AMCA LONG TIME CAMPAIGNER RUSS HARDY RETIRES

By Dennis Newlyn

Feature photo courtesy Tony Powell.

Russ Hardy, 74, has announced his retirement from racing and he leaves the sport with the regret he didn’t start in the AMCA class when the division first appeared on the scene in the late nineties.

He commenced racing AMCAs in 2007 at Lismore when he returned to speedway after some years being involved with ski-boats.

Russ, whose speedway career spanned five-and-a-half decades, says AMCAs are a terrific category and proved his initial opinion wrong after first seeing these cars race at Lismore Speedway soon after their introduction onto the Australian speedway scene.

“We went to Lismore Speedway the very first night AMCAs raced there to have a look at ’em in the early 2000s because everybody had told me what this new class was going to be like,” Russ explained.

“But, to tell you the truth, I could have run faster than ’em. I didn’t think they were going to make it but how wrong was I?

“I should have got involved with AMCAs right from day one,” he lamented.

Russ, who turns 75 in July, is not only pleased to admit he was so inaccurate in his initial forecast for the future of AMCAs because today he says “they’re a real racecar.”

This is the result of significant specification changes since their introduction in Australia over two decades years ago.

“Looking back, I would have been in AMCAs all the way through my career, they’re a great class. Once they started putting in the Chev motors, 350ci 602 crate engine, along with quick change diffs and coil-over suspension, the AMCAs turned into real race cars.

“I have had a blast in this class. I have made that many friends in the AMCA division, it’s incredible the camaraderie that is there,” Russ gleaned.

Russ Hardy started his career in 1969 at Morisset Speedway in Hot Rods wheeling a 1936 Ford Pilot “and I wish I still had it,” he lamented.

He then went to a Buick “straight eight” then an FJ Holden. These were the days of action also at the Heddon Greta Speedway and Russ also was a regular competitor from 1972 at Jerilderie Park Speedway in Newcastle when the track opened. Those days marked a progression from Hot Rods into an XU1 Torana in the Production Car division.

He later moved away from speedway for a while and was involved with ski-boats. This was largely due to employment as “I was working shift work in the coal mines,” he explained.

He held that interest in ski-boats for quite a number of years before returning to speedway in 2007 in AMCAs.

It’s been that way ever since up until his recently announced retirement and over the years Russ Hardy has raced in every Australian state. In addition to the various divisions Russ has competed in, he also did a limited stint in Super Sedans, running in the 20/20 race with his nephew Robert Carrig. There was also a time when he owned and raced a Wingless Sprintcar.

Russ, very much the family man, says racing with his son Matt is the highlight of his career.

“It doesn’t matter whether he wins or I win, it’s just great being out there together on the track, though we don’t give each other an inch on the track,” he joked.

His AMCA successes are highlighted with multi AMCA Track Championships at Castrol Lismore Speedway and Brisbane’s former Archerfield Speedway. He also has taken out numerous blue ribbon events and has enjoyed plenty of race wins at Sydney’s former Parramatta City Raceway. He filled fourth placing in the Australian AMCA Championship some years ago in what has been a very impressive and certainly successful speedway career.

But at the start of 2024 an off-track injury signalled retirement loomed on the horizon.

“Well, I had an accident at Moama when I fell off the stage while accepting George Everingham’s Hall of Fame trophy that’s when I did my shoulder in and at that time, unbeknown to me I was also inducted into the AMCA Hall of Fame inductee, in January this year.”

However, a race crash at Castrol Lismore Speedway this past June King’s Birthday long weekend, brought his career to an end.

“With that accident on the long weekend at Lismore when I went into the wall and sustained a punctured lung and a broken rib, I made my mind up there and then that I don’t bounce off the walls the same way as I used  to in years gone by.”

But his racing retirement does not mean the end of his speedway involvement. “Being tied up with Matty and all these other young blokes keeps me young.”

Away from the track his long time employment in earth moving and coal mining under his own companies, Hardy’s Excavations and Coolamon Quarries Pty Ltd, continues.