A SERIOUS car accident in 2006, put paid to Brian Farley’s future on the Speedway track.

In fact, the accident put paid to many things in Brian’s life; his marriage broke down, he could no longer pilot a plane and he was forced to make changes in his working life.

One thing that didn’t change was his love for Speedway.

It’s a love that dates back to 1955 when he was 10-years-old and his father let him take a train to the Brisbane Exhibition Centre to watch the speedcars race.

“I was hooked from then on and went every weekend that I could,” he recalls.

“Some remember, but most people don’t know, that in the 1950s and 1960s crowds as big as 20,000 and 35,000 used to go to watch the speedcars race every weekend,” Brian explains.

“They raced in Brisbane and at the Ipswich Showgrounds – in lots of places – it was hugely popular.”

After his accident, Brian joined the Historic Speedway Association of Australia, which had been formed in 2005.

He couldn’t get out on the track but, he says: “I could help the Association and give back what Speedway had given to me for so many years”.

BRIAN HAS lived in Brisbane and in Sydney and three years ago, he moved to Boonah “for the peace and serenity”.

The town and district offered him an outlook that he hadn’t known since his earlier years working around the Mt Walker area.

He was 13 when he started his first job.

“It was on a dairy farm at Mt Walker. Then a year later, I got a job working for Noel Stitt on his dairy farm at Mt Walker West.

“One day Noel said to me that he had an important sporting event on Saturday and I could have the day off.

“First, I thought he meant something like soccer, which to me was like watching grass grow.

“Then he asked if I wanted to go with him as he was the Chief Steward for the Australian Speedway Control Board at the Brisbane Exhibition grounds … I was sitting in his Ford F100 ute before he finished speaking … and there I was watching Speedway again!”

Brian joined the Army in the early 1960s and was trained as an air dispatcher and parachutist. During his three year’s service, he was assigned to a rotation with the British Army Air Support Unit in Malaya.

As soon as he left the Army, he bought his first TQ [three-quarter] Speedcar.

“And from ‘Day One’ I entered the Speedway competitions. To race, you had to join the Club and so I joined and got involved.”

Brian raced in Speedway for almost 20 years until 1983, when, due to family commitments, he returned to being an avid spectator, when the opportunity arose.

Then in 2006 he was involved in a car accident at Mt Gravatt when he was on his way home to Victoria Point.

“I woke up three and a half weeks later as I was being wheeled into the brain injury unit at the PA Hospital. I spent three months in that unit.”

Rehabilitation took longer.

To help counter some of the negatives in his life, Brian bought an historic speedcar from Lafayette in Indiana in 2009.

“It was a car originally built by Thomas Carruthers who was famous for racing VW Beetles in the sandhills in California – he was responsible for changing the sport of Speedway.”

FAST FORWARD nine years and Brian moved to Boonah but his TQ speedcar didn’t come with him as by then it was on a dais in a museum in New Zealand.

What Brian did bring with him was his enthusiasm for Speedway or more correctly now, for Historic Speedway.

He had come to know the Boonah district through his involvement in the Historic Speedway Association, which in recent years has been holding Club days at the Boonah Showgrounds.

“We don’t race at the Showgrounds.

“We hold spirited demonstrations and everyone is welcome to come and watch – our next Club day is on December 18.

“It’s all strictly controlled and we run no more than five cars at a time.”

The vehicles involved in the Club days range from Speedcars, TQs speedcars, Compact Speedcars, Litre Sprints, Super Modifieds, early model Sprintcars, Speedway Solos and Sidecars.

“I do all the track preparation and all the machines are checked by Club members who are Machine Examiners.

“Historic Speedway is great fun and it helps keeps memories alive without racing.”