TOOWOOMBA SPEEDWAY: BLAIR SHEPHERD REMEMBERED
By David Budden
Speedcars return to Toowoomba’s Hi-Tec-Oils Speedway on November 22 for the Blair Shepherd Tribute race, in Speedcars’ 90th year of competition in Queensland.
In fact on Pink night in February 2026 will be exactly 90 years to the day. From November 22 and for the rest of the season there will be tribute nights for those drivers who gave so much to the Queensland Speedcar Club. December 27 will be the following fixture tribute which remembers John Dean.
To add to the spectacle the whole field will be inverted and the highest point scores after the qualifying heats will start from the back of the 25 lap feature. Just as Blair did at the height of his stellar career, as an added bonus $250.00 will be paid out to the driver who can start from the back row and win the feature.
Queensland Speedcar Club President Dave Palmer said this is a good opportunity over the next eight races to remember those who helped shape Queensland Speedcar racing over the last 90 years. The final night concludes with the Jim Holden 50 lap race. Holden was the last Queenslander who won the Australian Title. On November 22, Blair’s son and daughter, Scott and Debbie, will present the Blair Shepherd trophies for first, second and third.
Blair’s first feature win came at the Ekka on May 12,1962 driving a Repco Holden. Later that year a deal was done to buy the Casio Offy from American Bob Tattersall and this was the catalyst that launched his career, making the sports pages as the first Queenslander to own an Offenhauser.
In 1966 he bought the Champion Muffler #3 Offy while on a trip to America. The car back in Australia was repainted to the familiar black and gold with the famous #99 on the tail tank where he dominated in Brisbane and (also at the Sydney Showground) becoming two-time winner of the Queensland Championship, 1963 and again in 1964. With an impressive total of 57 feature wins.
He won the 1969 Australian Speedcar Championship and the World Derby on two occasions. He was selected in the Australian test team on two occasions where he won a further two feature races at the Western Springs Speedway in New Zealand. In Victoria he won two Craven Filter State rounds. During this time driving the fabulous WRM Offenhauser, he was the holder of the 20, 25, 30 and 50 lap records at the Ekka .
Blair was a likeable person who did so much for the betterment of Australian Speedcar racing with his Offys. He was inducted into the Speedway Australia Hall of Fame in 2011. His management and contribution along with Bob Morgan driving the second car led to Brisbane becoming the Offenhauser capital of Australia with more Offy powered cars competing on a weekly basis than anywhere else in Australia during that time.
He was a good businessman, entrepreneur and promoter of Speedway, Supercross and BMX racing. He had the ability through hard work and good business sense to start and grow numerous businesses throughout Brisbane and Queensland. On a family holiday to America by chance he came across a brand new sport called Bicycle Motocross. Blair took a chance, bought some bikes and some Tuff Wheels brought them back to Brisbane, built a BMX track at Windsor, the track now long gone.
The only resemblance is the entrance to the Clem Jones Tunnel and as they say the rest is history. Blair and son Scott who was only a teenager then witnessed the potential of Bicycle Motocross. They returned home and within a few months built Australia’s first BMX Track and the sport took off. At that time Blair started importing Redline Bikes and parts from America kickstarting what was to become Australia’s longest-running wholesale BMX business, BMX International.
