill Goode’s Offy went through the hands of McClure and another car dealer Henry Cropper before ending up with new driver, Barry Wixted in 1976.
Before Ian Boettcher was known as a Super Sedans team owner, he owned a speedcar. It was driven by Bob Holmes and when a Volvo motor was fitted, the car was very competitive winning a couple of feature races. Unfortunately, Holmes would be killed in a violent accident at the Exhibition in May 1975. New Zealand born Stan Burrow had started racing in the late 60s but when he built a VW powered car in the mid-70s he began to win feature races. Road racer Gordon Clough purchased the Ron Wanless Offy and raced it for a couple of seasons before building a new Gardner car. Initially it was Offy powered and then updated to a VW. The old Offy was then taken over by Gordon’s brother, Peter, a gifted signwriter.
Danny Davidson was a very determined driver and in 1974 he contested a couple of major events at the Sydney Showground. The 1/3-mile showground track was very narrow, fast, and dangerous. On February 16 he won the prestigious Australian Speedcar Grand Prix and then the following week the World Derby. It was quite an achievement, and Davidson would have more success in the southern city in the future.
Jack Berry began speedcar racing in 1974 in a Chevy II machine before moving to a Gardner/VW a few years later. He is credited with winning the first speedcar feature at the new Charlton track in 1978. Another new driver in 1976 was Keith Hutton. His car was Datsun powered and initially owned by Peter Holland. Hutton showed right from the outset that he had a lot of natural ability. He would make steady progression before really making his mark in the 1980s. Ross Kiehne joined the speedcar ranks in 1977 after serving his apprenticeship in 250/260 speedcars. His first mount was Holden powered but by the end of the decade he was in a newer car with a Sesco engine. John Bell made a return to speedcars in 1978 after a stint in Super-Modifieds driving a former Foyt VW and was quite successful.
After his win in the Australian Title in 1979 Ron Wanless cut back on his dirt track racing to concentrate on building the new Archerfield track as well as promoting at the Sydney Showground. He also decided to have a go at road racing and Bathurst in a Falcon. Along with preparing cars, Billy Moore dabbled behind the wheel in a car owned by Bob Morgan. Initially it was Offy powered but as the decade began to turn, he changed to a Chevy II power plant.
The new Archerfield track would be ready for the 1979-80 season and a new chapter in Queensland speedcar racing was about to begin. Watch out for THE EVOLVING 80s.

Acknowledgement and thanks Barry Lane

The first season of the next decade began early as the new track at Archerfield opened on Sunday July 1, 1979. The 400-metre dirt oval was different to the egg-shaped Exhibition as it had two straights and two semi-circle corners and more banking, particularly on the straights. The first feature race being won by Stan Burrow (VW). The opening meeting was a sellout but over the next couple of meetings the crowds dwindled. With the track not being in the centre of town more traveling was required and with only one road in and out, traffic caused major delays exiting the complex.
The lights were soon operational, and meetings were changed to Friday nights with the Exhibition running the following night. Consequently, the speedcars were racing most Friday nights. The Americans ‘Sleepy’ Tripp, Larry Rice and Rich Vogler raced at Archerfield and then at the Exhibition the following week. Vogler won at Archerfield and then Arthur Sollitt claimed the World Derby at the Exhibition where the Yanks had problems. Ron Wanless had sold his championship winning car to Jim Holden who scored his first feature win at Charlton in April 1980. The last 100-lap race run at the Exhibition was held on April 19, 1980, won by Howard Revell (NSW) ahead of Danny Davidson and Jack Berry, all driving VW powered cars. The bulk of the meetings for the season were at Archerfield with three at the Exhibition and a couple away at Lismore and Charlton and only fourteen feature races were contested. The lowest total for years.
The following season, 1980-81, saw more new drivers including Paul Lindberg, Ray Michell and Bob Kelly. Lindberg was the son of 1940s racer Chas and was behind the wheel of a Holden powered car but not for long. After starting in his own car Michell was soon driving a Chevy II for Peter Draney. Kelly was a top ranking super-modified driver who gave speedcars ago behind the wheel of a VW owned by John Weatherall. This season most of the racing was back at the Exhibition with one meeting at Lismore and the Queensland Title at Charlton where Danny Davidson was the winner.
Jack Berry took out the 50-lap World Cup and joined Davidson as the winningest driver of the season with three main event wins each. A couple of drivers scored their first feature wins with Brian Farley, Billy Moore and Bob Kelly tasting victory. Farley came from junior speedcars and litres while Moore was racing more now that he had no other car to look after. Kelly scored his one and only win during the last night of the season and then gave speedcars away to concentrate on sprintcars.
If the last two seasons had been bad with the number of shows, things were about to get worse. The speedcars would only race at seven shows during the 1981-82 season. John Boyce opened it with a win at the Toowoomba Showground, and it would be the last time speedcars raced there before it closed. He then backed up the following week at Archerfield. There were no major events for the season except for the Queensland Championship which was held at Maryborough for the first time on June 13, 1982, and won again by Danny Davidson. At the end of the 1981-82 season, it was announced that speedway was finished at the Exhibition Grounds. There were various reasons offered including the grounds being needed for more horse events.
Car owner Neville Brennan purchased two Cosworth engines from rally and road racer Colin Bond and put one in his own car for Danny Dvaidson and sold the other to new driver, Russell Pointon. Davidson then proceeded to win the New South Wales Championship at Parramatta in December 1981. Parramatta was a clay track that was tricky and required different car set-up and driving skills. Archerfield would also become a clay track.
Things looked up for the 1982-83 season with the Australian Title at Archerfield and won by West Australian Geoff Pilgrim ahead of Ian Lewis (Vic) and Ron Mackay (NSW). Pilgrim enjoyed racing at Archerfield and had more wins ahead of him in Brisbane. A 100-lap race was run, the first at Archerfield and won by Jim Holden ahead of brothers Gordon and Peter Clough. PC was a gifted signwriter and was running one of the last competitive Offenhauser powered cars in Australia. Keith Hutton had forsaken his Datsun and purchased an Edmunds/VW, and this enabled him to win the Queensland Title at Maryborough late in the season.
American Ron ‘Sleepy’ Tripp was back at Archerfield in 1984 and won the Grand Prix ahead of Billy Moore and Maurice Cowling (NZ). Like most New Zealand drivers Cowling was talented and won a feature race at Archerfield before heading home. Geoff Pilgrim returned to Brisbane in February ‘84 and won the 50-lap World Derby ahead of John Pearson (USA) and Peter Clough. Pearson normally drove Late Models in Australia but was a guest driver in Russell Pointon’s Cosworth. Pilgrim would return later in the season to win the 100-lap enduro with the Clough brothers again in the minor places.
The Queensland Title was held in Rockhampton for the first time, and it was North Queensland driver Tom Casey who came away with the win. At the time speedcar racing in the north was very strong and Casey showed he could mix it with the best. Following him home were Keith Hutton and sprintcar driver Bruce Sutherland in Pointon’s car. Sutherland was a talented driver who only raced a speedcar the one night and came away with a championship podium. During the season racing was also seen at Lismore and Surfers Paradise which was a ¼ mile track inside the motor racing circuit.
Keith Hutton was a very good machinist and innovator. He had heard about the V4 Chev engine that was being used in the USA and went about building his own by cutting a Chev V8 in half. It would become a race winner.
Jim Holden had become a force in speedcar racing in recent years, both locally and interstate, and he had a burning ambition to win the Australian Championship. In January 1985 that’s exactly what he did winning at the Melbourne Speedbowl. Local Ray Bishop was second and Jack Porritt, who was now living in Brisbane, was third. No Queensland driver has won this title since Holden in 1985. Holden continued his good run with a Victorian Championship in February and a Queensland Title at Charlton over Easter. American Gene Gennetten won the 50-lap World Cup with Russell Pointon second and Holden third. The last 100-lap race to be run in Brisbane was on April 20, 1985 with the Clough brothers again in the mix. This time Gordon was the victor ahead of Jim Holden and his brother Peter Clough was third.
The 1985-86 season only saw racing at Archerfield with just over a dozen shows. Sprintcar racer, Gary White, purchased a former Keith Mann Murphy/Sesco and won a couple of feature races before returning to the winged wonders. During those years a driver had to have raced a set number of feature races during that season to be eligible for travel money for the Australian Title. The last meeting prior to the Title and eligibility was at Archerfield on November 30,1985 but rain struck early in the night, and the clay track was unusable. The answer was to run the feature race on the 285-metre infield bike track. The surface was dirt and the corners tight, but the drivers adapted well with Col McMahon the winner.

The Australian Title was run at Speedway Park in Adelaide the following January with local driver Phil March, using a twin-cam Nissan engine, the winner. Veteran Barrie Watt had fitted an Australian built Duggan engine to his Gardner frame the previous season and it finally produced the goods to convincingly win the local Grand Prix from Col McMahon and Jack Porritt. The following week he looked to be repeating the performance with a commanding lead in the World Cup only for a spark plug wire to dislodge. Paul Lindberg in Max Farrow’s ex Foyt VW won the race ahead of Jack Berry and Gordon Clough. The Queensland Title saw a popular win to Jack Porritt from McMahon and Ross Kiehne. During this night Eric Mitchell survived a sickening accident when his car went straight into the fence. Fortunately, he was uninjured, but the car was extensively damaged, and it would curtail his racing until the following season.
The new season saw racing at many tracks including Rockhampton, Carina Speedway outside Bundaberg and the Gladstone Showground. It also saw racing back at the Exhibition after it was revived for some major bike shows. The Exhibition was different to what the newer drivers had become accustomed to as it was very slick, for the bikes, and therefore very difficult to pass. Keith Hutton mastered the conditions to win the only Ekka feature this season. Danny Davidson won both the Carina shows and Paul Lindberg scored in Gladstone.
American ‘Sleepy’ Tripp was back in town in February ‘87 and cleaned up winning both the Grand Prix and the World Cup. The Eric Mitchell driven, Keith Pendle owned Gardner/VW had been completely rebuilt, and it was ironic that he would win the Queensland Championship, his third, at Archerfield in March. Regular Sydney visitor John Church was second in the state title with Ross Kiehne third. Both Kiehne and Paul Lindberg’s car owner Max Farrow were looking to improve their equipment for the following season. Both would end up with American Challenger chassis fitted with the latest Cosworth engines.
The speedcars could not reach an agreement with the Archerfield promotion for the 1987-88 season and consequently there would be no racing there for the time being. The Exhibition was only running a handful of big shows but gave the speedcars some opportunities and backed it up with some interesting guest drivers. Initially it was road race motorcycle ace now sedan racer Gregg Hansford in the Holden Edmunds/VW and then John Andretti, nephew of Mario Andretti, who did a couple of shows in Max Farrow’s VW. Two of the three feature races at the Ekka were taken out by Fred Kiehne, youngest of the Kiehne brothers, including the World Derby.
After some bad accidents on the clay tracks in Sydney and Adelaide there had been a push by those states to have wings fitted to speedcars. It was a controversial issue and would end up with those states using wings at their local shows for a couple of seasons. Eventually cars were altered to make them more user friendly on clay tracks. The Australian Title was held at Parramatta, without wings, and won by former motocross ace Stephen Gall (NSW) from Paul Lindberg and future Australian Champion Phil Herreen (SA). The Queensland Title was due to be held at Rockhampton, but rain intervened, and it would be run as the first meeting of the following season.
Despite the fact the Australian Title was going to be held in Rockhampton in 1989 the racing calendar for the season was dismal. Only nine shows including the two title nights at Rocky plus the Queensland title which was also there and two nights each at the Exhibition, Yandina and Archerfield. This season had two Queensland Championships with Rockhampton in August ’88 and Yandina in April 1989. It didn’t matter as both events were won by Ross Kiehne. He was driving a VW at Rockhampton but used his new Challenger/Cosworth at Yandina. The Rockhampton event had a strange ending when Kiehne got caught up with a lapped car and rolled. However, the time curfew had been reached so the race could not be restarted so Kiehne was declared the winner.
The Australian Title was run over Easter ’89 with around 70 nominations, it was huge. In the 40-lap final Paul Lindberg led the way for about 30 laps before Graham Jones (WA), driving a 4 coil Edmunds/Cosworth, took control and ran away with the win. Lindberg was second for the second year in a row while Ray ‘Noddy’ Bishop (Vic) was third. Max Farrow had already sold Lindberg’s car, as they were going sprintcar racing, and it was taken from the track by the new owner.
The decade had seen many changes with the introduction of clay tracks and its challenges, Cosworth engines, bigger tyres with new technology and as the decade began to change, high-bar chassis. Evolution would continue.
Look for the next instalment – THE 1990S, HORSEPOWER, HORSEPOWER, HORSEPOWER

Acknowledgement and thanks Barry Lane

Part 1
The late 1980s and early 1990s saw major advancements not only in chassis construction but also in engines as drivers searched for more power and speed. Obviously, this was led by the Americans where there was the biggest demand and therefore the bulk of the engine manufacturers. With the need for new engines the cost of racing increased. The engines were being revved a lot harder and consequently required regular changes of valve springs and valve train components. This increased maintenance costs.
Fontana, Gaerte and Pontiac led the way with the Fontana proving to be the most affordable. It was based on the Chevy II engine, but the block and head were cast in aluminium and therefore making it lighter. The Chev V8 had been highly developed for sprintcar racing and a lot of this technology was applied to midget engines. The Ford Esslinger engine was released early in the decade and based on the Ford SOHC engine. Once again it was of all aluminium construction and with an overhead cam the engine could rev harder.
Cosworth also came out with an updated DOHC engine that was being used in road racing and adapted for speedcar racing. If you wanted something different you could use a Scat V4. Scat built their own blocks, so you didn’t have to cut a V8 in half and as they already built crankshafts, they made the transition to a V 4 quite simple.
Local racing for the new decade was centred around Archerfield with away meetings at Maryborough, Lismore and the Vic Butler promoted tracks at the Exhibition and Yandina. Col McMahon won a couple of feature races in 1989-90 including the Queensland Championship at Maryborough. David Grose and Keith Hutton also had multiple wins, but McMahon would be the Club Champion for the season. Grose, McMahon and Michael Meyer were now all using Cosworth engines. The latter was originally from Sydney but now resided in Brisbane.
The following season Archerfield was not on the racing calendar, with the bulk of the local racing at the Exhibition and Yandina with some other shows at Charlton, Maryborough and Rockhampton. Jack Berry (4) and Danny Davidson (3) were the winningest drivers of the season with Berry using a flat 6 Porsche motor. Berry also captured the Club Championship while Davidson won his fourth Queensland Championship at Maryborough driving his son, Michael’s, VW. Gary Mulchay, son of QSRA stalwart John Mulcahy, had commenced his racing career in go karts and came into speedcars after building an Edmunds/Mitsubishi. It was becoming painfully obvious that car numbers were on the wane but one family trying to help the situation was the Stanaways. Father Alf had been joined by son Ken and daughter Julie in a three-car team.
The racing roster for 1991-92 season was very scarce compared to the previous season with just ten shows. Most were at country tracks and just one at Archerfield as the club tried to rebuild their relationship with the promoter. Former road racer, David Grose initially began in an older VW but over the last couple of seasons had improved his equipment and now had a new Gardner/Cosworth combination. He won five feature races during the season, all at different tracks. Carina at Bundaberg, Charlton, Archerfield, Gladstone and the Queensland Title at Maryborough. Eric Mitchell won a pair of mains, including a first up win in the Tony Eales owned Beast/Gaerte.
A new name was Barrie Valentino, son of 60s speedcar star, Barry Valentinna. His father used ‘Valentinna’ as his racing name. Barrie began in an older Gardner/Alfa but soon updated to a Beast/Pontiac that Ross Kiehne had brought into the country. Greg Clough and Warren Marquis were also second-generation drivers who joined in the action while Anthony Vanderreyden was in an older Edmunds chassis with a supercharged Fiat engine.
The new season began full of promise. Plans for a series organised by David Grose and sponsored by Brisbane FM radio station, Triple M, at Archerfield were in place with very good money on offer and it was hoped it would attract interstate drivers. However, there was a problem on the horizon. The Archerfield track was no longer providing an ambulance at their meetings believing the first aid people they had on site were sufficient. The QSRA overcame this by paying for a doctor to be at the track for their events.
Gary Mulcahy was the most successful driver of the season with wins at Lismore, Maryborough (2) and Archerfield (2) but Keith Hutton with three wins and many consistent performances was the Club Champion. Mulcahy had built a new Gardner car with a Cosworth engine. David Grose won the first round of the MMM series with Bob Woods of Sydney taking out rounds 2 & 3. The final round was set for May 8 but without Grose who had endured a major accident at Adelaide and retired.
The feature for the final round wasn’t run due to a very serious accident involving Super Sedan star, Grenville Anderson (NSW). His car had rolled and landed upside down against the fence in the pit/track entrance. The doctor that QSRA had engaged went into action and helped extricate the seriously injured driver and travelled with him in the ambulance. Unfortunately, he would never fully recover from his injuries. The popular Bob Woods was crowned winner of the MMM series.
For the first time the Queensland Championship was based on points and held over two rounds at Gladstone and Maryborough. Stan Burrow won the opening round, and Gary Mulcahy was first home at Maryborough but after totalling the points Stan Burrow was the new Queensland Champion. The momentum of the season dropped off badly towards the end and car numbers became a real concern. One bright light was a tearaway from Darwin, John Davidson. He did a couple of shows in south-east Queensland before moving to Brisbane to continue his racing career. Keith Hutton made the decision at the end of the season to move to Knoxville in the USA to work and live and hopefully participate in some racing at the Sprintcar Capital of the World. His Gardner/V4 had been sold to relatively new driver, Ken Stanway.
The season had been marred by tragedy with four drivers losing their lives. Rodney Day, Steven Thode and Joe Farrugia succumbed to injuries suffered at Parramatta while former solo star Tony Boyle lost his life at Speedway Park near Adelaide. This further enhanced the push for wings on speedcars.
The following season, 1993-94, only had ten meetings on the calendar with again no racing at Archerfield. Sean Burrows had been making steady progress over the last couple of seasons and really came to the fore this season with two wins and the Club Championship. Sydney’s Rod Bowen was a real hard charger with good equipment and when he ventured to Queensland he came away with wins at Maryborough and Charlton. The Queensland Championship at Charlton resulted in a surprise win for John Davidson, his first feature win. He had started deep in the field and worked his way forward catching early pacesetter Gary Mulcahy with 10 laps to go and took control with a couple of laps remaining. Car counts were still a problem with many complaining that prizemoney was insufficient, Promoters wouldn’t pay more money as the car counts were down. We were chasing our tail!
The Australian Title was scheduled for Easter 1995 at Charlton, so it hosted many shows leading up to that event as well as several meetings at the Exhibition and Yandina. To this point of the decade the Northern Territory’s Warrenne Ekins had won four Aussie titles with Phil Herreen winning the other at his home track in Adelaide. Now Ekins was looking for his fifth to match the great Ray Revell (NSW). There were over 60 cars entered from all over the country and the racing was action packed. Ekins found the front and looked headed for victory until Michael Figliomeni (WA) made his move coming out of the final turn and won right on the line.

Former Mini saloon car pilot John Lennon had built up a Beast/Fontana for the title but handed over the car to Gavin Leer (NSW) who drove the wheels off it to get fourth. Gary Mulcahy had also built a new car for his assault on the title using a Murphy frame with the latest spec Cosworth motor while Sean Burrows also had a new Cosworth motor.
The Queensland Championship was at Charlton in March and as practice for the Australian title it was run over 40 laps instead of the normal 30. Veteran Barrie Watt already held 5 titles but wanted another. He made the most of a handy starting position to lead many laps. He lost the lead to Ross Kiehne but quickly fought his way back to the front. Steven Graham (NSW) came on strong in the last couple of laps to capture the title ahead of Watt and Kiehne. Feature race wins were shared around with Ken Stanaway obtaining the most with three. After 40 years of racing, Barrie Watt capped off a good season with the Club Championship while John Lennon was awarded Rookie of the Year. Two Toowoomba drivers joined the ranks with Darryl Bonell and Peter Lack coming from the very competitive Toowoomba Sprint Sedan ranks.
Look out for Part 2 of
1990s - HORSEPOWER, HORSEPOWER, HORSEPOWER

Acknowledgement and thanks Barry Lane

Part 2
The 1995-96 season featured meetings at Charlton (3), the Exhibition (5) and Yandina (4) as well as single shows at Gunnedah (NSW), Maryborough and Gladstone. The Exhibition shows included appearances by noted American drivers Tony Stewart and Lealand McSpadden. Stewart had just completed an amazing season winning the championships in the USAC midget, sprintcar and Silver Crown divisions in the same year. The first person to do so. McSpadden came from Arizona and was a standout in non-winged sprintcars but had also won the indoor Chili Bowl Midget Nationals in 1991. Stewart was very impressive on the slick Exhibition track driving the Bob Woods Fontana but unfortunately, he was an innocent victim in an accident during the feature which sidelined him. McSpadden had been engaged by Bruce and Gavin Leer to drive one of their midgets and came away with a win at the Ekka.
Barrie Valentino won the feature at Gunnedah during the opening meeting of the season and then scored again before coming from behind to win the Queensland Championship. His consistency earned him the Club Championship. One special event on the calendar was the 50th anniversary race marking 50 years since speedcars really took off in Brisbane in 1946. Michael Davidson, driving Gary Mulcahy’s Gardner/Cosworth, dominated the race to win from Doug Cavell and Grant Draney. Draney had been making steady progress in cars he assembled and prepared himself. The two Toowoomba drivers did well in their maiden season with Darryl Bonell winning two feature races and Peter Lack collecting the Rookie of the Year trophy. The Australian Championship was held on the big, wide Claremont track in Perth with Michael Figliomeni again getting the better of Warrenne Ekins with Joe Little (WA) third. Long time official, administrator and car owner John Mulcahy passed away on May 28 after a hard-fought battle with cancer.
Archerfield was again the home track of the QSRA for 1996-97 with shows also at the Exhibition, Charlton, Yandina, Maryborough, Carina (Bundaberg) and Gladstone for a total of nineteen. Although Michael Meyer hadn’t raced for a few years, he had lost none of his ability and collected two feature wins during the season. John Davidson again showed great form winning three features including the Queensland Championship at Charlton. The Toowoomba duo of Bonell and Lack were again consistent with two wins each while Rod Bowen (NSW) also collected two, one apiece at Archerfield and Maryborough. Grant Draney only scored one win but with many minor places was crowned Club Champion. Barry Wixted had come back to racing the previous season after a hiatus of about 10 years teaming up with Neville Brennan and driving the team’s Cosworth. After becoming re-acclimatised he showed that he was still very competitive.
The Australian title was held in Newcastle after Adelaide backed out earlier in the season with Craig Brady (NSW) taking the win after early leader Graham Standring (NZ) succumbed to an electrical fault. The outspoken Kiwi created a real controversy with the car he was driving. It had an unusual rear suspension set-up and used a driveline with universal joints at each end. Many believed if this idea was allowed to progress it would quickly make the existing cars obsolete. When USAC banned the car in America the Australian Speedcar Control Council soon followed.
Leading up to the season there was a lot of updating by many teams. Second-season driver Chad Wheeler had fitted a Honda V6 engine which was now allowed under the new rules for production car-based engines. Ken Stanaway had built a new Gardner with a Scat V4 while Anthony Vanderreyden had imported a rare Gambler midget chassis and fitted his self-built Chev V4. Danny Palmer came from the Litre ranks and drove a new Gardner with a Wilson V4 for car owner Trevor Evans. The season also saw the first occasion that sprintcar champion Todd Wanless raced a speedcar. He drove Ross Kiehne’s Beast/V4 a couple of times and would make his mark in the smaller cars in the years ahead.
The 1997-98 season began with great expectations, but things didn’t work out as planned. The Exhibition had new promoters with the Robertson brothers taking over the reins with the idea of promoting ‘pure’ speedway. Also, a new series, Speedcar Super Series, was in the planning with rounds in the three eastern states. Gary Mulcahy won the first race of the Exhibition season but from that point things began to go pear shaped at the Brisbane venue. At their next show, the feature race wasn’t completed as the ambulance left with an injured kart driver and didn’t return until after curfew was reached. Regardless, the feature race was started but when there was an early stoppage, the race was cancelled.
The first Queensland round of the SSS was on January 17 at Yandina but was washed out after some preliminary races. The following week the speedcars would be back at the Ekka. In front of a poor crowd and on a very slick track due to extremely hot weather, Phil Holliday won his only feature race in speedcars. This would be the last speedcar feature held at this venue and over 60 years of history had now come to an end. John Lennon suffered a back injury at Archerfield in February, and his Stealth/Gaerte was soon for sale as he would be out of racing for a couple of years but not before Ken Stanaway won a feature in the rebuilt car.
The Australian Title was held at the Avalon track near Geelong in Victoria and ended with a not so surprising winner. Despite limited time in a speedcar Sydney sprintcar star Robbie Farr, driving the Bob Woods car, won the 40-lap affair from Troy Jenkins (NSW) and Mark Brown (Vic).
Adam Clarke (NSW) won the Archerfield round of the SSS and Rod Bowen (NSW) took out the Queensland Title at Charlton a month later. Darryl Bonell had bought the Lennon Stealth/Gaerte for the Qld Title and finished behind Bowen the first night in the car. Bonell finished the season on a high with four straight wins and joined Barrie Valentino as co-winners of the Club Championship. Rod Bowen went into the history books as the winner of the first Speedcar Super Series. Interesting side note is that our current QSRA President, David Palmer, received the Rookie of the Year trophy that season.
The 1998-99 season included a couple of drivers who would be race winners before the season was over. John Kelly had dabbled a couple of times in speedcars in recent years but this season he was the regular driver for New Zealand car owner, Danny Lendich, who now had a car based in Brisbane. Scott Jenkin lived in Sydney, but his father lived on the Gold Coast where his Pontiac powered car was based. The first six meetings of the season were dominated by Jenkin and Darryl Bonell. Jenkin won at Archerfield on October 3 and then Bonell won the next two before Jenkin repeated on October 31 and then Bonell won another two.
Bonell had a handle on the former Lennon Stealth/Gaerte and used it to win many races as well as contesting some of the interstate SSS rounds. Consequently, he was invited to race in New Zealand for their big international series over the Christmas/New Year period. Unfortunately, he was involved in a horrific accident that wrecked his car. He was temporarily knocked unconscious and taken to hospital to be checked over but was soon released. It took many months for him to get over the bouts of dizziness caused by the injury.

Archerfield was to hold two rounds of the Super Series, but the January 2 round was lost to rain. Troy Jenkins (NSW) was too good for the opposition on February 20 at Charlton while Steven Graham (NSW) took out the March 6 round at Archerfield after being sent ROF when he stopped because of a collision with a lapped car. Graham won three rounds in total and was crowned winner of the series. The Queensland Championship was again held at Charlton and John Kelly added a speedcar title to his four Queensland Sprintcar Titles leading home Craig Brady (NSW) and Grant Draney. Prior to this season Neville Brennan had put together a Beast car with a Volvo DOHC engine for Barry Wixted. They were rewarded with a feature win and many minor places that gave them the Club Championship at the presentation night.
The 1999 Australian Championship was held late in the season as it was at the Northline Speedway near Darwin as their season ran during the winter months. Due to the cost involved and the timing of the event there was a low car count for an event of this magnitude. The favourite was Steven Graham (NSW) with Neville Lance (WA), Dave Lambert (NSW) together with locals Warrenne Ekins and Bob Holt expected to supply plenty of competition.
There were a couple of incidents early in the race that sidelined Graham and Lance while Ekins had ongoing engine problems. Dave Lambert led the way and looked the likely winner until his engine broke a rocker with about 10 laps remaining, but he carried on regardless. Bob Holt had surged to second and was catching the leader every lap until he was on his tail with just over a lap to go. He went to the front only for Lambert to come back. However, Holt was on a mission and ran out a very popular winner. He announced his retirement in Victory Lane but still dabbled for a few more years. He had begun his racing career in Sydney 40 years earlier.
Look out for the next chapter – RACING INTO THE 21st CENTURY

Acknowledgement and thanks Barry Lane

Part 1
The next decade of Brisbane speedcar racing was full of challenges and at one point there weren’t enough cars showing up to put on a good show. Through the continued support of long-term drivers, some new faces and the return to action by a couple of retired drivers that the sport was kept alive. When this decade started to run out things had begun to turn around.
There had been moves to form a national speedway body and NASR (National Association of Speedway Racing) was the result. There was a lot of unknown factors about the responsibilities of the body and many of the competitor groups felt it gave too much power to the promoters or too much power to one group over another. It took a couple of years for things to settle down with the body licensing competitors, officials and pit crew members with insurance being part of the license. They also produced a ‘rulebook’ covering general items that were applicable to all divisions. Eventually they would offer training courses for officials to try and have some standardization. The body would be recognized by the government and other motorsport bodies.
The 1999-2000 season was based around Archerfield with some shows at Charlton and Yandina. Danny Palmer was now aboard a Stealth/V4 that owner Trevor Evans had built and they had a good start to the season with a couple of wins. John Kelly was still driving Danny Lendich’s car and he also enjoyed a couple of wins. Ron ‘Sleepy’ Tripp made a return visit to Brisbane in January and driving the Lendich car finished behind Palmer in the feature. Another driver who returned was Darryl Bonell who was recovered from his injuries and driving a car he built in Toowoomba and using his Gaerte engine. Peter Lack and Michael Harders had stints in Terry Holland’s Volvo while Michael Davidson had some drives in Gordon Clough’s Beast/Pontiac.
The Speedcar Super Series wasn’t run this season so NASR put together a short series culminating at Archerfield. John Kelly was racing against Brett Morris (NSW) in the final of the Pole Shuffle when the cars contacted and Kelly was sent on a wild ride of flips and end for enders. He received a serious neck injury that required surgery. He did recover but decided to hang up the helmet as he had something in the planning that would require his full attention.
The Queensland Title was slated for Yandina but it was washed out and not run. The Australian Title was run at a new track at Bacchus Marsh outside Melbourne, but the track was very rough and caused a lot of accidents. Michael Figliomeni (WA) overcame all the obstacles and won his third title ahead of Michael Kendall (NZ), Shayne Alach (NZ) and Neville Lance (WA). However, the balance of the prizemoney was not forthcoming, and this would set off a chain of events that would see speedcar racing split in Australia. Danny Palmer was crowned Club Champion for the season and then announced he was retiring as car owner Trevor Evans was selling his car because of health issues. There was no Rookie of the Year award for this season.
The big news for the next season was that John Kelly was the new promoter at Archerfield. He initially had two partners, but they eventually went their own ways. Kelly was keen to support the speedcars and programmed them nearly every fortnight. Before the season began Danny Davidson passed away at the young age of 58 due to cancer related issues. The season didn’t kick off until November and after a rainout Barry Wixted claimed the first win of the season. In the following meetings Grant Draney, Todd Wanless, Barrie Valentino and Mark Cooper also had wins. Draney was in a new Stealth/Fontana while Cooper was a New Zealander now living in Sydney. Vic Butler the successful promoter of the Exhibition and Yandina tracks, passed away on Australia Day at just 52 years of age. He had been a big supporter of speedcars.
The Australian Title was held at Speedway City with New South Wales drivers dominating. Adam Clarke, Darren Jenkins and Craig Brady finished 1,2,3 with Clarke scoring his first national championship victory. Brady took out the Queensland Championship from Dave Lambert (NSW) and Draney after Wanless withdrew while in contention. Fred Cooper, Mark’s father, had put together a plan to bring a team of Kiwis to Australia, with their cars, to race in a couple of Australia versus New Zealand contests. The Kiwi team was loaded with talent including Kevin Hyde, Matt Thompson, Shaun Insley and Cooper while Australia’s strong team included Adam Clarke, Craig Brady, Mark Brown and Brett Morris. The local team was too strong at Archerfield winning with 132 points to 95 with Clarke taking out the loaded feature. At Charlton the following night the Kiwis came out on top 128 to 106 with Mark Brown victorious in the feature.
Todd Wanless was Club Champion for the season with the Rookie of the Year award again not presented. The politics of the sport was hotting up with the formation of the Australian Speedcar Management Board now recognized by NASR instead of the long standing Australian Speedcar Control Council. Things would get worse before they improved.
The 2001-02 season was going to be a big season at Archerfield with 18 shows including the ASCC Australian Championship over the Australia Day weekend. This caused a furor as the ASMB had slated an Australian Championship in Adelaide, but John Kelly was determined his event would go ahead. Ross Kiehne and Todd Wanless put together a strong team in an endeavor to win the national championship and be the first since Jim Holden in 1985. Many drivers from around the country still supported the ASCC and had indicated their intention to support the event.
The first five shows saw five different winners with Stan Burrow, Grant Draney, Ken Stanaway, Todd Wanless and Barry Wixted the victors. Stanaway and John Lennon had put together a car with an Esslinger engine, the first in Brisbane. Many drivers were keen to contest the big event with Clayton Walker, Mark George, Michael Davidson, Andrew Barr, John Shipway joined by Compact racer Julie Vine in a supercharged Nissan machine. Gordon Clough also made a comeback to try and bolster the fields. An event held the week prior to the title was the Ray Revell Memorial, the first time it had been held in Brisbane. The race was won by Michael Figliomeni (WA) from Todd Wanless and Warrenne Ekins (NT) with Howard Revell leading the field in his father’s Offy.
Scott Jenkin had retired from racing but decided to contest the title as it was at Archerfield where he had enjoyed a lot of success. 33 cars from all states fronted for the Australian Title with plenty of drivers capable of winning. Jenkin’s title did not start well when there was a scrimmage at the start of a heat and unbeknown to him the right front shock had broken. When he turned the car into turn 3, the frame dug in, and he went end of end landing on top of the fence. He suffered a broken collarbone and other injuries which put him back into retirement. Figliomeni, Wanless, Ekins and Neville Lance being the best the first night.
Wanless and Figliomeni fought out the 3-round Pole Shuffle final that saw some great racing. Wanless won two which gave him pole for the 40-lap final with Figliomeni to his right. Wanless took command from the green and despite a couple of yellows was still in front as the race headed into the last quarter. However, Figliomeni had been staying close and mounted a challenge and drove away to win from Wanless, Ekins and Dene McAllan (WA). The Perth driver now had four titles to his credit. The ASMB title was run with Clarke collecting his second ahead of Brett Morris and Joe Little (WA).
night. Quick work by Brad Hilder and the team saw the car ready for the Wednesday night practice but bad luck struck again when the motor blew in a big way, and it l

Perth’s Scott Glazebrook had a very busy week in Brisbane. Driving Wayne Cover’s Chev V6 he had a big rollover during the Ray Revell night. Quick work by Brad Hilder and the team saw the car ready for the Wednesday night practice but bad luck struck again when the motor blew in a big way, and it looked like his title was over. Undaunted Cover jumped on the phone and organised for his spare motor to be flown to Brisbane. The motor was fitted in time for the second night, and he qualified through the repechage into the final where he finished. His crew had better luck winning the major money in the Calcutta.
Nathan Smee (NSW) won his first Queensland Title at Charlton with Mark Brown (NSW) and Wanless following him home. American Keith Rauch, driving the Ross Kiehne car that Wanless had been racing, took out the last feature of the season. The Club Championship went to Grant Draney with Andrew Barr the recipient of the Rookie of the Year award.
To try and settle the problems associated with two national associations and two national championships, a meeting was held with both parties involved. Consequently, Speedcars Australia was formed with their aim to improve the sport of speedcar racing in Australia. It was also agreed that both Australian Champions in 2002, Michael Figliomeni and Adam Clarke would be recognised as official champions.
After running a national title, everybody thought that the 2002-03 season would be better with anticipation that new drivers would join the division. Things couldn’t have been worse. Many feature races were run over 12-laps or less as there were insufficient cars to make up a good field. John Kelly told the QSRA that if numbers didn’t improve, he would be forced to drop the section from some meetings. There were still the regulars with Grant Draney, Ken Stanaway, Stan Burrow, Barrie Watt and Michael Harders contesting the bulk of the 12-meeting calendar. Stan Burrow had decided to move away from the VW type engines and updated his car to a Stealth/Fontana. Andrew Barr had also updated fitting a Pontiac/Ford motor to his car being a Pontiac block with a Ford head and won the first night. The following week Brad Hilder fronted for his first night in a speedcar, in Barr’s car, and repeated the win. The first and only time in Brisbane a first-night driver had won the feature.
The Australian Championship in Adelaide saw American Corey Kruseman run out the winner, the first time an American had won it since Jim Davies in 1963. Kruseman hailed from the west coast of the USA and had won the Chili Bowl in 2000 and would repeat in 2004. He was also a standout in non-winged sprintcar competition. Craig Brady and Adam Clarke would follow the American to the chequered.
The Queensland Title was held over two nights at Archerfield with Todd Wanless the winner ahead of Ken Stanaway and Warrenne Ekins (NT) who was now driving Ross Kiehne’s car. Compact racer Craig Smith had bought John Davidson’s Stealth/Fontana and progressed to the bigger cars and would be an asset to the section in the years ahead. Another Trans-Tasman contest was held at Charlton in March with Australia the winners 92 to the Kiwis 64.
Grant Draney was the dominant driver of the season with four wins, but Ken Stanaway secured the Club Championship. Compact turned speedcar driver Brad Sloan received the Rookie of the Year award. Sloan had been driving a Clark/DOHC Volvo that Neville Brennan had built and was maintaining. At the presentation night Stan Burrow announced he was retiring from racing but would retain his car for someone else to drive.
During August the Brisbane speedway fraternity was saddened to hear that Keith Hutton had been killed in a sprintcar accident at Oskaloosa in Iowa. He had been living at nearby Knoxville for about 10 years and after a funeral service at the Knoxville track was buried in the local cemetery.
The 2003-04 season looked promising with some additions to the ranks. Peter Green bought Ross Kiehne’s Ellis/Buick and put Brad Hilder in the driver’s seat while Chris Foreman had built a car using an upright 4-cylinder Porsche with Mark George given the driving duties. Bill Foreman, Chris Foreman’s uncle, also had a Porsche and fitted it to the former Vanderreyden Gambler. Stan Burrow didn’t take long to find a driver with multiple Australian Compact Champion Darren Vine to take the wheel of # 8. Barry Wixted was back in Neville Brennan’s Volvo while Warrenne Ekins (NT) would make some appearances in a Ross Kiehne car.
Ken Stanaway won four of the first five feature races with Mark Geoge taking out the other, the initial running of the Danny Davidson Memorial. Ekins, Todd Wanless, Grant Draney and Andrew Barr also had wins, but the Queensland Title again went to a southerner with Mark Brown (NSW) taking it out for the first time. The Australian Title was held in Adelaide with American Tony Elliott taking the coveted trophy ahead of Brett Morris (NSW) and Lance Beale (NZ). Elliott drove a Fontana powered car for Sydney owners Bruce and Gavin Leer. There was no Super Series this season but there was a possibility it would run again in the future while locally things were definitely on the improve. Ken Stanaway recovered from a wrecked car to win his second consecutive Club Championship while Rookie of the Year honours went to Darren Vine.
Keep an eye out for Part 2 Racing Into the 21st Century that will be posted in a couple of days.

Acknowledgement and thanks Barry Lane

Part 2
Many teams updated for the 2004-05 season while some drivers changed seats. Michael Harders was now aboard the Burrow Fontana while Darren Vine had taken over the family car with the Turbo Nissan powerplant. Ross Kiehne had imported a car from the USA with a Bullet chassis and one of the new Mopar engines developed by Gary Stanton and his driver would be Todd Wanless. Jeff Barton now owned the Brayton Ford Paul Gislingham raced last season with Clayton Walker in the seat while new driver Kelvin Hamilton had a Stealth/Fontana. Grant Draney upgraded to a former Steven Graham Stealth/Gaerte while his brother-in-law John Davidson also had the same combination. Darryl Bonell had retired to concentrate on a new business venture with his car going to Michael Davidson. Craig Smith had built a new car with a New Zealand Breka chassis, and a Steve Smith built Fontana with a crossflow head. Smith’s old car went to Toni Kruck who also came from the Compact ranks, and she would prove to be a very competent midget driver.
Another addition to the ranks was New Zealand standout Graham Standring who would drive a Danny Lendich owned Stealth/Esslinger. Standring won the opening night with Grant Draney the winner a fortnight later at Charlton. Standring won again back at Archerfield before Todd Wanless went on a rampage winning four out of five. Hamilton and Smith also scored wins while Barrie Watt won the last feature race of his ongoing long career.
Speedcar promotions man Charles Wheeler had put together a big event at Charlton, Speedcar Masters, with a very good field including current Australian Champion Steven Graham. It was also the first time that Michael Pickens (NZ) raced locally, and it was easy to see he had a big future ahead of him. Pickens led the way for many laps before contact with a lapped car put him out. Graham also had troubles, so it was left to Darren Jenkins (NSW) to collect the $1000 first prize from Grant Draney and Mark Cooper (NSW).
Todd Wanless finished the season with two wins including another Queensland Championship ahead of Draney and Clayton Walker. Steven Graham won the Australian Championship at the Perth Motorplex in February leading home Pickens, Dene McAllan and Adam Clarke. Graham used one of the new Steve Smith produced Hawk engines and this engine would be very successful for many years. Grant Draney won another Club Championship while it was no surprise the Rookie of the Year award went to Kelvin Hamilton.
The bulk of the 2005-06 season was at Archerfield with more away meetings at Charlton, Carina (Bundaberg), Maryborough and Yandina where they hosted their last ever speedcar show on 28.1.2006. The track would eventually be levelled and turned into a housing estate. Sean Burrows was now driving Stan Burrow’s car while Toni Kruck had a new Stealth/Mopar and Terry Holland had built a Stealth with an Isuzu V6 motor. John Harders kept adding to his stable with the former Davidson/Bonell Viper/Gaerte. He would use a couple of former Litre drivers Jeremy Hassell and Shaun Hannigan. The first night ended badly for Barry Wixted rolling heavily at Archerfield and badly damaging the Brennan Clark/Volvo. Barry decided it was time, after a career spanning more than 20 years, to hang up the helmet.
The Speedcar Super Series had been resurrected with Ken Jenkins the tournament director. Queensland’s only round was at Charlton and saw Kiwi sensation Michael Pickens win from Mark Brown and Steven Graham. Pickens also took out the series from his Seamount team-mate Adam Clarke and Brown. The Queensland Title was a two-night deal at Carina and after some hard-fought racing Jeremy Hassell was the new champion with Mark George and Ken Stanaway next. Hassell won three feature races for the season while George and Stanaway had two each.
Parramatta was the site of the Australian Championship with Americans Jerry Coons Jnr, Danny Stratton and Davey Ray in the field. Defending champion Steven Graham suffered problems the first night so he decided to qualify via the Repechage. Unfortunately, things went terribly wrong, and Graham had a massive accident, and it was obvious he had suffered some serious injuries. It took over an hour to get him out of the car. He did recover over a long period of time, but his racing career was over. Coons and Ray battled to the end of the race with Ray the winner by a slim margin ahead of Coons and Stratton. Ray was driving a car also powered by a Hawk engine. The argument about overseas drivers in this title continues to this day. Mark George was consistent throughout the season and joined Jack Berry as a Porsche driver who won the Club Championship. Rookie of the Year was awarded to Shaun Hannigan.
The new season started with a problem. The Australian Championship for 2007 had been given to Archerfield but when some problems about format and other issues arose the venue was changed to Charlton. Consequently, there was no racing at Archerfield for that season. After many years Lismore was added to the calendar, and they would host six shows during the season. Many of the local teams were keen to do well in the championship and had updated. Jack Berry had been sponsoring Ken Stanaway for a few seasons and the team decided to build a new car for their assault. The Polar Ice # 29 was a Stealth chassis with a brand new Esslinger in the engine bay. Kelvin Hamilton was back with two Stealth/Mopars while John Harders had a new Aggressor/Hawk for Jeremy Hassell. Barrie Valentino would drive for Jeff Barton in his Harris/Ford and Grant Draney had a new Keith Kunz Bullet chassis.
Prior to the first night of our season at Charlton on 18.11.2006 the speedcars had been racing at Kwinana in Perth. On October 28 Michael Figliomeni had been racing but suddenly felt unwell and took himself to the first-aid room for some help. He didn’t return as he collapsed and died suddenly. It was a real tragedy as he was only 43. The reason was his heart which was a surprise as he kept himself fit and had been a champion BMX rider before coming into speedway.
Kelvin Hamilton won the first show at Charlton and then Andrew Barr won at Lismore before Ken Stanaway won the next two at Lismore including the Danny Davidson Memorial. Barr would suffer some injuries in a bad accident at Lismore and after another nasty one at Grafton he decided to give racing away. He had a prawn trawler and a big family of children to support. As a lead up to the Australian Title Charlton hosted a round of the Super Series the week prior. Mark Brown had been chasing an Australian Title for some years and showed it was his time with a win in the SSS round ahead of Nathan Smee (NSW) and Dene McAllan (WA).
The field for the big event again included Americans Jerry Coons Jnr and Davey Ray. Coons was in a Stealth/Mopar owned by Mark Cooper while Ray had again teamed up with Steve Smith in a Hawk powered car. The racing was terrific with no one driver dominating. At the end of the first night Coons, Ray and Brown had won two of their three heats but the following night none of the three won another heat. In the Pole Shuffle Dene McAllan (WA) won six rounds before losing to Mark Brown 2 – 0 in the final.
There were a couple of minor accidents early in the 40-lap final but after those the race went 37 laps non-stop to the end. Brown held command for many laps with McAllan in tow and the Americans not far behind. When McAllan lost ground due to a brake issue, Coons went to second and then into the lead soon after. Coming into the last 10 laps Brown closed on Coons and took back the lead with a couple to go. However, Coons wasn’t done and charged back under Brown coming out of the last turn. They raced to the finish line side by side with Coons the victor by .089 of a second.

The Queensland Title was decided at Charlton with Mark Brown now a two-time winner of the event leading home Mark Cooper and Jason Gates, all from Sydney. Brown also won the Speedcar Super Series from WA drivers Neville Lance and Dene McAllan. Second generation driver Brock Dean joined the speedcar ranks after a couple of years in sprintcars by purchasing the John Harders Stealth/Gaerte. Dean received the Rookie of the Year award and Jeremy Hassell was the Club Champion for the season.
The QSRA negotiated with the Archerfield promoter for the 2007-08 and an agreement was reached to program some shows. Due to a non-official press statement about ‘speedcars would never be back at Archerfield’ they would now be known as ‘midgets’ at that venue something they had been called since 1934 in Australia. They were also new promoters at the Charlton track taking over the day to day running from the Downs Speedway Club who still owned the facility. Allan Woods, Dave Horrell and Doug Cavell were the new men behind the track and all of them had a lot of experience in the sport.
There were a few new drivers in Brendan Palmer, Neale Tobin and Rob Mackay. Palmer came to speedcars from Compacts and Litres after purchasing a Breka/Ed Pink Ford from the NZ Seamount team. Tobin was a former solo rider who had taken over the Harders Ellis/Volvo while Mackay, son of Ron Mackay, had a Gaerte powered car. Michael Harders had bought the Stealth/Shaver Fontana from his uncle John while Kelvin Hamilton’s second car would have Murray Robinson behind the wheel until it was handed over to Todd Wanless. Brad Sloan also had moved into his own Mopar powered machine after a season with Neville Brennan.
It wasn’t a big season, but it did include a couple of Super Series rounds at Charlton. Troy Jenkins (NSW) won on 17.11.2007 and then Nathan Smee took out the 40-lap final on January 26. Mark Brown would again be crowned series champion. The following night the Queensland Title was also run at Charlton with a stellar field of quality cars on hand. As the final progressed Mark Brown and Todd Wanless found their way to the front and were dicing for the lead. Unknown to them Ken Stanaway was catching them at a great rate of knots and in one move passed them both on the outside to win the championship. Two shows at Archerfield were won by Craig Smith including the Ray Revell 1000 that saw Ray’s grandson, Glenn, finish second.
The Perth Motorplex was the venue for the Australian Title with three Americans, Jerry Coons Jnr, Davey Ray and Anthony Peterman. Ray’s car was all New Zealand built with an Aggressor chassis and Synergy V8 engine. The Synergy was two Kawasaki motorcycle barrels and heads fitted to a common crankcase. This had been done many years before by Americans Ron Hoettels and Mel Kenyon only they used Suzuki components. The racing was very fast on the big, wide track and it was obvious if you had an accident, it would be big.
The final race saw some very big wrecks after a car dropped a lot of oil when its engine blew. Unfortunately, Kelvin Hamilton was involved in a bad accident and suffered a bad back injury that required hospitalisation for many weeks. Coons found the front but when there was a full red light for an accident, he and a couple of others changed rear tyres and restarted at the back. This wasn’t really a problem as there was plenty of room to pass and Coons soon recovered the lead. However, with a couple to go he blew one rear tyre and before he could get to the infield the other rear blew. In all the confusion Davey Ray became the new leader and went on to take his second Aussie title. Local drivers Scott Glazebrook and Rick Geneve were next home, Geneve being the late Michael Figliomeni’s cousin.
After many years a 50-lap race was back on the racing calendar at Archerfield. The quality field included Mark Brown (NSW), Dene McAllan (WA), Harley Bishop (Vic) and Jimi Quin (NZ) while Brock Dean was now in the former Brown Aggressor/Hawk. There was also a change with the Berry Stealth/Esslinger with Dene McAllan the new driver. Unfortunately, there were some stoppages including a heavy roll-over by Craig Smith who suffered a back injury that required an ambulance ride. The talented hairdresser made the decision that he would no longer race. Curfew had already been reached so the race was reduced by ten laps. There was another yellow a couple of laps later with the running order McAllan, Bishop and Dean. After the restart they were shown the white flag and even though Bishop tried hard he could not get passed McAllan who was the winner. The race had gone 37 laps. Jeremy Hassell defended his Club Championship with the Rookie of the Year presented to Neale Tobin.
The schedule for the last season of the decade was small but included four Speedcar Super Series rounds, Danny Davidson Memorial, Queensland Championship and the New South Wales Championship at Lismore. Stevie Walsh (NZ) was the new driver of the John Harders Aggressor/Hawk, John Lennon had imported a Spike/Esslinger to add to his Stealth/Ed Pink Ford and Dene McAllan, now driving full time for Jack Berry, had a new Spike/Hawk. Sedan convert Sid Whittaker would drive Doug Cavell’s Buick while his son Mitchell was in Col Davies’ Stealth/Esslinger. Another new driver was young go-karter Matt Greenwood in the family Gaerte.
SSS Round 1 at Archerfield on October 25 was the first show of the season and Mark Brown cleaned up and then repeated a month later at Charlton for round 2. A week later all the cars ventured north to Maryborough for round 3. The racing was intense and there were a couple of big roll overs. Mark Harrington (SA) suffered an injury that put him in hospital and finished his racing career. Troy Jenkins (NSW) led the way in the feature while everyone behind was jockeying for position. Both Mark Brown (NSW) and Harley Bishop (Vic) closed on the leader as the laps began to run out. Brown made his move on Jenkins as they sped down the back straight the last time only to see Bishop go around them both and score the win. The final was held at Lismore and after Stevie Walsh led early Brown came through to win the race and the series for the third consecutive year.
This season’s Australian Championship was held at Murray Bridge in South Australia. Four Americans crossed the Pacific to compete, Brad Kuhn, Jerry Coons Jnr, Kevin Swindell and defending champion Davey Ray. Swindell was the teenage son of Sammy Swindell, a champion in winged sprintcars, and would drive a Hawk powered car for Barry and Steven Graham. Ray would again drive the Mark De Rosa owned Synergy V8. Swindell took to the 360-metre track very quickly and looked very comfortable. Ray was the opposite with his car not finishing any of his heats. Neville Lance (WA) won three rounds in the Pole Shuffle before losing 2-1 to Swindell in the final. The final was all Swindell and even after numerous yellow flags he was able to pull away to win from Brad Kuhn and Lance.

The Danny Davidson Memorial was taken out by Dene McAllan who led home Brendan Palmer and Todd Wanless in the Brendan Fox (NSW) Spike/Esslinger. Maryborough was the venue for the Queensland Title and with Mark Brown and Matt Young from Sydney and Stevie Walsh from New Zealand, it was a good field for the two-night event. Walsh top scored with four heat wins while Brown had three. Michael Harders won his heat on the second night and then won four rounds of the Pole Shuffle before losing to Mark Brown who then took out the final. Walsh won the jump at the start of the feature and led Brown for many laps until the latter made a move. They were dicing back and forth but when they went either side of a lapped car Walsh rode a wheel and upended the car in a big way. On the restart it was Brown ahead of Mark George, Michael Harders and Brock Dean who had battled his way through traffic. After another restart Brown pulled in with a problem which left George leading Harders and Dean. Dean claimed second with a couple of laps left but couldn’t find a way around George. The very popular Mark George, driving the Chris Foreman owned Breka/Porsche, was the new champion.
The last show of the season was the 50-lapper and included many interstate drivers and a couple of Kiwis. The race started with Dene McAllan in front before he lost the point to Troy Jenkins (NSW) a couple of laps in and he then held that spot for about 15 laps. Stevie Walsh then took over for a couple before Mark Brown was the new leader just before half-way. Doug Cavell took a nasty tumble a couple of laps later and the red lights appeared. He was in a lot of discomfort, and it took quite some time to get him out of the car and into the ambulance. The time was now 10pm, the race was half over and there was the sprintcar feature still to run. Promoter John Kelly made the call to push all the midgets into the infield while the sprintcars ran their A Main.
With 12 minutes to curfew the midgets were restarted with the top five, Brown, Jenkins, Walsh, and then fellow New Zealanders Shaun Insley and Brad Mosen. Brown was firm at the front while Insley moved ahead of both Walsh and Jenkins to finish second with Jenkins holding on for third. Stevie Walsh capped a good season with John Harders to win the Club Championship with Matt Greenwood receiving the Rookie of the Year honours.
The next chapter covers an amazing time in Brisbane speedcar racing with the introduction of the Polar Ice Midget Series and the World Midget Championship, two factors that helped to grow both competitor numbers and the fan base. Look for MEGA MIDGET RACING

Acknowledgement and thanks Barry Lane

Part 1
The new decade begun full of promise and it turned out to be the best local competition for decades, but it all began without one driver who had been part of the scene for over 50 years, Barrie Watt. He had decided during the off season that it was time to hang up the helmet.
However, there were some newcomers who would make their own mark in racing. Anthony Chaffey, Troy Ware, Sid Whittaker and Adam Wallis all came from other sections but easily adapted to the open wheel midgets. Brad Sloan had updated to a new Breka frame with his Mopar motor while Wallis would drive for John Harders and Compact champion Steve Swingler was in Stan Burrow’s Breka/Gaerte.
2009/10 wasn’t a big racing calendar with five shows locally at Archerfield and then away meetings at Maryborough (2), Lismore, Charlton and Rockhampton. The 9-round Super Series was programmed at Archerfield and two consecutive nights at Maryborough as well as over the border at Lismore. Nathan Smee (NSW) won at Archerfield and Lismore while Harley Bishop (Vic) won on New Years Day at Maryborough for the second consecutive year and Mark Brown (NSW) won the next night. Brown, driving for Michael Rinkin, took out the series from Smee and Grant Draney.
Smee enjoyed racing at Archerfield and took out the Ray Revell Memorial in October and then the 50-lapper in May ahead of Michael Pickens (NZ) and Brock Dean. Smee had turned into a very smart racer and when the Australian Title was held at Avalon on a very hard, dry track he held back initially to save his tyres and went on to collect the win from Queenslanders Brendan Palmer and Sid Whittaker. The only other car to finish was Keith Giles (WA) who challenged for the lead in the last lap only to slide wide and drop back to fourth. Many drivers suffered blown tyres including defending champion, Kevin Swindell (USA). Three-times World Formula 1 Champion and former midget racer, Sir Jack Brabham, presented the trophies.
Maryborough hosted the Queensland Title in October, and it went to a West Australian driver for the first time with Dene McAllan, driving for Jack Berry, winning from Brock Dean and Anthony Chaffey which was a great result for a rookie driver. When the cars travelled to Rockhampton Brett Foreman was behind the wheel of the Harders car as Adam Wallis was unavailable. Foreman held his line and no one could pass him and he went on to collect his only feature race win. Grant Draney was successful in the Danny Davidson Memorial and Anthony Chaffey went to Wangaratta for the Victorian Title and came away with the win. It had been an amazing rookie season, and it was no surprise he received the ‘Rookie of the Year’ award at the presentation night. Brock Dean capped a solid season with the Club Championship. Brendan Palmer also raced successfully interstate winning the South Australia Title at Bordertown in March.
The Polar Ice Midget Series (PIMS) began the following season and was the result of a collaboration between sponsor Jack Berry (Polar Ice), promoter John Kelly and the QSRA. The Archerfield based series offered good money plus additional money for the point fund. It enticed new drivers into the section including Lucas Jackson and Trent Usher from Compacts, fourth generation racer Ben Hilder from Litres/Sprintcars and new drivers Rodney Harders and Nick Kulig. Brett Thomas had dabbled in sprintcars but liked the smaller cars and had a couple of outings during the season. Anthony Chaffey had sold his car to Jeremy Hassell and would drive for Terry Holland while Jack Berry needed new drivers for his cars as he had parted with Dene McAllan. During the season he would use Michael Pickens and Brad Mosen from New Zealand and local Brendan Palmer. Meanwhile long-time car owner and crew chief Neville Brennan, who had long associations with Ron Wanless and Danny Davidson, passed away in October.
Todd Wanless dominated the PIMS winning every round except for November 27 when Michael Kendall (NZ) was the winner. Wanless was racing interstate that night. He won nine consecutive feature races that he contested at Archerfield and won the inaugural PIMS from Brock Dean and John Davidson. He also became the first Queensland driver to win a round of the SSS taking out the Archerfield round while Mark Brown (NSW) was the victor at Maryborough and Michael Pickens (NZ) at Charlton. Pickens took out the series for Jack Berry from Troy Jenkins and Mark Brown of New South Wales.
The Australian Title was held at Lismore during February with a cast of the fast. Despite the best efforts of promoter Dave Lander, the track was dry and hard for the final after problems with the grader. When some of the early leaders succumbed to tyre issues it was Michael Pickens who led the way as they took the white flag. Driving into turn 1 for the last time he blew a tyre and slowed. Davey Ray (USA) and Adam Wallis (Vic) went either side of the Kiwi and headed to the chequered flag with Ray claiming his third Aussie Title. Wallis was second and Pickens held on for third. Pickens was devastated as he had been chasing this title for some years. His time would come.
Maryborough again hosted the Queensland Title, and it was fraught with numerous spins and accidents. The race was declared at lap 28 with Sid Whittaker the winner from perennial bridesmaid Brock Dean and Matt Smith (NSW). After two washouts the 50-lapper was abandoned for the season with John Kelly offering an additional blue-ribbon event for the next season. Brock Dean again picked up the Club Championship with Rodney Harders the ‘Rookie of the Year’. A short Sunday afternoon Archerfield winter series was held but not supported by competitors and only two feature races were run with Matt Greenwood and Darren Vine the victors.
The 2011-12 season would be the biggest for some seasons with fourteen shows locally and away meetings at Kingaroy and Charlton. There were some new and old faces back in the field with Scott Doyle (Litres), Michael Kendall (NZ) and Brett Thomas to now race on a regular basis while Darryl Bonell was making a comeback in a brand new XXX/Chev. Brendan Palmer would drive for Jack Berry while Michael Pickens would also drive for JBR. During the off-season Brian Dillon passed away from cancer related problems, but his son Darren would carry on in speedcars after a stellar career in Compacts.
The season kicked off at Archerfield on October 1, and Todd Wanless carried on from the previous season winning Round 1 of PIMS. Grant Draney won the next round before Brendan Palmer won three on the trot and then Pickens picked up another for Jack Berry. Michael Kendall won round 7 followed by Jeremy Hassell and then Nathan Smee (NSW) in round 10 after round 9 was washed out. Brendan Palmer won the series from Brock Dean and the consistent Grant Draney.
Four Super Series rounds were slated for Queensland with Matt Smith (NSW) winning at Maryborough and Kingaroy and Mark Brown at Archerfield while the Charlton round was lost to rain. Brown also won at Parramatta which gave him the overall series from Smith and Nathan Smee.
A two-race 20/20 was held at Archerfield in November to make up for the 50-lapper lost the previous season with Nathan Smee winning the first 20-lapper and Michael Harders the reverse grid race, however it was Jeremy Hassell who won on points over both races. The Queensland Title was also at Kingaroy with Mark Brown winning it for the third time. The Australian Title was to be held at Maryborough, but persistent heavy rain turned the track into a quagmire, and the event had to be abandoned.

Even though Nathan Smee hailed from Sydney he was a regular at Archerfield and picked up his second Queensland 50-lapper on May 19 to add to his three Sydney 50-lappers. The last event of the season, June 16, was the Danny Davidson Memorial and it was Michel Kendall who closed out the season on a winning note ahead of Todd Wanless and Brendan Palmer. Palmer was Club Champion for the season while Scott Doyle picked up the ‘Rookie of the Year’ honours.
Jack Berry would have a two-car team for part of the 2012-13 season with American Alex Bright joining Brendan Palmer for some of the major events. Another American Andrew Felker would race in selected events for Colin Bell of Moree, while Darryl Bonell had a new Breka frame built with a higher cage to suit him. Ash Jarvis and Matt Hefford were new drivers while father/son combination Ray and Tony Michell would share the family-owned ex Kulig car. Brock Dean was now driving for Rodney Singleton and Anthony Chaffey had a new Razor/Ed Pink Ford.
During October both Blair Shepherd and Bill Goode were inducted into the Australian Speedway Hall of Fame. Shepherd for his accomplishments in speedcar racing and Goode for his promoting as well as his speedcar career.
There only two Queensland rounds of the four round SSS with Anthony Chaffey leading home Michael Kendall and Nathan Smee at Archerfield and up the mountain American Alex Bright made a last lap pass to win at Charlton. Smee won the series over Troy Jenkins (NSW) and Anthony Chaffey. When Bright went home Palmer also departed the Berry team and ran selected races in the Bell Breka/Mopar.
Michael Kendall dominated the Polar Ice Series winning six of the nine rounds with single wins to Grant Draney, Matt Greenwood and Brett Thomas. The Kiwi won the series from the in-form Anthony Chaffey and the consistent Mark George. Kendall also went back-to-back with Danny Davidson Memorial wins this time at Charlton from Anthony Chaffey and Adam Wallis.
The Australian Speedcar Championship was held at the Perth Motorplex, and it was veteran Neville Lance (WA) who finally secured a win after nearly winning a couple of times in the previous 20 years. While this event was going on the Australian Midget Championship was being run at Archerfield with some Americans including Davey Ray and Dave Darland. The two-night event was impacted by rain but when the chequered flag fell on the final it was Nathan Smee over Davey Ray and Michael Kendall.
The Queensland Title was held at Archerfield late in the season, May 4, and it capped off an amazing feat for Adam Clarke (NSW) who won every state championship in the one season driving for Keith McAllan of Perth. Clarke also carried off the 50-lapper from Michael Kendall and Dayne Kingshott (WA). The following week Brendan Palmer travelled to Wangaratta and won the Victorian Championship to add to his previously won South Australian Title. Michael Kendall won the QSRA club championship and Matt Hefford was ‘Rookie of the Year’.
Everybody was looking forward to the 2013-14 season as it was going to include a fantastic event, the World Midget Championship, with rounds at Archerfield and Lismore. It was sanctioned by the American based POWRi organisation with the last rounds in the USA to decide the overall winner. It would bring together the best from America, New Zealand and Australia.
Domestically there were a host on new drivers including Lance Towns (V8 Dirt Modifieds), Brad Young (Sedans), Nic McDowell and a teenage go-karter Rusty Whittaker, son of Sid. Reid Mackay became the fourth generation of the Mackay family to race speedcars while Ken Stanaway was on the comeback trail driving Rod Singleton’s Razor/Esslinger.
Michael Kendall again dominated the PIMS this time winning five rounds which included the Danny Davidson Memorial for the third straight year and the Queensland Title. Matt Smith (NSW) in Jason Gray’s Spike/Hawk won Round 2 and broke the 20-lap record and then doubled up to win Round 3. Anthony Chaffey took out Round 5, Brett Thomas Round 7 and Nathan Smee Round 8 which was also the 50-lapper. It was his third win in this event. Kendall was crowned PIMS series winner ahead of Brett Thomas and Michael Harders.
The Speedcar Super Series kicked off at Charlton on November 2, but the track looked very different. Two-metres of material had been taken out of the middle of the track turning it into a very high-banked venue. It also had a new name, Toowoomba Speedbowl, and new promoter, Allan Woods. Todd Wanless won the initial round from Tony Abson (NSW) and Anthony Chaffey before Nathan Smee won both Archerfield rounds. Brett Thomas came into contention at Maryborough winning from Michael Harders and Adam Wallis. The Lismore round was rained out on the original date and finally run in March with Brendan Palmer finishing ahead of Anthony Chaffey and Matt Smith. Brett Thomas became the first Queenslander to win the SSS.
The Archerfield rounds of the World Midget Championship included Americans Christopher Bell, Bryan Clauson, Darren Hagen and Jerry Coons Jnr, who had all been USAC National Midget Champions, as well as Andrew Felker and Alex Bright. New Zealand was represented by Brad Mosen, Hayden Williams, Michael Kendall, Shane O’Connor and a handful of others. Australia had the big names of Adam Clarke and Nathan Smee who were joined by a host of others from Brisbane and interstate. The results in Brisbane were the same for both nights with Bryan Clauson leading home fellow countrymen Christopher Bell and Darren Hagen. Clauson had won the Chili Bowl in Tulsa the week prior.
A week later it was Lismore’s turn to host this event, and again the racing didn’t disappoint. Brad Mosen (NZ) led home the American duo of Christopher Bell and Bryan Clauson on Prelim night and looked very fast. The second night Bell, driving for Colin Bell, took out the final from Mosen and Matt Smith. Everyone agreed it had been a fantastic event, and it would be back the following year. After the USA rounds Christopher Bell was declared the World Midget Champion.
The week after the Toowoomba Speedbowl promoted a ‘10 for 10’ race. $10,000 to win a 10-mile (42 lap) race. It also attracted a stellar field including Jerry Coons, driving for Barry and Steven Graham, who was joined by Michael Pickens, Andrew Felker and Brendan Palmer who were driving for Colin Bell. On the first night Pickens won his three heats putting him at the back for the Preliminary Feature. It only took a couple of laps for him to hit the front and drive away only to succumb to diff failure late in the race which left Coons to hold off Nathan Smee and Felker to get the win. After all the qualifying and Shoot-Outs on night two Coons and Pickens sat on the front row for the big race. This two really turned on until Pickens nearly stalled the car and lost ground he couldn’t recover. Coons picked up the $10,000 cheque ahead of Pickens and Smee.
It had been an amazing season with plenty more to follow in future years. The Club Championship went to Michael Kendall and the ‘Rookie of the Year’ went to Lance Towns.
This just leaves us with two more chapters to complete the 90 year journey of Brisbane speedcar racing. Look out for Part 2 of MEGA MIDGET RACING which will drop in about a week.

Acknowledgement and thanks Barry Lane

Part 2
Coming into the second half of the decade Queensland speedcar racing was on a high. Plenty of racing, good money, great car counts, PIMS, the SSS and the World Midget Championship. In 2014-15 Adam Clarke (NSW) became Jack Berry’s new driver while lots of drivers updated their equipment and new drivers included Corey Stothard, grandson of John Shipway. Brendan Palmer was back driving in a car supported by his father-in-law, Dan Occhipinti.
The PIMS kicked off in October with Michael Kendall, driving the Bell Breka/Mopar, winning the first two rounds before Darren Vine took out Round 3. Kendall repeated in Round 4, so Vine did likewise the following round. Brett Thomas secured Round 6 and then Troy Ware won Round 7, his first feature win. Kendall won the penultimate round, and the scene was set for a thrilling end to the series. On points it was possible for Kendall, Michael Harders or Troy Ware to win depending on how the last round panned out. Kendall left no doubt to claim the series again ahead of Harders and Ware.
The Super Series became the Adam Clarke and Nathan Smee show with one or the other winning all the rounds. Smee won at Gunnedah, Archerfield and Parramatta while Clarke won back at Archerfield and the Lismore round. Smee took out the series from Clarke and Troy Jenkins (NSW).
The World Midget Championship had four nights of racing. Two each at Archerfield and Lismore however the POWRi sanction had been dropped making it an Australian series only. Again, the Americans and Kiwis supported it with Bryan Clauson, Darren Hagen and Tyler Thomas for the land of Stars and Stripes and Michael Pickens and Brad Mosen headlining the Kiwi contingent. Clauson and Hagen were driving for NZ teams while Thomas had partnered with Brisbane driver, Scott Wilson. Mosen headed Clauson and Pickens in the Archerfield Preliminary feature but the following night it was Clauson over Pickens and Hayden Williams after Hagen dropped out with a tyre issue while in contention. In Lismore it was all Clauson winning both nights. In the Preliminary feature he finished ahead of Pickens and Hagen while in the final it was Hagen and Mosen. Again, the racing was sensational.
The Australian Title was held at Warrnambool in February with Brendan Palmer successful in the Preliminary feature on night one but the top point man after all the qualifying was Adam Clarke. Due to the lateness of the hour the Pole Shuffle was dropped and the race lined up according to points. Clarke collected his fourth national crown winning from Nathan Smee and Alex Bright (USA). It was the second podium in a row for the talented American from Pennsylvania.
Toowoomba hosted the Queensland Title in March and with the Australian Champion, Adam Clarke, in the field it was predicted by many he would win. However, a couple of the newer drivers Rusty Whittaker and Matt Greenwood had other ideas. After Brett Thomas led early both Whittaker and Greenwood surged forward into first and second and were never headed with Clarke making it to third. At just over 18 years of age Whittaker was the youngest driver to win the title and joined his father Sid as a champion. This had only been achieved once before with Ron and Todd Wanless. Greenwood picked up a win a month later at Toowoomba with victory in the Danny Davidson Memorial ahead of Michael Kendall and Brock Dean.
In the meantime, Anthony Chaffey had been racing interstate and won the South Australian Championship at Murray Bridge to add to a Victorian title he had won previously. There was strong field for the annual 50-lapper including a couple of West Australian youngsters Kaiden Manders and Nicholas Rowe. Manders was a second-generation racer while Rowe was the grandson of dual Australian champion, John Fenton. Brett Thomas led early before Matt Greenwood led for a time and then Nathan Smee took over and led until lap 20 when he withdrew with a broken diff. At this point Adam Clarke took over and led the remaining laps collecting plenty of lap money on the way.
Michael Kendall was Club Champion and Corey Stothard ‘Rookie of the Year’ receiving their awards at the presentation night where Alex Allan announced he was retiring as an official. He had been in the role for over 40 years. The future of the Archerfield track had been a ‘gray’ area for years with many believing that its time was nearly up. A group of businessmen including David Grose and Scott Wilson had found a site near Beenleigh where they planned to build a new track to replace Archerfield. Unfortunately, despite their best efforts it was never approved by the powers that be.
The 2015-16 season again saw more rookie drivers including Cal Whatmore and Craig Smith (Lismore). Grant Draney was back after sitting out the previous season and Perth charger Dayne Kingshott would do some shows in Bob Smith’s car. Ware started the PIMS with a win before Kendall won Round 2 and Adam Clarke the next. Rusty Whittaker doubled up with wins in Rounds 4 and 5 and then Kendall repeated. Matt Hefford was a surprise winner in Round 7 leading home Brendan Palmer and Kendall and then Palmer won round 8. Kendall closed the series with another two wins. Many drivers picked up podium places including Chris Singleton, Darren Vine, Grant Draney, Mark George and Lance Towns.
The 5-round Super Series was again the Nathan Smee and Adam Clarke show with Smee winning three rounds, Toowoomba, Archerfield and Avalon and Clarke two. Smee won the series again from Michael Stewart (ACT) and Anthony Chaffey. Toowoomba had a new promoter with Barry Waldron taking over the lease to join his Parramatta and eventually Murray Bridge tracks.
The Queensland Title was awarded to the Carina Speedway outside Bundaberg on a track that went very hard. There were two visitors, Matt Smith in Jason Gray’s CP3/Hawk and Paul Murphy in Mark Harrington’s XXX/Esslinger from Adelaide. Troy Ware led the 30-lapper up until about the half-way mark when he blew a tyre. Draney was the new leader with Michael Harders, Paul Murphy and Scott Wilson in behind. Draney took the white flag only to blow a tyre, and he was lucky to keep the car off the fence. It was a cruel blow to a driver who had been so close over many years. Harders now led and didn’t falter winning the crown for 2016 from Wilson and Murphy. A new series had been put in place, the 5-Crown which was for points accrued from each state championship. Michael Harders travelled the nation and contested each event and was crowned 5-Crown Champion.
Brett Thomas had suffered an injury while competing in a stadium truck event but recovered in time to travel to New Zealand for their big midget events. Unfortunately, he suffered a major injury there that forced him to retire from racing. He had become very popular during his years in the sport.
Anthony Chaffey had been racing interstate driving a car for Melbourne owner, Lindsay Brown. They competed in the Australian Grand Prix at Nowra in January and Chaffey became the second Queenslander, after the late Danny Davidson, to win this historic event.
The World Midget Championship was impacted by rain with both Archerfield and Lismore losing their preliminary nights to precipitation. The American squad was different with Brady Bacon, Zach Daum and Andrew Felker while Michael Pickens, Brad Mosen, Hayden Williams and Leon Burgess headed the Kiwi group. Michael Pickens won in Brisbane with Andrew Felker and Nathan Smee next. Bacon was too good at Lismore picking up the winner’s cheque ahead of Pickens and Daum.

Parramatta City Raceway was the venue for the Australian Championship which included a big American contingent consisting of Bacon, Bright, Felker, Daum, Thomas and Austin Prock. Michael Pickens won the Preliminary night feature, but Adam Clarke was favoured to win his fifth title. Bacon led the way in the 40-lap final, but Clarke was on the charge and took control on lap 22. Felker, Pickens and Bright were also moving forward. A restart on lap 34 closed-up the field with Felker bouncing his car off a high cushion and using it to power into the lead. However, there were five cars battling for the lead as the laps quickly decreased. Pickens also picked off Clarke and as they went under the white flag, he grabbed the lead from the American and went on to win his first Australian Championship. Felker was second and Alex Bright passed Clarke in the last lap for third. It had been an incredible race.
It was a family affair at Toowoomba on March 25 when Rodney Harders won the feature ahead of his cousin, Michael Harders, and Brock Dean. The Danny Davidson Memorial was contested at Toowoomba a month later with Troy Ware first home from Michael Kendall and Darren Vine.
The season concluded on May 28 with the running of the 50-lapper. Thirty cars were on hand including Kiwis Hayden Williams and Leon Burgess. Williams was in one of Colin Bell’s cars while Burgess was using one from the Brett Thomas stable. Aidan Corish (NSW) charged into the lead on the green while Clarke picked up some spots as Williams was advancing from the ninth row. Clarke took over the front on lap 12 but soon had Williams and Burgess on his tail. A couple of yellows kept the field bunched which gave Williams the opportunity to challenge for the lead on lap 35. He carried on for the win over Leon Burgess and Brock Dean.
The season was celebrated at the Acacia Ridge Hotel with Michael Kendall the Club Champion and Cal Whatmore ‘Rookie of the Year’. Kendall also won the PIMS for the fourth time finishing ahead of Darren Vine and Lance Towns who were tied on second. However, Kendall wasn’t present as he had advised car owner Dwayne Neilson he was now retired. Within a couple of months, the sport lost a couple of stalwarts with Stan Burrow passing on June 25 and Jim Holden July 14. They were both 73. A tragedy also occurred in American during August when the very experienced and popular Bryan Clauson was killed while racing at the Belleville Midget Nationals in Kansas.
The following season, 2016-17, saw an influx of rookie drivers including Kristy Bonsey (Sprintcars), Tony Eikenloff, Brad Harrison, Glenn Wright (Wingless), Nathan Mathers (Compacts), Charlie Brown (Junior sedans/F500s) and Scott Farmer (F500s). Farmer, originally from New Zealand, had purchased Brett Thomas’ Spike/Esslinger. Dwayne Neilson had another Kiwi driver in his car with Chris Gwilliam commuting from the Shakey Isles for each show.
Darren Vine had first up honours in the PIMS with Gwilliam scoring Round 2 and then Smee took out Round 3 driving a Brett Thomas car. Brock Dean scored a double in Rounds 4 and 5 and then Adam Clarke won for car owner Jack Berry. Smee won again in Round 7 and then Troy Ware was successful in round 8 which also doubled as the Danny Davidson Memorial. His second consecutive. Gwilliam took out the last round which was held a fortnight after the 50-lapper and was also the Jim Holden Classic event. Even though he didn’t win a round Rusty Whittaker had been consistent throughout the competition and secured sufficient points to win with Ware and Dean behind.
The Speedcar Super Series was originally set for six rounds, but the Toowoomba round was lost to rain. Adam Clarke won at Archerfield, Parramatta and Murray Bridge which was good enough to win the series over Michael Stewart and Nathan Smee. Chris Gwilliam (Lismore) and Michael Pickens (Parramatta) being the other round winners.
The World Midget Championship was held for the last time in January 2017 with Americans Rico Abreu, Brady Bacon, Zach Daum and Andrew Felker. The Kiwis were conspicuous by their absence. Abreu described himself as a small person but using a special seat and pedals was a giant behind the wheel. He would also contest the Australian Title to be held at Archerfield the week after the Lismore races. Night 1 at Archerfield resulted in Nathan Smee collecting the win from Troy Jenkins and Zach Daum after a seven-car accident eliminated Abreu and others. Keith Kunz had Rico’s car tuned for night two and he claimed the money in the feature from Brady Bacon and Nathan Smee. Bacon was driving for Sydney owner Gavin Ohlback who had Rusty Kunz, Keith’s brother, twisting the spanners.
Racing in Lismore on the first night was hampered by rain so the feature race was run on Saturday afternoon prior to the Saturday might’s program. It made no difference to Rico as he won both events. Bacon was second and Dayne Kingshott third in the carried over race and then the positions were reversed with Kingshott second and Bacon third at the end of the second feature. Kingshott was behind the wheel of Keith McAllan’s car from Perth.
The Australian Title featured a lot of spirited racing throughout the qualifying heats but after the preliminaries were concluded, Rico was on the pole for the 40-lapper. He took off on the green and was never headed even during the only yellow light when Darren Vine stopped. Michael Pickens held second for many laps but succumbed to a problem during lap 15. Bacon then looked secure in second as Nathan Smee moved into third. That was how it finished with Alex Bright (USA) finishing fourth.
Archerfield also hosted the Queensland Title on April 8 with a strong field of good cars including Nathan Smee, Adam Clarke, Adam Wallis and fourth generation racer Kaidon Brown (NSW). Brown was impressive and after winning two stages of the Shoot-Out sat on pole for the big race. However, it was the very experienced Nathan Smee who took the title for the second time. Brown was second and Rusty Whittaker took the last step on the podium.
Smee and Brown also contest the 50-lapper but after nine attempts a Queenslander finally won it, Darren Vine. In fact, it was a Queensland clean sweep with Brock Dean and Rusty Whittaker in the minor places.
Darren Vine was Club Champion for the season with ‘Rookie of the Year’ going to Scott Farmer.
The new season would be centred around Archerfield with the PIMS, the 50-lapper and a one-off event called the Stan Burrow Stampede. New drivers included Dallas Sharp (Modlites) and Mitchell Rooke (Compacts) who had the seat in Rod Singleton’s Spike/Esslinger. The name Malt had been around Brisbane speedway for decades and after racing in most car divisions Shane Malt decided to have a go at speedcars. His brother Audie would also give it a try. Dwayne Neilson had a new driver in his Boss/Esslinger with 3-times Australian AMCA Champion Adam Wallis behind the wheel after some seasons in other owner’s cars.
A new incentive for the season was the Bob Baker Award. Baker was a former driver from Sydney who put up $500 for a lucky draw at each show. A marble would be drawn prior to the green flag for the feature and whoever started in that position collected the money. The proviso was that the driver must have competed at the previous show. It was an inducement to get more drivers to every show.

Darren Vine won Round 1 of the PIMS with Scott Farmer winning his maiden feature in Round 2. Vine was on a roll and took out Rounds 3 and 4 with Farmer repeating in Round 5. Troy Ware won Round 6 which was also his third consecutive win in the Danny Davidson Memorial. Vine was a scratching after dislocating his thumb in a Compact crash. Farmer was the winner in Round 7 and then Matt Smith was the victor in Round 8 which was run in conjunction with the 50-lap Jim Holden Classic. Anthony Chaffey led the first couple of rotations before Darren Vine took over. Farmer went to the front on lap 5 but eventual winner Matt Smith took that spot on lap 15 and secured the win over Farmer and a fast-finishing Rusty Whittaker. Taylor Clarke (NZ), who won the Sydney 50-lapper and finished fourth in the Brisbane event, won the last PIMS round to finish a successful Australian campaign for Seamount Racing.
There were no rounds in Queensland for what would be the last Speedcar Super Series. Michael Stewart (ACT – Gunnedah), Darren Jenkins (NSW – Parramatta), Travis Mills (Vic – Mt Gambier), Matt Jackson (NSW – Lismore) and Matt Smith (NSW – Parramatta) were the round winners. The popular Travis Mills won the Series from Michael Stewart and Reagan Angel (NSW).
The Stan Burrow Stampede was a stand-alone event over 40 laps at Archerfield in January. With good money on offer it attracted interstate drivers including Nathan Smee, Kaidon Brown, Matt Smith and Rob Mackay while Hayden Williams was over from NZ in Scott Wilson’s car. Williams and Smith made up the front row but with a reputation for success in long races it was no surprise to see Smee take the win ahead of Callum Walker and Kaidon Brown. Walker was a talented young sprintcar driver having an outing in the Greenwood # 98.
Murray Bridge is a good-sized bullring with ample banking in South Australia that hosted the 2018 Australian Championship. Kaidon Brown dominated the final to become the youngest ever title holder. The third-generation racer had learnt well from his father, Mark, to finish ahead of Dayne Kingshott (WA), Alex Bright (USA) and Travis Mills (Vic).
The Australian Grand Prix was run at Gunnedah in western New South Wales during March with Reid Mackay, in the Greenwood car, the winner over Matt Jackson (NSW) and Zach Daum (USA). Unfortunately, Reid Mackay was seriously injured in an accident at Parramatta the following month from which he eventually recovered.
Maryborough was the venue for the Queensland Title. On night won Dallas Sharp (1), Troy Ware (2), Brock Dean, Scott Farmer and Brendan Palmer had heat wins with Palmer subbing for the injured Darren Vine. Sharp scored again on the second night as well as Mitch Rooke. Sharp defeated Farmer in the final of the Pole Shuffle which put them on the front row of the main. They led the field from the start only for a yellow during lap 2. On resumption Ware swept around the front runners to take over the point. Now it was the battle for the minor places. Two drivers who had taken a real liking to the Maryborough track were Sharp and Brad Harrison and it was them who filled the spots with Harrison second and Sharp third.
The Club Championship went to Scott Farmer who also collected the PIMS ahead of Rusty Whittaker and Brad Young. ‘Rookie of the Year’ was awarded to Mitchell Rooke.
The final season of the decade had twelve shows at Archerfield and three at Toowoomba while the Queensland Title would be at Lismore. With no Super Series, Toowoomba had a USC series to complement their sprintcar series. New drivers included Tom Clauss, Lachy Paulger, Riki Harrison and Bodie Smith, the 16-year-old nephew of Craig Smith who had raced speedcars some years earlier. Clauss was the son of Peter Clauss a standout in F500 racing in Brisbane and Paulger was also a second-generation racer with his father Shane very successful in Super Sedans. Charlie Brown was also back in his own car with Mopar power.
The PIMS continued in 2018-19 with Adam Clarke winning the opening round. Troy Ware, Rusty Whittaker and Darren Vine won Rounds 2, 3 and 4 respectively and then Clarke won again which was also the Danny Davidson Memorial. Darren Vine added to his tally with victory in Rounds 6 and 7 and then Brock Dean took out Round 8. Round 9 went to Scott Farmer before Dean won again in round 10 and Farmer won the finale. Once again, through sheer consistency, Rusty Whittaker won the series ahead of Darren Vine and Mitchell Rooke. This was the last Polar Ice Midget Series as Jack Berry had sold the business. It had achieved exactly what he had set out to do, increase car counts.
Adam Clarke also won round 1 of the USC competition at Toowoomba and then Round 2 was cancelled by rain. The ‘King of the Ring’ in February saw Rusty Whittaker take the win from Brock Dean and Scott Doyle and in April, Kaidon Brown led home Brock Dean and Scott Farmer. Earlier in the night Brown reduced the 1 lap record to 12.403.
Lismore hosted a couple of big events in 2019, the Queensland Championship in January and the Australian Speedcar Grand Prix in March. It was unusual to see a state title in another state, but Lismore was regarded as a local track by the Queensland club. There was a big field with lots of cars from Brisbane and Sydney and the six heats had six different winners. In the Pole Shuffle Rusty Whittaker had three wins and then Brock Dean had three defeating Nathan Smee in the final.
Darren Vine led many laps of the final until falling foul of a lapped car and rolling. When the green flag flew again Smee moved forward and eventually into the lead. Whittaker came on strong at the end to grab second from Harley Smee (NSW) and Brad Harrison. Harley was driving his uncle Nathan’s own car, so it was a good night for the family. The time-honoured Grand Prix again had a stellar field of Brisbane and Sydney cars, but it was a clean sweep for New South Wales with Matt Smith leading home Mitch Brien and Matt Jackson with Scott Farmer the first Queenslander home in fourth.
The Jim Holden 50-lapper field included Australian Champion Kaidon Brown and former champions Adam Clarke and Nathan Smee. Zac McDonald, in Warren Walkers car, and Bodie Smith started at the front of the field, but it was Brown (P 9) who powered to the front. Clarke and Smee did likewise but couldn’t get to Brown who collected the win over Clarke and Smee.
It had been another good season with Rusty Whittaker the Club Champion and Tom Clauss ‘Rookie of the Year’.
We are now getting closer to our 90th anniversary so look out for the next and final chapter: EMERGING YOUNG GUNSs

Acknowledgement and thanks Barry Lane

Part 1
Our 90-year story is fast drawing to our close as we look at what occurred from the 2019-20 season onwards and details an exciting time when new young drivers joined the division and set about writing their own history.
The 2019-20 season had a new sponsor for the Archerfield series, American Tyre & Racing Services (ATRS) owned by Mark Cooper, but no one was prepared for what was about to transpire. New drivers included Kody Stothard, Callum Walker, Tim Farrell, Graeme Flynn and Compact racer Matt O’Neill in Chris Foreman’s Breka/Porsche as Mark George had retired.
Wingless racer Glenn Wright won the opening round and then Rusty Whittaker won Round 2 before Brock Dean won the next three. Round 6 went to Whittaker and then Charlie Brown was first to the chequered in Round 7. Darren Vine succeeded in Round 8 on March 14 and then speedway in Australia was shut down. Covid 19 was causing mayhem and the whole country almost came to a halt. It was a terrible time for everybody.
Toowoomba had their own series, Highbank Hustle, with Kaidon Brown (NSW), Rusty Whittaker and Troy Ware the round winners before racing stopped. Brock Dean finished top of the points ahead of Ware and Whittaker.
The Australian Title was held in February at Warrnambool when American drivers were again dominant with winged sprintcar star Carson Macedo leading home Alex Bright (USA) and Kaleb Currie (NZ). There would be no Queensland Title held this season. Obviously, there was no presentation night, so the awards were announced via a podcast by Steve ‘Macca’ McCullough at Keli Vine’s dance studio. Brock Dean received the Club Championship trophy and Matt O’Neill the ‘Rookie of the Year’. It was unknown what was going to happen in the future.
Even though there were still plenty of restrictions including the wearing of masks, tracks were able to re-open for the 2020-21 season. Brett Thomas through his company TFH was the new sponsor of the domestic series at Archerfield and Toowoomba would host some blue-ribbon events. The season kicked off at Archerfield with a double header on 3 & 4 October. Brad Dawson had the honour of winning the first night and then Rusty Whittaker followed the next night.
Young Bodie Smith scored his first feature win in Round 3 on November 14 and then Round 4 would also double as the Queensland Championship which was carried over from the previous season. Kaidon Brown (NSW) led most of the way but came under challenge from Matt Jackson (NSW) late in the race. When they touched and stopped, the race changed. The new leader was Reid Mackay, and he held on to the end to be the new champion ahead of Darren Vine and Cal Whatmore. Mackay had been on the comeback after recovering from serious injuries suffered a couple of years prior.
Round 5 saw a ding-dong battle between Bodie Smith and Rusty Whittaker before the former prevailed. Darren Vine took out Round 6 which also marked the return of Michael Kendall to competition driving for Ian Boettcher. It didn’t take long for Kendall to get back into the rhythm winning the last three rounds. The last round saw a monumental roll-over when Nic McDowell rolled on top of the fence near the start/finish line. He rolled high in the air over the barrier where flagman Frank Wallace stood but fortunately everyone escaped uninjured. Darren Vine won overall from Brad Dawson and Nathan Mathers.
Michael Kendall also won at Toowoomba winning both the Stan Burrow Stampede and the Danny Davidson Memorial for the fourth time. The second Queensland Title of the season was run at Toowoomba with local drivers locked out of the result when Michael Stewart (NSW) led home Kaleb Currie and Kaidon Brown. The speedcars also returned to Maryborough with Troy Ware the victor over Brad Dawson and Chris Singleton.
The Australian Title had been scheduled at Parramatta in what was going to be their last season as the land was required for a rail project. However, the track did not re-open in 2020-21 as the promoters advised it was not viable with the Covid restrictions in place. The track was officially closed and the title was lost. The Club Championship went to Darren Vine and Brodie Tulloch was awarded ‘Rookie of the Year’.
The 2021-22 season saw things just about back to normal and would be a big season in Brisbane with the holding of the Australian Title. New drivers continued to join the section with Rob Mazzer, Drew Fenton, Glenn Prowse, Connor McCullough and sprintcar racer Jayden Peacock. With no speedway in Sydney at the time many of their drivers were travelling to Queensland to race.
After passing Michael Kendall late in the race, Charlie Brown was home first in Round 1 of the TFH Series. The following round was washed out and then Jayden Peacock won Round 3 which was also the Stan Burrow Stampede. Michael Kendall, Rusty Whittaker and American Carson Macedo took out Rounds 3, 4 and 5 respectively. Kendall repeated in Round 6 and then Brock Dean led home Whittaker and Matt Jackson (NSW) in Round 7. Round 8 turned into a shambles and after numerous stoppages the cars were sent back to the pits. After the sprintcar main they returned and were better behaved with Kendall striking again. Round 9 was struck by rain, and the curfew was reached before the feature could be run and then Scott Farmer won Round 10. Kendall took out the series from Farmer and Casey O’Connell.
Toowoomba ran two shows with Kendall and Rusty Whittaker the winners. The Danny Davidson Memorial was run at Maryborough with the GSA team-mates Scott Farmer and Brad Dawson finishing 1 - 2 with Matt Hefford third.
Archerfield hosted the Queensland and Australian Titles on consecutive weekends at the end of January which gave travelling drivers plenty of racing. Nathan Smee showed his intentions for the big races winning his fourth Queensland Championship from Michael Kendall and Rusty Whittaker. Smee was now driving for Barry and Steven Graham.
The first night of the Aussie Title had a problem early in the night. During hot laps Cal Whatmore went through an horrific series of rolls high in the air. He was injured and care had to be taken removing him from the car. He was removed to hospital where he spent some time recovering. A lengthy delay meant the third round of heats were carried over to the next night. Michael Kendall won the Preliminary feature ahead of Kaidon Brown and defending champion, Carson Macedo (USA).
Macedo was set to start the final from pole after winning the Shoot-Out rounds, but when the cars were fired for the 40-lapper Macedo’s car would not go. He was given time to make repairs, but it was to no avail, and he would miss the race. This moved Smee up to the front row beside Rusty Whittaker with Matt Smith in behind. Smee went to the front on the green with Smith quickly dropping in behind. Smith made a couple of passing attempts finally going to the front during lap 8. Smee stayed with him but after contact with the wall was forced to retire. Kaidon Brown and the very experienced Travis Mills filled the minor places.
The season closed on May 28 with the Jim Holden 50-lapper. New Zealander Kaleb Currie had raced in Brisbane a few times and was always very competitive. On this night he won after starting from row 5 and running down early leader, Dylan Menz. During the season Menz had acquired the latest King/Toyota combination car and was very competitive. Rusty Whittaker and Michael Stewart filled the places in the enduro. Club Championship honours went to Michael Kendall and ‘Rookie of the Year’ was taken out by Glenn Prowse.

2022-23 saw some changes with the domestic series moved from Archerfield to Toowoomba and sponsored by GSA Advanced Machining (Brad & Toni Dawson). It paid $3000 to win each round with money paid down through the field. Uncertainty still surrounded Archerfield with the property on the market. More drivers joined with Harry Stewart, Boyd Chaffey, Ty Horne and Tim Devine from other divisions and joined by Daniel Griffiths and Chris Pidgeon.
Season began at Toowoomba on September 24 with Scott Farmer collecting the money. Archerfield was washed out the following week and then Kaidon Brown (NSW) won back at Toowoomba the next week.
Kaleb Currie cleaned up Round 3 of the GSA Series winning both the Pole Shuffle and the feature after Michael Kendall won at Archerfield on November 5. Unfortunately, the car counts at the Brisbane track were poor for their first couple of shows. Kendall won the last round of the GSA Series on December 3 and then doubled up winning in Brisbane the next week. Boxing Night in Brisbane saw a new winner in Charlie Brown from Casey O’Connell and Kaleb Currie after Brock Dean jumped the cushion and rolled while holding onto second.
The news then came through that Archerfield had been sold and this would definitely be the last season at the venue. It brought an avalanche of comments on social media that it shouldn’t be sold and that the Government should build a new venue. One of the owners was quite elderly and wanted to sell while the Government had no obligation as the speedway was privately owned. It would be a sad day for Brisbane speedway.
Meanwhile, racing continued with Kendall winning on January 13 and Charlie Brown at the February show with our last meeting to be the annual 50-lapper on the very last night, June 3. Promoters John and Kathy Kelly worked very hard to give the track a good send off with a double header on the final weekend featuring the regular and popular sections during the history of the track. The crowds on the final nights were huge with the venue sold out beforehand with reserved tickets.
Obviously, everybody wanted to race at the last show, so the midgets had a full field for the 50-lapper. Cal Whatmore led for the opening 20 laps collecting $2000 in lap money while Matt Jackson (NSW) held second. Michael Pickens (NZ) had started deep in the field but methodically worked his way forward taking control at the half-way point. The only stoppage was a yellow on lap 44 when Nathan Smee came to a stop. Pickens was a popular winner from Troy Ware and Scott Farmer. 44 years of speedway at the venue was now over.
The Australian Title was held at the new Eastern Creek track in Sydney that was under the managership of John Kelly. The track had been riddled with problems caused by poor construction and design, but the promoters were working hard to overcome the issues. The field included all the Australian guns plus Americans Brady Bacon and Thomas Meseraull. Bacon was leading the Preliminary night feature when the car stopped but was ready to go on night two. Bacon proved to be the class of the field winning from Kaiden Manders (WA) and Meseraull.
Scott Farmer won at Lismore on April 1, and then Boyd Chaffey picked up his first feature win at Maryborough. The second-generation driver was ‘a chip off the old block’. Charlton hosted the Queensland Title on May 27 which also doubled as the Danny Davidson Memorial. Dylan Menz dominated the race winning by a wide margin from Kaidon Brown and Troy Ware. Michael Kendall won another Club Championship while Boyd Chaffey replicated what his father did by collecting ‘Rookie of the Year’. Now the hard work would begin trying, like every section, to get race meetings to replace Archerfield.
Watch out for the last chapter on Monday February 16.

Acknowledgement and thanks Barry Lane

Part 2
It was a much smaller schedule for 2023-24 with most of the shows at Toowoomba as well as a meeting at the new Gladstone track and the Queensland Title at Lismore. Despite the uncertainly new drivers joined the fray with Damien Wise (Compacts), Brent Aprile (Sprintcars), Andrew Roeser (Karts) joined by Seth Atkinson and lady racer Kacy Black. Scott Farmer won the first show, Jim Holden Classic, at Toowoomba leading home Kaidon Brown and Casey O’Connell. 29 cars fronted for the Ian Boettcher Race Parts Danny Davidson Memorial up the hill on December 9. After the heats had six different winners, Matt Jackson (NSW) won by .439 second from Casey O’Connell and Charlie Brown.
The GSA Series was slated to start on Boxing Night but rain had other ideas so it moved on to January 7. This race was a corker with Troy Ware and Scott Farmer swapping positions throughout before the former picked up the money. Farmer had won six rounds of the Pole Shuffle to start pole. Michael Kendall came on strong at the right time to pip Menz for third in the last lap.
The Perth Motorplex hosted the Australian Title with American drivers again hard to beat. Californian drivers Justin Grant and Jade Avedisian finished 1-2 for Sean Dyson while Michael Pickens was third and Kaidon Brown the first Australian home in fourth. Avedisian was the first female racer to finish on the rostrum of an Australian Speedcar Title.
The action now shifted to the new Gladstone Speedway south of the city on March 30. This was a brand-new venue built by the local club and businessman Bob McCosker. It was a healthy field for the meeting on the D shaped track which was a new thing for many of the drivers. However, it wasn’t for Harry Stewart who took out his first win from Boyd Chaffey and Nathan Smee (NSW). The GSA Series continued at Toowoomba with the final on April 13. Stewart had to get past Kaidon Brown to win and that was what he did with Chaffey working hard for his third spot. The Queensland Title was set for Lismore on May 4, but the weather was against it, and the season was now over. Boyd Chaffey was Club Champion and ‘Rookie of the Year’ went to Andrew Roeser.
Rain was the major winner during the 2023-24 season with multiple meetings lost to precipitation. A new country series was added to the schedule and sponsored by Ty Horne’s company Oz-Tac Engineering which was based in Gympie where he lived. The GSA Series was again over four rounds at Toowoomba along with some blue-ribbon events. Speedcars had been building a good fan base in the Garden City venue, and it was no surprise to see some new drivers behind the wheel. Bryce McGregor (F500s), Luke Williams (Compacts), Adrian Mildenhall and two female drivers Daisy Smith and Hailey Ferguson. Smith hailed from Lismore and her father, Craig, had raced a midget for a season while Ferguson was the daughter of Brock Dean and the granddaughter of John Dean.
The season opened at Toowoomba on October 5 for the Danny Davidson Memorial. Scott Farmer and Casey O’Connell diced for the lead initially before Farmer pulled away for the win. The next show was at Gladstone a fortnight later for the opening round of the country series. Stewart liked the track and after starting near the back due to an inversion, passed Casey O’Connell in the last lap to get the win with Dylan Menz third.
The GSA Series began on November 2 with Stewart again first to the flag with Casey O’Connell and Rusty Whittaker battling for the minors with the former getting the nod for second. This was the one and only round for the series as the rest were lost to rain. Maryborough was washed out on December 14, so it was back to Toowoomba two weeks later for the Queensland Championship. There was lots of quality racing in the heats and some interesting contests in the Pole Shuffle won by Dylan Menz. Unfortunately, it was the end for Charlie Brown when his engine made some expensive noises. Harry Stewart forged to the front over Menz on lap 3 while Rusty Whittaker P 19 kept pushing forward passing Dylan Menz for second on lap 26 and that was how they finished.
Stewart contested the Chili Bowl in Tulsa Oklahoma in January 2025 after being offered an opportunity to drive the Spike house car. There were around 375 entries that raced over five qualifying nights to get to the A Main. Stewart stayed out of trouble, put in some good laps and made it to the C Main which meant he was in the top 80 cars at the event. A good showing that was rewarded with an offer to drive the car again in January 2026.
The Australian Speedcar Grand Prix was slated for Lismore on February 15, but was again lost to rain. Harry Stewart travelled to Perth on March 15 to contest their state title in the Graham Jones owned Spike/Esslinger and became the first Queensland driver to win this event leading home Cody Nash and Nicholas Rowe.
Murray Bridge hosted the Australian Championship and interest surrounded Harry Stewart and whether he could bring a title back to Queensland for the first time in 40 years. Stewart led some laps in the final but something broke when he touched the wall and he was out. Kaidon Brown is a class act and picked up his second title from Hayden Williams (NZ), Nick Parker (Vic) and Jack McCarthy (SA).
After missing in 2024 the 50-lapper was back and being held for the first time at Toowoomba. GSA sponsored the event which meant there was over $22,000 in prizemoney and lap money on offer. Harry Stewart was out before racing began when he blew the engine during hot laps. Mitch Saunderson (ACT) was top point man and selected a 16 invert which would make things very interesting in the main.
Australian Champion Kaidon Brown (NSW) started from P 15 but wasn’t waiting for the race to settle down and quickly cut through the field while Brodie Tulloch led. On lap 15 Brown went to the front while Scott Farmer (P14) moved into second on lap 22. Farmer kept Brown in his sights but in the last 15 laps Brown picked up the pace and by the end of the race had lapped up to fifth place. Farmer did well to hold his position from the fast-finishing Matt Geering (NSW).
The rained-out meeting at Maryborough was run on May 24 with Rusty Whittaker the victor over Harry Stewart and Darren Vine. Due to the loss of so many meetings to bad weather, Toowoomba added a couple of twilight shows at the end of the season. Scott Farmer won the first round of the Snowball Series while the second and last round was washed out before the feature which was just the way the season had gone. Dylan Menz won the Club Championship for the first time and Daisy Smith received the ‘Rookie of the Year’.
That brings us to our final season of our 90-year story, 2025 - 26. The season began at Gladstone for the opening round of the Oz-Tac Engineering Country Series. For the third season in a row Scott Farmer won the first race of the season from Scott Doyle and Andrew Roeser who had to work hard to keep Ty Horne at bay. Charlton’s first show was October 4, and Dylan Menz cleaned up winning both of his heats and the feature from Kaidon Brown and first night driver, Bailey Leeson. Leeson was driving one of the GSA Spike/Stanton SR11X and came into speedcars from F500s.

The speedcars returned to Kingaroy for the first time in many years and it was Rusty Whittaker who led from green to chequered in Round 2 of the country series. Brothers Casey and Cody O’Connell battled for the minors with the latter finishing second and the former third. Both female drivers, Kacy Black and Hailey Ferguson, had become very confident and capable drivers and able to race wheel to wheel with their male counterparts and were performing well.
With the passing of Queensland’s first national champion, Blair Shepherd, earlier in 2025 it was decided to dedicate a race to his memory. Toowoomba was the venue and in keeping with the tradition of Shepherd’s era, the top qualifiers would start from the back of the field. Stewart and Farmer were on the back row with 20 laps to get it done. Stewart had a good run through traffic while Farmer was held up for many laps. Farmer eventually found his way through the field and after dicing with team-mate Bailey Leeson, finished second. Leeson was again on the podium at just his second show. The trophies were presented by two of Blair’s children, Scott and Debbie, and everyone agreed the reverse grid format had been a great success.
Harry Stewart ventured back to Perth to drive for Graham Jones in a couple of their major events. He finished third behind Kaiden Manders and Keenan Fleming in the state title and was third again in the John Day Classic behind Manders and Kaidon Brown.
Maryborough hosted the speedcars on December 13 with a strong field of 16 cars for Round 3 of the country series. Unfortunately, the track became rough which caused some problems and delays. Stewart passed Leeson for the lead of the feature but unfortunately crashed during lap 18 when something broke. Leeson carried on for his maiden feature from Whittaker and Lachy Paulger who started well back after also dropping a heat.
Stewart had his revenge on December 27 with a last corner pass on Casey O’Connell. However, the night would be remembered for the wrong reason. During the feature Bailey Leeson and Cody O’Connell touched wheels in the back straight and began rolling and not stopping until turn 3 with Leeson landing on the fence. There were no long-term injuries for either driver. First up winner in 2026, January 10, was Casey O’Connell who created his own piece of history winning a Wingless, 410 Sprintcar and Speedcar feature in the one season at Toowoomba. The Queensland Tile was planned for Gladstone the following week, but rain forced its postponement until June. Michael Kendall would be absent from the scene after deciding to return to New Zealand to look after his aging father. Three times Queensland Champ, the very popular Eric Mitchell passed away unexpectedly on January 27 at the age of 81.
The Australian Title was held at Simpson in Victoria and everyone had high hopes for the five drivers that nominated. 2025 winner Kaidon Brown (NSW) started from pole after winning the Pole Shuffle while Stewart was P 10, the O’Connells a couple of rows back, and Scott Doyle in row 9 after qualifying through the B Main.
Brown led from the outset on each restart was able to maintain his lead. Meanwhile, Stewart was working his way forward past some very good cars. He kept making inroads and was third on lap 11 and second at the end of lap 22. Hr maintained the pressure and after exchanging some slide jobs with Brown went to the front with 12 laps remaining. Unfortunately, all his good work came undone with just 10 laps left when the cushion bit him in turn 3 and he rolled over. Brown went on to defend his title and give him three in total. Congratulations, to Kaidon, his family and his team who have been the team to chase all season. He has never been afraid to travel to different tracks to race and at a young age still has plenty of good years ahead of him.
Over the last couple of months, you have read the ‘snapshots’, of Queensland speedcar racing since 1936. It has been an amazing journey over the last 90 years with many highs and the inevitable lows. The thrills, the spills and the amazing skills of the hundreds of drivers that have participated and provided the action that makes this sport so exciting.
It is important at this time that we remember the Brisbane drivers who lost their lives in racing related accidents. Cecil ‘Curly’ Ryland (1953), Steve Howman (1959), Kevin Jefferson (1963), Des Kelly (1967) and Bob Holmes (1975) were all very experienced drivers when they were killed chasing victory.
Don’t forget we celebrate this milestone with a special event at the Hi-Tec Oils Toowoomba Speedway next Saturday night, February 21. See you there.
There you have it, 90 years in a snapshot. Hope you have all enjoyed reading the stories and may the sport continue to grow for the next 90 years.
SPEEDCAR RACING ITS SENSATIONAL

Acknowledgement and thanks Barry Lane