Racer Bill Shevill was doing what he did best in November 1956, when a car pushed him wide at the pit gates of the Sydney Royal, his V-Twin drive hitting the fence before another car slammed into him at speed.
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Sources close to Shevill say when his car’s designer Ron Ward rushed onto the track the ambulance driver told him to take a good look at him because he was unlikely to see him again.
Thankfully, though badly injured, he survived. And the now 87-year-old attended a vintage speedway meeting in his honour at Illabo last weekend.
Shevill holds the record for the only vintage speedcar driver to win 14 consecutive feature races, all of which he won in the space of 12 months.
On Saturday, October 21, he lived-out his dream of driving an Offenhauser midget racer, before Illabo Speedway’s Kerry Phelan thanked him for the memories with a plaque.
“From a memory standpoint we could close the chapter with him driving a car,” Mr Phelan said.
The event attracted 30 entries over five divisions of vintage midget speed cars.
