Rex Law Biography

Rex Law’s Six Years of Competitive Motor Sport

Any discussion of Rex Law’s life and entrepreneurial flair would not be complete without acknowledging his very competitive nature which found expression in car racing as well as business. Therefore I’ll describe the sporting aspect of his character before continuing with the business story.

He discovered this ‘recreational outlet’ early, at age 19 years, when in 1935 riding an AJS he participated in the inaugural Morgan and Wacker sponsored Easter four-day motorcycle reliability trial throughout south east Queensland. He finished successfully if not victoriously and this likely led to his later passion for constructing and competing in race cars alongside his early passenger coach business

development.
From the Brisbane Exhibition dirt-track speedway and Mount Panorama circuit at Bathurst, to Brisbane’s Whites Hill ‘hill-climb’ and driving in his own two-car team in the 1949 Australian Grand Prix at Leyburn, he was a regular and respected competitor. He was also a regular at other ex-WW2 airstrip tracks such as Strathpine and Lowood.
He and his little No 32 midget would also be numbered amongst the competitors at a unique midget speed-car race meeting held on the Gold Coast’s Main Beach at Southport on Sunday 3rd October 1948, along with the usual surfing events in conjunction with the opening of that summer’s surf season!

The Brisbane Exhibition Speedway was a dirt track venue for midget race cars, under the control of Frank Arthur’s Empire Speedways, where Rex was also active in his little No 32 midget (nicknamed Leaping Leno) in this exciting and dangerous form of racing.

The No 32 midget was painted in his bus company colours of cream and red and during the summer racing season Rex would go over the car each Saturday afternoon looking to have it running at its best for the night’s action.

This procedure would culminate in his rolling the little racer out onto Noela Street and doing a high speed performance test up to the T-junction at Shakespeare Street almost four blocks away, then swinging around and returning in the same manner.

The most interesting aspect of this weekly ritual was that the gentlemen neighbours, upon hearing the midget’s engine fire up, would all rush out and position themselves as traffic wardens on each of the three intersections they knew Rex was about to rapidly

traverse!
Of course they had learned not to relinquish control of their stations until he had swooshed past again in the opposite direction, with stillness and tranquility returning to the neighbourhood!
The little midget would then be hitched up to the back of one of the KS5 buses for the trip later in the afternoon to the Exhibition Speedway venue.
For the historical record, within the locality I have identified as including Rex’s home and bus depot, there was another nearby site ‘unofficially’ available for use as a practice track, which didn’t involve running the gauntlet of regular road traffic.
In the late 1940’s there was a T-junction where lower Cavendish Road met Stanley Street East, and in the area where today in 2013 the Cavendish Road extension facilitates traffic flow to the Coorparoo Secondary College and other nearby premises, there was absolutely no building development.
There was nothing but vacant land bordered by the curvature of Norman Creek, except for a formed circular unsealed track, which may have been created for dog or horse training or some similar activity.
Rex made use of this seemingly unused facility on rare occasions, one of which I recall to this day. He had finished his practice runs in the No 32 racer and perhaps because I became a little excited at seeing him in full flight, and so close, I clambered up on the bonnet of the little car, which I guess seemed eminently do-able for a very capable 4 or 5 year old such as myself....!
It seems I made my move with little advance notice to the assembled adults, who included both Mom and Dad.
Photo
Brisbane Courier Mail Photo of Sat 9th April 1949: Rex Law in midget No 32 on opposite lock leading a semi-final at Brisbane Exhibition Speedway.
I guess their first awareness of my intent would have been my shrieks of surprise and pain as I rapidly tried to un-clamber from the still rather attractive, cherry-coloured, scorching hot exhaust pipes I had apparently decided would make a great ladder!
I needed quite a bit of burn treatment and TLC, but by some luck I carried no scars from that event.
On Saturday night 2nd October 1948 Rex had qualified for both the Junior and Senior Exhibition Speedway feature races.
As if to make a grand statement, while still categorized as a Junior Grade driver, he blew his competitors away and won both events in the lowly little ‘Leaping Leno.’
This effort obviously impressed a young lady named Lorraine Larcher who was intent upon making a name for herself at the speedway by competing in a match race against another woman racer named Thelma ‘Blondie’ Webb.
I’m not aware of the extent of the prior negotiations but Rex demonstrated his generosity by loaning his precious race car to Miss Larcher for the event.
This took place on 30th October, just one month later. The race began with the usual rolling start (always in anti-clockwise direction at the Exhibition Speedway track) and the girls gunned their cars across the start line in front of the John MacDonald Grandstand.
Lorraine almost immediately lost control of the little No 32 and slewed into the fence in front of the Ernest Baines Stand and the car overturned, fortunately landing on its wheels.
She was quickly assisted out of the cockpit and found to be suffering only a scratch to her forehead.
Her safety helmet had taken the brunt of the impact as seen in the press photo of the two combatants from the following day’s Sunday Mail on the next page.
Rex took his car home and set about repairing the damage. Incredibly, when Thelma later challenged Lorraine to a race re-match he again offered her the use of his car.
I’m sure Rex would have been impressed by the girl’s gumption in being prepared to take on another race after suffering the serious shake-up in the initial outing.
It is my understanding that the re-match took place with no further incident, although I can find no record of the result.
This story carried near-folk-lore status in our family for years, as neither my brother nor myself could recall being at the speedway on that night, however we knew of vague references to it from our parents occasionally. It was only through the internet and the convenience of trawling newspaper reports and images from earlier days that I finally found the elusive girl who broke my dad’s race car...!
Photo
The two crowd-pulling girl racers, Lorraine Larcher (left) and Thelma “Blondie” Webb, inspect Lorraine’s helmet after her roll-over crash into the fence in Rex Law’s borrowed midget race car.
Most of my father’s activities, on or off the race track, fascinated me as a little boy and I can well recall an occasion when I was all of 4 or 5 years of age and intently observing him and Bob Scarborough underneath the Coorparoo house doing some serious soldering of pipe-work associated with one of the race cars. (I think it was the Regal Special)
Bob’s professional soldering procedure back in those days involved melting the solder stock into the work with a soldering iron incorporating a naked flame produced in association with a pressurized reservoir of flammable liquid that licked around the pointed iron soldering head. No tidy little electric irons back then!
At a certain point the two adults rushed the semi-finished object out to where the car stood, most likely to trial-fit the item, and apparently forgot that I was still lurking near the soldering operations.
I was left with a virtual mother-lode...the still fiercely burning soldering iron resting upon its stand with many interesting objects, including several bars of solder, a jar of flux, several discarded wooden wheel spokes and what seemed to be an open can full of water.
One thing led to another and before very long at all I had introduced one of the dry old wooden spokes to the soldering iron flame.
Having held it there long enough for luxurious ignition to occur, panic set in rather quickly and the need to extinguish the thing before my dad became involved seemed rather urgent!
I knew just what to do, and plunged the flaming spoke into the can of ‘water.’
WHOOOMPH.....up went the inflammable liquid which to this day still remains nameless, but the effect was as if it was petrol, and was quite sensational with a column of flame that reached the floor joists above.
This singed the black paintwork on dad’s Gypsy Major aircraft engine (destined for a future race car project) hanging nearby from the same floor joists.

I ran like heck out of there, screaming and crying, convinced I’d destroyed the whole world.

Dad and Bob came running and soon had things under control, with no permanent damage done to persons or property.

My father was a very fair man, and I can well recall all this time later that he concurrently consoled and chastised me, but openly chastised himself for being very cavalier in creating the circumstances that led to the fracas!

Rex really enjoyed the hill climbs at Whites Hill. This venue was close to home and I can remember one occasion when he allowed me to accompany him to a meeting, the odd thing being that he was driving there in his (non-road-registered) Regal Special race car!

He seated me on a piece of board on top of the battery which resided right next to the driver’s seat, and off we went! The ride was fast and rough but I loved every quick minute of it!

His prowess behind the wheel would again be recognized in 1950 when he achieved the fastest ever elapsed time for the hill-climb at White’s Hill in the open category, driving the

Regal.