Saturday night, February 27, 2021, there was no rain so Lismore Speedway took to the track. 72-year-old Ian Brims was in the field for his farewell race in the McCosker Super Sedan Series, a race he won to sign off a career that spanned 36 years in the best possible way.

Ian Brims has stood large in speedway circles for almost four decades, both on and off the track. His career started and finished at the Lismore Speedway so with the 2020/21 season concluding last night, the Lismore App thought we should pay tribute to a legend of the sport.

Ian was born on the 2nd of December, 1948 in Murwillumbah. He was the second son of three to John & Heather Brims who lived in Chillingham.

My father, Johhny purchased a cream & carrying business in 1941 so was called a 'general carrier'.

(Ian's Dad Johnny Brims on a bulldozer)

He would cart green cans to the NORCO factory up here there days a week, one day a week he would cart pigs and calves for the sales and the other couple of days he would bring bananas into town. He only had the one truck in the early days but then kept growing and growing and ended with six. The big trucks would do three trips a day and the smaller trucks one. He would also do the logging when he had spare time to keep the mill going.

Dad would cart the logs to the sawmill where they would cut them up into wooden crates and then we would cart the bananas. It was a pretty good set-up really. In those days there were about eighteen people at the sawmill which was a lot of people back then. The sawmill, logging and carting the bananas all worked hand in hand.

(A fully loaded logging truck with Ian in the passenger seat)

As soon as we were old enough we were working for the family business. I left school at fourteen and a half to work full-time with my brothers Gary (Jock) and Ross. We all lived at home until we got married. It was when we became partners in 1974 that the name changed to J Brims & Sons.

In 1980, my brothers and I bought the business from Dad when he retired. The business moved to its current location at 25 Buchanan Street, Murwillumbah and changed its name to Brims Earthmoving as it branched into civil construction. Brims Earthmoving carted sands, aggregates, gravel, molasses along with constructing subdivisions, dams and driveways.

(Johnny's retirement dinner in 1980. From left, Gary, Joanne, Johnny, Heather, Ross, and Ian Brims)

It was in the 80's, 1986 that I had my first speedway race in Lismore. I bought and drove a LJ Torana, a car that I owned for eighteen months.

How did you get involved in Speedway?

When we were young kids Dad used to take us to the Brisbane Exhibition Ground when they used to race there, he loved speedway. I was probably about 10 years old.

It was totally different speedway back then with mainly bikes and little midget cars. I used to walk down to the fence and look at these guys and think that I might be a driver one day.

We would head up every two to three weeks to watch them race when it was a three and a half-hour drive up the coast as we had to follow the old highway up through Surfers.

My younger brother Ross bought a car in 1985 and a mate of ours, John Leslight who was really into it in a big way convinced me to buy one in 1986. It was the LJ Torana. We only travelled to Lismore and Brisbane to race.

(Ian's LJ Torana)

In 1989 at Easter time, the National titles were held at Mildura which was a big trip after only ever travelling relatively short distances. Ross and I were pretty keen and competitive so we decided to nominate ourselves and race for the experience.

We left Thursday morning early to get there about 2 o'clock Friday arvo, then we had practice that Friday night. We had three heats, one Saturday night, two Sunday night and then the feature. Ross won the National title and I finished second. It was a pretty good way to finish the weekend.

A few years later I won the NSW State title in Canberra in a VB Commodore and the next year, in 1995 I won the National title. I liked the Canberra track it was a good fast track and I seemed to win down there. Then in 2007 I won the State title again this time at Gunnedah.

(The Australian title-winning Commodore in 1995)

In 1999 NASR, the group that run Australian Speedway, changed the rules to introduce computerised engines. I didn't agree with it and a lot of drivers didn't, we had a meeting with them but they wouldn't change their mind so we didn't race for a year.

Our cars just ran with a carby and methanol and were easy to fix but no one knew about computers back then and we were worried about breaking down and not being able to fix your car.

In those days we would race in Lismore nearly every meeting but when we went to the V8 Super Sedans you would be lucky to get two races a year and that has been trimmed to one a year which is a shame because I think they are good for the spectators.

Who were your main rivals?

Bob Worling was a Lismore man who was really competitive, Tanya Smith was really good and Jason Jolley was competitive too. My main rival was Bob, he had the best gear and could drive too. Sometimes it just came down to luck, if it went your way you would have a win but if it didn't Bob would win.

My worst accident was at my fourth race in Lismore in the 80's, I was going down the main drag when a car came up the inside of me. He didn't back off and kept coming towards me pushing me into the fence. I was not injured but they did have to cut the windscreen out and weld a new one onto it.

I have rolled a car once when my front wheel rolled up on the car in front, then it went off like a rocket and rolled me towards the infield, which is unusual, and I landed on my wheels.

I have been lucky in my racing career to not have any major accidents or suffer any major injuries.

(Ian's V8 Super Sedan speedway car. A big difference from the LJ Torana)

What sort of money is involved in racing speedway cars?

The engine for that car was $30,000 in those days and we used to get it re-built every season providing we raced about 16 to 18 meetings each year. It was like an insurance to keep racing. An engine should last two years but if something happened and broke it could do damage that could cost you twice as much through parts and labour plus your season was over. So, we used to give it a re-fresh every year and that would see you run smoothly for the season.

I don't know how much I would have spent over my racing life, I'd have to sit and think about it. You do it because you love it. I didn't start racing until I was 38, that was when we could afford to do it.

We did win some prize money if you were winning. We'd get $1000 at most meetings which would rise to $1800 or $2000 for the bigger meetings.

What made you decide to stop racing?

I just couldn't get motivated to do it anymore. My last race was a bit sad but I haven't regretted my decision. You have to be keen to race and think positively and I just didn't have that in me anymore.

People will continue to see the Brims name race at Lismore speedway as my daughter Shylie's children race in the junior categories and my brother Ross' children all race in juniors and one is now in the open fields.

(Ian's V8 Super Sedan and his granddaughter's Imogen and Phoebe Sykes' junior sedan)

I never realised how good it is to sit in the grandstand and just watch. You don't have to worry about tyre pressures, set-ups and shock pressures, you can just sit back and relax. I will be doing more of that next season.

What has the biggest difference been in speedway over your racing career?

The cars very simple to set up in the early days but technology has seen advances in tyres and what pressure you should run, shock absorbers, computerised engines and the like.

Horsepower is an area that has changed a lot. I used to run 320 horsepower when I first started now I run 740 horsepower. Basically, you put your foot down and it goes.

With the increase in horsepower, you had to have good throttle control or you buzz your wheels up too much which makes your tyres get too hot and lose their grip. You can't just come out of a corner and put your foot down especially when the track gets dry and slick, you have to put your foot down slowly as you come out of the corner. Some drivers put it down full stick out of each corner so that after about six laps their tyres have no grip and they just slowly go backwards. There is a bit of an art to it.

Apart from watching speedway in the grandstands, what else will you be doing in 2021?

We celebrate 80 years as a company in May so there will be some dinners to honour the occasion. We have a 63 year relationship with the Brown & Hurley Group in Kyogle. Dad bought a secondhand Mack off them in 1958 and we have bought many since then. In fact, we are getting a new Kennilworth built for our purposes but it doesn't start until June or July so we will celebrate when we get delivery of the new truck.

(Ian still driving one of his beloved truck fleet)

We opened up a concrete plant in 2005 that is continuing to grow. We started with two trucks and now we have eight so that keeps me busy.

My love of driving hasn't stopped, I continue to drive trucks whether it be local or interstate from a rigid truck, float or B-Double combination.

It's just not as fast as on a speedway track.