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Transcript

Jim Read - Part 1 · Rusty's Garage

0:02
A listener production.
0:14
I'm automotive commentator and journalist Greg Rust, and this is Rusty's Garage.
0:27
For this episode, I'm at the Western Sydney headquarters of Jim Reid Racing.
0:31
It is a beautiful setting with the occasional kangaroo out back.
0:36
The Reid family has a childcare centre next door, so there are happy kids playing in the distance.
0:42
And his son, Bruce, is in an office nearby working on pool building projects just as Jim used to.
0:49
The crew were stripping the car in the workshop after a difficult meet at the weekend.
0:54
They're not words you often use when talking about this outfit.
0:58
Still, Jim's happy and up for a chat.
1:01
Life seems good.
1:03
He's approaching 80, can you believe it?
1:05
But he can't sit still and is working about the shop when I arrive.
1:09
We decided to head to a quiet spot, an outdoor sitting, fittingly.
1:14
by a pool.
1:14
You'll hear the odd bird chirping and Jim in his animated way taps the table at times, particularly when he's making a point.
1:23
The family kindly brings sandwiches along the way.
1:26
That's to ensure we keep his levels under control.
1:29
Jim's quite open about his diabetes and you'll learn in our chat
1:34
about what he believes triggered it.
1:36
There are life-changing moments, including a serious COVID scare and a tough police officer with good intentions who planted the seed about drag racing.
1:47
That's a story you probably haven't heard before.
1:50
Plus, his brother from another mother who helped immensely with his professional racing life.
1:56
Someone that Jim misses greatly to this day.
2:00
and the political minefield of building Sydney Dragway.
2:05
In this conversation, we just won't get to every car, race, record or backstory.
2:11
He has done so much in his amazing life that that is nigh on impossible to cover everything, right?
2:18
We were overdue for this chat and I wanted the conversation to flow like it would by a barbecue, which we kind of were.
2:26
So in summary, if you don't know Jim Reid, he is in the International Drag Racing Hall of Fame, the Andra and Australian Motorsport Halls of Fame.
2:36
He was the first Aussie to better seven seconds over the quarter mile.
2:40
He then went six...
2:41
and five.
2:42
He was the first Australian to better 300 mile an hour at the end of the quarter mile.
2:47
Jim has won 17 national championships, 16 Australian championships, 10 winter nationals.
2:55
There are New South Wales championships, grand finals, USA versus Australia match races, and he was successful against the Kiwis too, as well as racing in the United States.
3:06
Pretty amazing for a kid who grew up in Sydney South, moved around a bit after his parents split up, but always had a really good work ethic, even if school wasn't for him.
3:19
On paper, you'd think those odds were against him, but it only made him stronger and unafraid for the more than half a century of drag racing success that was to come.
3:34
I know you grew up as a young bloke in Lakemba.
3:36
Yes, that's right.
3:37
When did the fascination with cars sort of start for you?
3:41
What was the earliest recollection you've got of cars?
3:43
Maybe it's something in the driveway when you were younger.
3:45
What was it?
3:47
I always liked motor cars simply because way back in the 50s and the early 60s,
3:58
I could put a dark hat on when I was 11 years old and drive my brother-in-law's Land Rover down through Beverly Hills and up to Hurstville on a Saturday morning.
4:09
How old are we?
4:10
11?
4:10
About 11, yeah.
4:12
Manual?
4:13
Oh, yeah.
4:14
It was all a matter of...
4:15
It had two gear sticks, but my brother-in-law at the time did what was called diamond percussion drilling.
4:22
And that was all out where the lake scheme is at Penrith at the time, right through that area.
4:27
And he'd bring home this Land Rover.
4:29
And my older brother had taught me to drive on a 36 Ford.
4:36
And the old 36 Ford, you know, it had that big buckle come off the top of the gears, the handbrake to pull the handbrake on.
4:44
And this was from about 10 years on.
4:46
And when we'd drive up the street, he would clip me under the ear if I did something wrong.
4:52
So you learnt.
4:53
Whack up the back of the ear, don't do that wrong.
4:57
And I just fell in love with cars.
4:59
And back then, a lot of it was Fords because my brother had a 36.
5:05
Other brother-in-law had a 30, 38.
5:08
The other brother-in-law had a 30, 90 found.
5:11
You've heard the story.
5:12
I went on a farm and underneath all of this stuff in a shed was a fort.
5:16
That's what happened to him.
5:17
This thing was like brand new.
5:19
And I got to drive all of them.
5:22
And, you know, looking up over the steering wheel, the thing that used to get me was the windscreen.
5:25
Why it went like this across the top.
5:27
It was back.
5:28
Hanging down.
5:29
The cars were always fascinated, but didn't have a clue how to work on them.
5:34
You didn't?
5:34
No, no.
5:37
I could change a world, that was all.
5:38
Clearly you were entrepreneurial, right?
5:42
Or a good, good hard worker.
5:45
School obviously wasn't for you.
5:48
The move into plumbing, which was the early sort of... That was to keep me out of the boys' home.
5:54
Was it?
5:54
Yeah.
5:54
So what did you do?
5:55
How did that come about?
5:56
How it come about was this.
6:00
We ended up moving down to Brunswick Heads, and I was working for a painter.
6:05
Painting, and we were painting the Byron Bay Picture Show, which is still there, but you don't know, no one knows it was the picture show.
6:11
I do.
6:11
Wow.
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Because I found it.
6:13
How old were you then, at this stage?
6:15
I was 14 by this.
6:17
Okay.
6:18
Just a little bit over 14, see?
6:20
So anyway, this guy had this international truck and
6:29
He had a big sign of the man who put the colour into Surfers Paradise.
6:32
One time when Surfers Paradise was one building high, he painted the whole main street.
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Wow.
6:37
His name was W.J.
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Holloway.
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He limped one way, his wife limped the other.
6:41
They'd walk down the street like this.
6:44
Anyway, he buys us these electric drills with sanders on it.
6:50
Now, you imagine a picture show.
6:51
It's a weatherboard.
6:52
We've got to sand it.
6:55
So we'd pick up a handful of the crap and put it in with the brushes.
6:59
Saw it blow up.
7:01
Anyway, in the end, I got a job in a fishing trawler.
7:04
It was the best job I ever had in my life, I'll tell you.
7:06
Really?
7:06
Yes.
7:07
Oh, yeah, yeah.
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I loved it.
7:08
We went out at six.
7:10
In the morning?
7:11
Night.
7:11
Night, okay.
7:12
Prawning trawler.
7:13
Uh-huh, yeah.
7:14
And we'd go four hours north.
7:17
Offshore, yeah?
7:18
Right.
7:19
Well, we'd go six mile offshore.
7:20
We'd go four hours north.
7:23
And I either drove or slept or sorted.
7:27
But we'd pull up the first haul and they used to have a belt that went around with clips because either side of the boat would be as many sharks you could ever want to see in your entire life.
7:39
So the guy who owned the boat would rush out with a gun, shoot a couple of sharks and we'd haul ass away.
7:46
And the rest of the sharks, blood, they'd just kill each other.
7:51
Otherwise we wouldn't get the nets in.
7:53
And they were very concerned that I'd
7:55
fall overboard and get eaten, see?
7:57
So I would sleep for four, drive the boat for four and sort for four.
8:02
We'd get in at six in the morning and I'd have a basket, big cane basket full of... Prawns?
8:09
Yeah, slightly reject fish and prawns and we lived right behind the hotel and Mum worked in the kitchen in the hotel.
8:17
So I'd go home, give them to Mum, Mum would go over and sell them.
8:21
Fresh.
8:22
And then there was a bait shop and...
8:25
that a guy from Auburn, Bruce was his name, big red-headed guy, and he owned the bait shop and he leased the caravan park that was there right on the water.
8:37
And I used to pump the bait for them.
8:41
And then, of course, another ice run.
8:43
There was Johnny Austin, and he had a 1939 Chev that was converted into a ute.
8:49
And we'd go to Mullumbimby, come back with the load and sell it through the caravan park.
8:54
And then I'd go out in the afternoon and chop cordwood in the Burringborough Ranges.
8:58
Wow.
8:58
Yeah.
8:59
It was good.
9:00
But think about this.
9:03
I was 14.
9:03
Hmm.
9:05
That was 76 fucking years ago.
9:06
Right?
9:06
Yeah.
9:09
And I used to earn five pounds a night on the boat.
9:13
So the local cop... Hmm.
9:16
who was a friend, the painter painted the police station.
9:19
Next thing the local cop comes down to see mum and it was in the December when I was 14, that was a lot of years back, and told mum,
9:33
listen, your boy has to go back to school.
9:36
School, hmm.
9:38
Or he has to go back and work for the painter or I'm going to ring the education department and tell him where he is.
9:45
Mum said, oh, okay, can I think about it?
9:48
Hmm.
9:50
She said, yeah, okay.
9:52
Well, it was in the December and I would turn 15 the next month.
9:56
Mm-hmm.
9:58
And if I weren't an indentured apprentice... By the time you were 15?
10:03
Mm-hmm.
10:04
I was gone for three years to a home.
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Sugar.
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So Mum made the decision.
10:10
We're going home.
10:11
We come and lived in Auburn.
10:13
Okay.
10:13
In Sydney.
10:14
Yeah.
10:14
So that we're near Mum's house in Lakemba.
10:18
Mm-hmm.
10:19
And I got interviewed to be an electrician.
10:25
And I got interviewed to be a plumber.
10:28
And the plumber said, yeah, I'll give you a job.
10:32
Never had an apprentice.
10:33
And I was the only one who ever worked for him.
10:36
And I worked for him for five years.
10:38
And then I went out on my own.
10:40
And they came round and knocked on the door.
10:45
And mum said, wave the indentured apprentice papers at them.
10:51
We had some top ties when we were kids, but my mum wasn't rich.
10:58
My dad, when everyone was getting five or six or eight pound a week, my dad was getting 15, 16 pound a week.
11:05
Mum doesn't know what he'd do with it.
11:07
Wow.
11:07
Yeah.
11:09
Mum's house that she built when I was born in Lakemba, Morris Yemmert often says, your mum's house is still around there, Jim.
11:18
I said, yeah, mate, but she don't own it.
11:20
She hasn't been there for... Mum died.
11:23
But if you pulled up out the front right now, nothing's changed.
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The colour, the fence, nothing.
11:30
It's the same.
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Wow.
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It's eerie to pull up out the front.
11:34
You're expecting mum to walk out the front door.
11:36
Wow.
11:36
Yeah.
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And it's the same with the next door neighbours.
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It doesn't look like they've cut the grass since mum sold out 30 years ago.
11:43
Okay.
11:44
But they were exciting times.
11:46
And my poor dad, he died when he was 49 of bowel cancer and they didn't know.
11:56
1962.
11:57
Mm-hmm.
12:00
He was 49.
12:03
No one knew at the time what they were even looking for.
12:05
They operated on him three times and didn't know.
12:08
Well, I'm the only survivor.
12:10
Oh, really?
12:11
Out of his... Side of the family.
12:14
Yeah, because Bruce and Phil and now Luke, my other son, they all have to go and have the check-ups.
12:20
My daughter has to have it.
12:22
I...
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I was very fortunate that my family doctor in the 80s was a great guy.
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I think Bruce still talks to him.
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Asked me one day, he said, Jim, where's mum and dad?
12:41
I told him.
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Mum at that time was still alive.
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And mum had heart problems, bad, and that's where I got the heart problem from.
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And he said, what did dad die of?
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I told him and he said,
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Right.
12:56
Picked up the phone.
12:57
Go here tomorrow.
12:59
You're going to have a...
13:01
Check.
13:02
Call an ospy.
13:05
If it wasn't for him, I'd be dead.
13:07
Really?
13:07
Yep.
13:07
Because...
13:09
They found in my bowel a lump and he said, there's only one way to describe it.
13:16
This is the surgeon.
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He said, Jim, it looks like Ayers Rock in your bowel.
13:21
He said, we don't know whether it's cancer.
13:25
We don't know.
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We won't know until we take it out.
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So they took 300 of the bowel.
13:32
Yeah.
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And sure enough, it was cancer, but it hadn't got out of the bowel wall.
13:40
He said another three or four weeks, this would have been out of the bowel wall and it would have been over.
13:45
Because, you know, back then they didn't.
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Dad was operated on three times, the poor bugger.
13:53
But the saddest part about Dad dying was he died on Mum's birthday at three minutes to midnight.
14:00
And my brother begged him.
14:04
7th of May just passed.
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It was Mum's birthday.
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And at three minutes to midnight, my brother begged him, go away, come back after midnight.
14:13
Let it not be this day kind of thing.
14:14
It was in Lewishan Hospital.
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And it was a Catholic hospital and Dad hated Catholics for some reason.
14:23
No one knows why.
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And they wouldn't walk away.
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So it went down as the date of death, the 7th of May.
14:33
On a birthday.
14:33
Yeah.
14:34
And although they were still good friends, although they didn't live together, it shattered Mum.
14:40
It really did.
14:45
When you were working as a young plumber, when did you get your first ute or van or what was the first car as a plumber?
14:55
Because it ultimately leads to your first drag racing experience, this, doesn't it?
14:59
So, he says nodding.
15:01
What was the first one?
15:02
Come on.
15:03
The first ute I had.
15:07
was I couldn't afford a car, so I bought this FJ ute that was pretty much knocked around.
15:14
It was a good, one of the boys from Le Campbell was a pedal beater, and he hands me a whole bunch of rubbing down paper, and he said, you rub it all back and we'll paint it.
15:29
It was a piece of crap.
15:30
Yeah.
15:32
Thing came up looking brand new.
15:33
It really looked great.
15:35
You know.
15:36
Anyway, I ended up...
15:39
When Bruce's mum and I got married...
15:42
I ended up trading it in in Parramatta and bought my EH Ute, which was a 1964.
15:52
It only had a few kilometres up on it.
15:55
It was a beautiful thing.
15:57
I used to get a thrill out of just sitting in it, let alone driving it, because I'm a kid from Lakemville, you know.
16:05
There's still a magic looking, an EH is still a magic looking thing now, I think.
16:08
But anyway, keep going.
16:09
Yeah, so I'd buy this youth, but in the meantime, we'd move from Pennshurst.
16:18
His mother and I worked for three years to save up the deposit on a house.
16:24
The deposit was £300, three years.
16:27
Two jobs, two jobs.
16:30
So we didn't really know each other very well.
16:33
I was washing cabs for the night and...
16:35
You were only young too.
16:36
You were only like 20-odd or something, were you?
16:38
I was 19.
16:38
19.
16:39
There you go.
16:41
And, you know, like that's another story.
16:46
Telling a father that you're going to be a grandfather and he goes, A, A, deficit bludgeon.
16:54
Okay, okay.
16:55
Top bloke, top bloke.
16:56
But anyway, so I buy the EHU and the plumbing racks on it.
17:02
I pull the plumbing racks off.
17:04
most weekends anyway.
17:05
But when we moved to Guildford, opposite lived a guy by the name of Bruce Phillips.
17:12
Yep.
17:14
And Bruce, I'd wander over because I was fascinated.
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All these cars would pull up, and Graham Cowan was one of them.
17:22
Mm-hmm.
17:23
They'd pull up, and Bruce would be running from one car to the other on a weekend.
17:27
And I said to him, gee, you must be making some money here, Bruce.
17:30
Money, you know, why?
17:31
What are all these cars going here?
17:33
Mm-hmm.
17:34
Oh, well, like their mates.
17:39
I said, mate, there's no friends in business.
17:41
I said, you've got to get paid for this.
17:44
Oh, well, Bruce was really soft, see.
17:46
And he married a Le Canberra girl, would you believe.
17:48
Okay.
17:49
Jan.
17:50
Anyway, and I said, no, you've got to tell these people this.
17:54
You've got to charge them.
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So as the cars were pulling up, I said, listen, guys, Bruce's got a mortgage to pay, just like all of us.
18:05
So there's gonna be a charge.
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They all got the shit and drove off.
18:11
Didn't wanna pay him.
18:13
And that was about that time where Bruce was showing me his little back shed, which is probably a normal garage, a little garage here.
18:22
He's got all these tools in there and he's grinding this and grinding that.
18:26
And I said, I said, Bruce, we could start a business here and make some money.
18:32
I said, but you're going to have to teach me so I know what you're doing.
18:38
So it was doing cylinder heads.
18:40
Okay.
18:41
So we started building cylinder heads, so we experimented with my youth.
18:44
We built a cylinder head.
18:46
Burt Jones had just opened up in Parramatta, Burt Jones Cams.
18:49
Yep, yep.
18:50
And I just happened to be in the right place at the right time.
18:54
I didn't know shit.
18:55
Okay.
18:56
We decided we'd call it P&R Performance.
18:59
Okay.
18:59
Phillips and Reid.
19:00
And Bruce was a genius.
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So away we go, we'd start the business, get it up and go.
19:05
And every afternoon after work, because Bruce was an electrician, Joey Gatt would turn up.
19:12
And Joe and Bruce were both electricians, they were good guys, and poor old Joe had a few sad stories to his name, but he'd come by for a bit of company and whatever.
19:25
The trouble was once we got it up and going, Bruce wanted to do ten different projects at once and I didn't.
19:31
I didn't want to concentrate on one thing.
19:32
Yeah.
19:35
Now, the part I'm going to tell you now about the U, nobody knows.
19:39
Oh.
19:39
And I was going to tell this story at Bruce's.
19:44
60th?
19:45
60th.
19:45
Yeah.
19:46
Right.
19:46
Yeah.
19:46
Because no one knows.
19:47
Okay.
19:50
Bert gives me this camshaft, and I'd pull up, be driving along, and you'd pull up, and it didn't go... ..like a... Big lumpy cam.
20:01
When you put your foot in the throttle, it was gone.
20:06
Well, I used to have this bad habit of Ricky the racer would pull up beside me at the lights.
20:11
I'd burn him off to the other side and get off the throttle so I couldn't get pulled.
20:14
Yeah.
20:16
Well, it worked.
20:19
Back then there was no seat belts.
20:22
Bruce is in the car with me.
20:23
He's two years old.
20:25
The Three Swallows pub over at Yaguna.
20:29
Yeah.
20:30
On the corner of what I think they call it, Liverpool Road.
20:34
Yeah.
20:36
The lights go up and the road dog legs.
20:39
One of the first ever McDonald's was built just up past the fire station.
20:43
I was sitting there this night and there's things pulled up beside me and I think it was an early Tirana.
20:48
And it was romp, romp, romp.
20:51
And every now and then Ricky would give it a blap and romp, romp.
20:54
I think, you fucking idiot.
20:57
I've got you covered.
21:00
So the lights go green.
21:01
I've not heard of Castle Row anyway.
21:03
The lights go green and I nail it.
21:07
Like he's still sitting back there smoking the tyres.
21:09
I'm over the other side of the interstate.
21:10
If I shut it off, I won't speed it.
21:13
As I get up the road to go around the dog leg, this cop walks out.
21:20
Points to you.
21:20
Pull over.
21:22
So I pull over.
21:23
And he comes around and I said, did I do something wrong, sir?
21:27
Did I do something wrong, sir?
21:30
Well, he said, well, we'll debate that.
21:32
He said, I said, but I didn't speed.
21:35
He said, no.
21:36
He said, I've seen what you did.
21:37
You just come across the intersection and, you know, you come across it.
21:43
Quit.
21:43
You didn't get over the speed limit and you got straight off the throttle.
21:47
He said, for a moment I thought you'd seen me.
21:49
I said, no, sir, I'd never seen you.
21:50
I didn't lay eyes on you.
21:53
And I said, well, why have you pulled me up?
21:55
And he pointed, see that little boy?
21:58
I said, yeah.
21:59
He said, there's no seatbelts.
22:02
I said, yeah.
22:03
He said, is that your son?
22:04
I said, yes.
22:06
He said, it rescued the kid's life.
22:11
No seatbelts.
22:12
If a dog or something ran out, you had to jump on the brakes, you would put him through the glove box.
22:17
He said, I have no reason to book you.
22:22
But if ever you drive along here again and you do that, that child's in the car, I'll think up things to book you.
22:32
Anyway, I said, oh, well, I'm sorry if I've upset you because it hadn't sunk in.
22:37
So as I'm about to drive, it gets, listen.
22:43
You seem pretty good to take an off at lights.
22:45
There's a place out the back of Penrith somewhere.
22:48
They have drag racing.
22:49
He said, I said, they have what?
22:51
Drag racing.
22:51
He said, that's where you need to go, see.
22:53
So, oh, OK.
22:55
So I'm at home the next day telling Bruce.
22:58
Oh, he meant Castle Row.
23:00
I said, what's that, Bruce?
23:01
He said, it's a drag strip.
23:04
I said, well, fair enough.
23:08
Percy Mitchell comes around, another friend.
23:11
And I'd bought Bruce, a sausage dog off Percy Mitchell, and he's what?
23:15
He's got an FJ.
23:18
Hole in black.
23:19
Lowered every...
23:23
I said to Percy, that sounds like a race car.
23:27
Yeah, he said, it's mine.
23:29
And Bruce says, he doesn't know a thing about Castle Ray.
23:34
Well, I'm going out there tomorrow.
23:37
You want to come for a run?
23:38
I said, yeah, I'll come for a run out with you.
23:40
So he turns up.
23:42
Off we go.
23:44
He said, do you want to drive?
23:46
I said, I'll drive home.
23:47
So out we go to the races.
23:48
Percy goes out and races and...
23:51
I'm sitting there, I'm just dumbfounded, absolutely.
23:53
Like spellbound, you loved it.
23:55
Oh, fell in love with it.
23:56
The instant we drove in the place up to Inksman Road.
24:00
And then, so going home, he said, you can drive.
24:03
So we get out, we go down the Castle Road Strait.
24:06
He said, for fuck's sake, give it a bit of throttle.
24:11
Wrong, we're off up the Castle Road Strait and I'm just sitting there, I'm just blown away.
24:15
Because I hadn't even driven with you that fast.
24:20
Well, he said to me, you seem like you're enjoying this.
24:22
He said, go over through Penrith and we'll go down to Elizabeth Drive and you can come back in across that way.
24:28
We'll go the long way home.
24:29
Well, I had a ball.
24:30
I got home.
24:31
So then that's when we put triple S shoes and every girl's on the ute.
24:37
So we finally go out to race it.
24:40
The worst thing in the world happened.
24:41
What?
24:42
I won.
24:45
From the get-go in the Plumber Ute.
24:47
I love it.
24:49
First time I went out and raced, I won.
24:51
And they give me a trophy.
24:53
And I'm looking at this trophy like... Best thing ever.
24:57
I couldn't believe it.
24:59
You know, and I got the bug real bad.
25:01
And I just loved it.
25:02
But the first time I ever seen a fuel car...
25:07
I ran and hid behind a tree because I couldn't...
25:11
I'd never heard anything make a noise like that.
25:13
It frightened me.
25:14
I said, there's something wrong with that.
25:15
I said, no, it's not.
25:16
That's a fuel car.
25:17
I can't remember.
25:18
It might have been Ash Marshall or Eddie Thomas.
25:21
But I just looked and one of the boys said to me... Oh, I'll tell you what it was.
25:27
It was the...
25:29
Champion spark plug guy.
25:30
And I feel embarrassed.
25:31
I've forgotten his name.
25:32
He was just a nice man.
25:34
And right up until probably 15 years ago, we got free plugs.
25:38
Wow.
25:38
Until somebody interfered.
25:40
Okay.
25:41
But anyway, he said to me, he came up to me one day and said, this holding's not going to run real good.
25:48
You need new plugs.
25:49
He started giving me new plugs.
25:51
And I said, you know what?
25:54
I'm going to own one of those fuel cars one day.
25:57
Oh, I'll go away.
25:57
You can't do that.
25:59
Walked away and I said, yes, I can.
26:01
Well, the man responsible for owning the fuel car, would you believe, was Keith Williams.
26:06
Wow.
26:07
Yeah.
26:08
Keith and...
26:09
I built a junior fueller.
26:10
Mm-hmm.
26:13
And went out and raced it, but there was only two junior fuelers in Australia.
26:17
Mm-hmm.
26:18
It was fuel injected on nitro fuel,
26:23
Chev Motors or supercharged on methanol right and Keith we went to Queensland to race and then Keith said look the Nationals is on here Jim in a few weeks because we've got to know Keith quite well and he said I want you to come up he said but the only place I can let you run is in Top Fuel he said because there's no bracket for your guy you and Billy Fuller
26:53
Well, so Bill and I get put into Top Fuel.
26:58
And I think Graeme Withers was there and Peter Pike in the BB Mulligan car and I think Wanless's car was there in the high chair where he couldn't see.
27:10
Ronnie, yeah.
27:12
And unfortunately for them, I beat them all.
27:15
Wow.
27:16
Well, they stepped on the throttle because I'd hole shot them.
27:19
So they'd shoot at their pants on the throttle.
27:21
Instead of backing off because the tyres were smoking, they just held them flat until they'd sawed themselves in half.
27:27
And that was when Keith said to me, you know what, Jim, we need...
27:34
a sponsor in this sport, a big sponsor.
27:40
I said, yeah.
27:42
He said, do you want to go and race top fuel?
27:44
I said, why?
27:46
I fell in love with the Mulligan car.
27:48
Just fell in love with it.
27:49
Just couldn't get over it.
27:50
Just fascinated with it.
27:53
Well, he sold me the car, complete with a box trailer at the time, full of spare parts, just everything you'd ever want in the box.
28:02
And to give you an idea, you never blew up motors or threw the rods out back then.
28:05
Back then.
28:07
And I think we paid him £6,500 for the lot.
28:10
And he'd give me a phone number.
28:12
He said, when did you get...
28:14
When you get home on Monday morning, ring this phone number.
28:18
I said, who am I ringing?
28:18
He said, oh, Jim, for fuck's sake, shut up.
28:20
Just ring the phone number.
28:23
So I go home.
28:27
Monday morning comes around.
28:28
I think, oh, I'd better ring that phone number, see, so I pick up the phone.
28:31
Back when you're dialing, dialing with a...
28:35
And I was there, ring, ring, ring, ring, and next to me the girl at the other end says, good morning, Rothmans of Pall Mall, how can I help you?
28:42
And I went, fuck.
28:43
Put the phone down, I shit myself.
28:47
I've gone, oh, Jesus Christ, what's Keith doing to me?
28:52
Anyway.
28:53
How is this plumber from Lakemba going to deal with a big corporation and all this sort of... Is that what's going through your mind?
28:59
I couldn't... No, but we weren't ready for it.
29:03
So an hour later, I pluck up the courage to dial it again and the girl at the other end said, are you the gentleman who rang earlier and hung up?
29:15
I said, yes, I was.
29:16
She said, who did you wish to talk to?
29:18
I said, Mr. Russ Fuller, please.
29:21
And may I say...
29:23
Who's calling?
29:24
I said, Jim Reed.
29:26
Oh yes, Mr Reed, we've been expecting your phone call.
29:30
Mr Williams has sent us a note.
29:34
Well this Russ Fuller, he was a brand manager.
29:40
He was, he wasn't, they didn't have a sponsorship manager.
29:45
Nothing like that, they were still developing, see?
29:48
So I go up and sit down in his office and he said, this is how we talk.
29:53
Oh, well, Uncle Keith's told us all about you.
29:58
I said, yeah, Uncle Keith.
30:01
Oh, that's what we call him, Randy.
30:02
I said, oh, good.
30:04
Should I call him that?
30:04
He said, no.
30:06
Anyway.
30:09
He said, so you've got a drag.
30:10
I said, right, when are you running?
30:12
I said, this Saturday night in Sydney.
30:14
So he comes out the races, and he's brought a bunch of people with him.
30:20
Down the track I go, come back.
30:23
I get my funny car.
30:25
My Mustang funny car.
30:27
What's that?
30:29
It's a Mustang funny car.
30:30
This is mine.
30:32
Oh, we've got to have that too.
30:34
How much money we've got to give you?
30:37
That's what they...
30:38
Anyway, I already had a figure in my head which wasn't a lot of money at the time.
30:42
Time, yeah.
30:44
And...
30:46
They signed up both cars and then the team started rolling.
30:51
Then not long after, Ian Cleman had come to work there.
30:55
And Ian Cleman and I hit it off pretty good.
30:58
He was like a brother to you, mate, wasn't he?
31:00
Oh, mate.
31:03
I know.
31:05
It makes you sad.
31:07
I'm sorry.
31:08
I'm sorry.
31:11
Losing him was very, very difficult.
31:12
He loved my children.
31:12
I know.
31:17
There's a photo in my office of Ian.
31:21
When I die, they can bury it with me.
31:23
But it began a beautiful partnership, mate, and he was like you, in it, boots and all, basically, wasn't he?
31:32
Ian changed my life, you know.
31:37
He used to always correct me when I spoke wrong.
31:41
What did he say?
31:41
I think I have heard this saying.
31:43
He called you James, didn't he say James?
31:45
James, James, James.
31:47
He was about the only person that could do that too, wasn't he?
31:50
I hated him called James.
31:53
One of my great-grandsons was James.
31:56
Okay.
31:58
But Ian, there would be nothing for Ian and I to be on the phone at 2.30 in the morning.
32:06
He'd ring up, you in bed?
32:07
No, it's a little bad luck.
32:08
I mean, what's up?
32:10
And I used to do a lot of other things for Rothmans as well, like when they want something done in a hurry that was outside of the sponsorship, you know, like some project built for some special event, can you get this done?
32:27
Yeah, I can get that done.
32:30
And the funniest time was Ian calls me up and,
32:35
He said, Jim, Peter Stuyvesant.
32:37
Yep.
32:38
What about it?
32:39
No, I don't want it on the car.
32:42
Because you remember the ad?
32:44
Yeah.
32:44
London, Rome, Paris.
32:46
It was bullshit.
32:47
It was only sold in Australia.
32:49
It was sold in Newcastle, Wollongong and Sydney.
32:54
Anyway.
32:55
So.
32:57
We're going to sponsor the snow season, skiing races and stuff.
33:03
So what's that got to do with me?
33:05
We've got to get this trailer built.
33:08
Trailer.
33:10
So Ian used to draw things, and he's drawn this trailer.
33:17
It's got little hydraulic legs.
33:18
They went down, lifted it up.
33:20
You took the wheel off.
33:22
You took the grease cap off.
33:26
And you screwed on an adapter and put a ski on it.
33:29
And the same on the other side.
33:31
So the trailer could ski.
33:32
Is that what you're doing?
33:33
Tow it across the skis.
33:34
Oh, wow.
33:35
Across the snow.
33:36
Wow.
33:37
So, and then, you know, it had these hydraulics that lifted it up.
33:43
Well, they also acted for, it was a mobile store shop.
33:49
You press another button and up it'd go and it'd all fold out and the counter would come down and it was all done up Stuyvesant, it looked fabulous.
34:03
So it took us about three or four months to build it in the beginning.
34:09
So he came up with the drawing and you had to execute.
34:11
You had to make it, did you?
34:12
Well, we modified it to buggery.
34:14
Now, I was smart.
34:15
I'd go out and get quotes off my mates who I knew could do it, right?
34:20
Instead of me busting my ass because they had too many jobs they had me doing.
34:27
Calls me up.
34:28
Jim, yeah.
34:29
Can you go across and pick up a...
34:31
There's a brand new Land Rover at Liverpool in the store over there.
34:34
Yeah, what about it?
34:36
Could you go and get it?
34:38
I said, yeah, I can go and get it.
34:39
What do you want?
34:40
Well, we're going to tow the thing.
34:42
Right, no problem with you.
34:43
I said, we'll do that.
34:46
So I'll go over and pick up this brand new Land Rover, bring it back.
34:51
I said, Ian, the trailer, it's got to be registered.
34:54
Send me the information.
34:56
Jim, just register in your name for the moment.
34:58
Let's just move on.
35:00
Put some insurance on it.
35:01
Okay.
35:01
Right, so I do all of that.
35:03
So this fucking Bullfed, excuse my French, Bullfed who worked in Rothmans, they send him out to drive it down the snow.
35:10
So he takes it down the snow.
35:12
And somebody said, he said, where have I got to go?
35:14
And somebody said, it's got to go over there.
35:17
Yeah, well, there was a frozen creek in between.
35:21
So off he goes and it all ends up in the creek.
35:26
Well, they get it out of the creek, they dry it off.
35:28
Snow season's over.
35:32
So I wake up this morning, here's a Land Rover and a trailer outside my house.
35:36
I rang up and said, what's this doing here?
35:40
He said, well, what do you want us to do with it?
35:45
I said, well, I'll take the Land Rover back.
35:47
Where do you want me to drop the trailer?
35:49
What trailer?
35:50
He said, the trailer that's on the back of it, the one you got me to build.
35:54
He said, it's not our trailer, it's your trailer.
35:55
I said, what?
35:58
It's your trailer.
35:59
Trailer.
36:00
It's registered to join a minute, yeah.
36:02
We don't want it here.
36:07
You know, it was incredible, the effect, him and Keith Williams and others, but one of the funny things, I got real friendly with the head man worldwide.
36:18
He was in London when he was an Aussie, Bill.
36:21
Bill was a great guy, see, but none of them could talk to him, but I could.
36:26
And I'd get a phone call from Rhonda, who's still around, Rhonda,
36:31
Hey, Jim, yeah, can you turn up today, just wander in the main office?
36:36
He said, righto, righto, Rhonda.
36:39
So I wander in.
36:39
But you would wander in your plumbing gear, is that right?
36:42
Like your boots and your shorts?
36:44
No, here I am in a pair of shorts, a pair of thongs, right?
36:49
In the boardroom.
36:49
A T-shirt and a cigarette.
36:53
And then I wonder, what's up?
36:55
Put that cigarette out, we're all giving it up.
36:59
So I have to put the cigarette.
37:01
I suppose you want me to build another contraction to do something, rather.
37:05
No, no, no, no.
37:06
You be talking to Bill?
37:08
I said, yeah.
37:09
Can you ring him and just happen to mention this and this and this?
37:12
Yeah, I can do that for you.
37:15
Good man, good man.
37:17
Oh, Ross Fuller, he'd walk over and slap me on the back.
37:20
Ross, enough.
37:23
But I had a fabulous relationship, you know,
37:27
Somebody said to me, you've had a fantastic life.
37:31
I said, taught me to believe in God.
37:33
I said, because no one else could create the life I've had.
37:46
Legend, a word that probably isn't even as good enough to describe Jim Reed, it's the same for another famous Aussie drag racer, Victor Bray, who puts you right in the driver's seat in his episode with Rusty.
37:59
So the reaction time, which is separate to the ET, when the green light comes on, you can sit there for five minutes and then still run the same ET.
38:07
Or you can be right on the vol and hit that second light that starts the timers within .0001 of a second.
38:13
Some people do .0001.
38:15
So, you know, the reaction time has become very important because even though some guy might be running a 560 and you're only running a 570, you can gain that on the tree.
38:25
You can find the two-part chat with Victor Bray in the Rusty's Garage Library, but your reaction time won't be good enough to do it before I finish this sentence.
38:34
Now it's back to Jim Reid.
38:37
How the hell did you juggle it?
38:39
How did you juggle from...
38:40
I mean, you went from plumbing to pools, as you say.
38:42
The pool work you were doing around Sydney was extensive.
38:45
You're running this race team, which is going on to do incredible things.
38:49
How the hell did you do that?
38:50
Oh, well, I had some good people work for me, but, like...
38:53
Getting towards the end of the 70s, there was a lot of new laws being brought in and I had a full builder's licence.
39:03
It was just a coincidence that I happened to build a pool for the head of the builder's licensing board.
39:11
And he sort of upgraded my swimming pool builder's licence.
39:15
He says with a wry smile.
39:16
I've still got a copy of it.
39:17
I love it.
39:18
Well, back 2018, a certain...
39:24
Minister offered to call them because I'd only a couple of years beforehand have a licence in and get it back for me because I had a real short number at all.
39:32
Wow.
39:34
But it was, look, I had a little buddy of forever.
39:41
When I just started to race the junior fueler,
39:46
On the front door, and I go answer the front door, and there's this guy standing at the front door.
39:50
He's got fucking hair down longer than his armpits.
39:54
He's got a pair of white overalls on, and a pair of thongs, and a can of beer and a cigarette.
40:03
I looked at him and said, yeah, can I help you?
40:05
Yeah, I heard you needed someone to help you with your race car.
40:11
I said, well, I don't have long hair.
40:13
Hmm.
40:14
I don't drink beer, I don't wear white overalls, and I certainly wear safety shoes, all right?
40:20
I'll see you later.
40:21
Shut the door.
40:23
About four weeks later, the front door opened the door.
40:26
He says, the guy's sitting at the door.
40:29
Nice haircut and everything.
40:31
Nice pair of shorts, socks, shoes, T-shirt, can of Coke.
40:39
I looked at him and said, do I know you?
40:40
He said, yeah, I was the guy who asked you about a job.
40:42
I said, was you?
40:44
He said, how do I look?
40:45
I said, you've gone to that effort.
40:50
You can come and help me on my race car.
40:53
Come on in.
40:53
I said, oh, by the way, you're drinking Coke, yeah?
40:56
I said, would you like some Scotch in that Coke?
40:59
I said, I don't drink beer, I just drink Scotch.
41:03
Oh, he was relieved.
41:04
And the poor little bugger's got dementia now.
41:07
He's 82.
41:10
He was like another father to the boys.
41:13
And he's going downhill pretty bad, the poor bugger.
41:18
And he worked for me in the pools.
41:21
Mm-hmm.
41:22
as well as with the race car.
41:24
And then another guy by the name of Alan Harris, and that helped that out.
41:28
But I just decided in the early 80s, it was getting to the point where Bruce can tell you the paperwork involved these days with councils.
41:38
You can wait a year to get... Get approval.
41:41
Get the approval.
41:42
So I basically...
41:45
just decided I didn't want to do that anymore.
41:48
So I'd do something else, you know.
41:49
I was never afraid to have a go at anything because I used to tell people,
41:55
They said, oh, you didn't go to school?
41:56
I said, no, and I'm glad I didn't.
41:57
They said, why?
41:58
I said, because I probably would never have been game to do the things I did if I had been educated.
42:03
I did.
42:04
And they said, but how do you get on now?
42:06
I said, I've got a good lawyer, I've got a good account, and I've got a damn good wife.
42:11
And a great work ethic, mate, a massive work ethic.
42:13
And I said, you know, you feel pretty good because if someone had told me 58 years ago that I'd be out there drag racing and I'd have...
42:24
my three sons, mainly my Bruce and Phil, but Luke's driving the truck now, and two grandsons and another grandson coming along and all working on the same team.
42:34
And my wife and Kim and others and my daughter-in-law, Julie.
42:41
It's just a big family effort and everything.
42:44
I'm just...
42:45
I feel very proud of them all.
42:47
It is an amazing story, mate.
42:49
Am I right in saying it was one of the longest-running sponsorships in Australian sporting history?
42:55
Yes, yes.
42:56
Crazy.
42:57
Yeah.
42:57
Crazy.
42:58
For a kid who didn't finish school, went off and had his own business, found drag racing, and away this professional journey went.
43:08
I mean, it's just...
43:09
I still love it as much as I did with it the first time I seen it.
43:13
Really?
43:13
Yeah, I still...
43:16
I've only missed two drag racing meetings in my life, and they were last year when my wife and I were in Canada, and they moved the event, and then they moved the next one as well.
43:28
And we... No, when we come home, I was too ill...
43:32
Okay.
43:32
...with the heart problem.
43:34
And when I was in Canada,
43:38
Would you believe I went three years and never got COVID, never got anything, had all the injections.
43:42
It was a million dollars.
43:46
And we went to Canada.
43:48
We went to Manhattan, New York.
43:52
And the night of the final of the World Cup soccer, there was over 100,000 people between...
44:03
Like Times Square or where are you here?
44:04
Times Square.
44:05
Right.
44:06
It was about a kilometre walk up to our hotel and we couldn't move.
44:11
By the time we got into Canada, I was feeling ill and I'd caught COVID because we had all of the testing equipment.
44:20
And back two years, Kelly, my eldest daughter,
44:28
I said, Dad, when did you have a stress test last?
44:30
I said, kill them a million dollars.
44:31
No pain, no this, no that.
44:33
We're going to have a stress test.
44:35
So she's a cardiac care specialist.
44:38
So to keep her happy...
44:40
I went and had a stress test and I failed something unbelievable.
44:43
Oh, wow.
44:44
Didn't know.
44:45
They couldn't understand why I was alive.
44:47
They said there's not a vein that's not blocked.
44:51
Sugar.
44:51
If you had my shorts on, you'd see there's five big cuts out of my leg.
44:56
Okay.
44:56
They replaced every artery.
44:59
And...
45:00
And, you know, it wasn't dead perfect, so I have to take a lot of medication.
45:06
Okay.
45:07
But I've never had a heart attack, never had a pain.
45:11
You're sharp as a tack too, mate, hey?
45:13
But neither had my mum.
45:14
She had a first heart attack.
45:16
Right.
45:16
She was just sitting in the back of my sister's car and said, oh, my God, oh, my God, I've got pain.
45:20
Jumped up and stood up in the back of the car.
45:24
And she was having a massive heart attack and they rang me up.
45:27
It was about 1986 or something.
45:29
They rang me up and said, my brothers and my sisters were all there at the hospital.
45:33
Mum's going to die, mum's going to die, mum's going to die.
45:36
So I tailed her down to the hospital.
45:38
And there's mum laying back.
45:40
And mum was a Catholic lady and we were all Church of England.
45:44
And here's the priest there giving her the... Last rites.
45:47
Last rites.
45:47
And I walked in the room and said, what's going on here?
45:50
And there's Mum laying there.
45:52
I grabbed an older man, Mum.
45:53
I said, Mum, if you can hear me, squeeze my hand.
45:55
She squeezed my hand.
45:56
Mm-hm.
45:57
I said, Mum, you're not going to die on me, are you?
45:59
Squeeze my hand.
46:00
She squeezed my hand.
46:02
I said, sir?
46:03
Yep.
46:04
Out.
46:04
Out, yeah.
46:06
Looked around my brothers and sisters and said, get out.
46:07
Go and have a coffee.
46:09
Get out of here.
46:09
Mm.
46:11
She would have died if I hadn't walked in.
46:13
Mm.
46:14
Anyway, they did massive surgery on her.
46:18
Mm-hm.
46:20
And she'd lived at New Minor.
46:24
But they took her over to...
46:27
off Rookwood Road was rehab where she went.
46:31
And they still had the tube down her neck, although she was conscious and she could write me notes.
46:36
So I wasn't married at the time, and I was building pools, so I said to the nurses, can I come in in the night time?
46:45
They said, yeah, just come up the back stairs and you can sit and talk to her and she'll write your messages.
46:50
And she always used to write, when they take this tube out, I want a little ice cream.
46:56
So I told the nurses, a week or so went by, and they said the tube's coming out tomorrow, and I told them about the ice cream.
47:04
So they called me up, Jim, because we had the phone cards.
47:10
Jim, bring the ice cream, tube's out.
47:13
So I walk in this night with this great big bucket of ice cream.
47:17
Well, quite a lot of years went by, and Mum was still doing quite well, and
47:21
And she started to go downhill a bit and we don't know what it was.
47:24
We just think it was old age.
47:25
Because she would have been 109 this week.
47:28
Wow.
47:32
So I rev up to the hospital to see her up at Gosford.
47:38
I go in and stand around talking and I look at her and I go,
47:41
You're not really with us.
47:43
And she, in the end, I said, Mum, I've got to go back to Sydney, organise some work for my boys.
47:49
I'll be back tomorrow and I'll bring in the ice cream.
47:50
She just said, no more ice cream.
47:52
She died that night.
47:53
She knew.
47:54
She knew she was going to die.
47:56
So we were ready for it.
47:58
But it's just, you know, with the...
48:03
COVID had attacked my heart.
48:04
Okay.
48:05
Well, I mean...
48:06
In Canada?
48:06
I was hallucinating and everything.
48:08
Oh, wow.
48:08
Cost me $10,000 to get home.
48:11
Wrang the... Could not find a doctor within 500 miles than when we did of where we were in Canada.
48:17
Mm-hmm.
48:18
He said, unless you've got a broken leg through his disc, I can't help you.
48:22
I said, but you must know a cardiologist.
48:24
I've got to see a cardiologist in a hurry.
48:26
What would happen, my wife would take my pulse and it would go one, two, three, four, and then it would stop, and then my heart would go boom, boom, boom.
48:35
And then one, two, three, four, might go to ten and then stop.
48:38
Then my heart would start bouncing.
48:42
We rang the cardiologist here and he said to me, he said, Jim,
48:47
you're just going to have to weather the storm.
48:50
He said, you've got to be careful.
48:51
You don't have a stroke.
48:53
What do you want to do?
48:53
I said, I can't find a doctor.
48:55
I want to come home.
48:56
I said, in LA, Steve Crisman, who's a good friend of mine.
49:02
I've known Steve since he was a little kid.
49:05
I said, Steve's just had heart surgery and I've rung him.
49:07
He can have a cardiologist waiting for me.
49:10
And the doctor said, oh, Jim, you're going to have a stroke.
49:12
You're getting a plane.
49:13
I said, well, the first plane section is an hour and a half.
49:17
Mm-hmm.
49:19
I said, let's try it on.
49:20
I said, because I'm not going to die here in Canada.
49:23
Mm-hmm.
49:24
So we got on the first plane, I was fine.
49:27
So we got on the second flight into LA, and Denise said, what do you want to do?
49:31
I said, well, we'll see how I feel when we get into LA.
49:35
So we got into LA, and I'm feeling a million dollars better.
49:38
So we get on that new plane.
49:39
Mm-hmm.
49:43
I'm a million dollars.
49:43
We're back there in business.
49:46
The new business class is outstanding.
49:48
Eaten away.
49:50
Gone by Hawaii.
49:55
Next minute, this unmerciful fucking bang.
49:59
And all the lights went out.
50:02
At the time, he was flying at 42,000 feet.
50:05
Mm-hmm.
50:07
He was doing 658 mile an hour with a 55 mile an hour tailwind.
50:14
He dropped down to 20,000 feet, 400 and something mile an hour.
50:19
Still a bit of a tailwind.
50:21
Then the plane blacked out.
50:23
So people were running everywhere.
50:25
Next to me, the lights are back on.
50:27
Next to me, the captain comes on.
50:28
Hello, everybody.
50:29
You just heard the bang.
50:31
And you notice we've slowed down and blah, blah, blah.
50:34
We're going to make a landing at American Samoa.
50:38
Yeah, because we had a motor blow up and we've only got one left.
50:46
I thought, COVID won't kill me, this fucking plane will.
50:50
Anyway, we landed there and then finally we got home a couple of days later.
50:55
They bought another plane from Dallas to get us home.
51:00
and we're tipping they had a motor for the other plane, the plane from Dallas or something or other.
51:05
But it was quite an experience.
51:10
The COVID was something I'd never had a problem with for four years and then I actually thought I was going to die.
51:18
Did you?
51:18
I've never, in everything I've experienced throughout my life, nothing frightened me more than having that COVID in.
51:27
It went for my life and a quick thinking, and I didn't know where I was.
51:34
That's a big statement, considering all of the things you've achieved at the wheel of a race car, drag racing, accidents and things.
51:43
That scared you the most?
51:44
Scared me more than anything's ever scared me.
51:47
Wow.
51:47
Yeah.
51:48
No.
51:49
It just...
51:51
When I'm looking at a window and can't figure out where that window was because I thought it was in my house here, then I'm looking up at the ceiling and the sad part about it was in our main bedroom, and you're lonely in bed looking up, there's a fan.
52:09
So you're hallucinating, you're thinking you're at home.
52:11
Yeah, and over here is the bathroom.
52:14
We've been a diabetic, you pee three or four times a night, and over there was our bedroom windows.
52:22
So I'm looking around thinking, who changed the house?
52:26
And I needed a piece, so I got up.
52:29
My wife said, the bathroom's that way.
52:31
This is in the motel.
52:34
But then I'd wake up at seven in the morning, get dressed, go downstairs, get coffee, and come back up and sit down.
52:40
Brand new.
52:41
Yeah.
52:41
And then it started again.
52:43
And it was probably the worst film I've ever had.
52:47
Like, I remember when I crashed the car.
52:50
Yeah.
52:53
The car left, picked up the front end.
52:56
Where were you?
52:56
Take people there.
52:57
Tell people this story.
52:58
Tell people this story.
53:00
Well, what had happened, we'd gone to Willowbank to test.
53:05
David Yohara was here from America, where I built the car.
53:08
Yep.
53:09
And we had some things we wanted to try out.
53:12
Willowbank was in the process of testing.
53:18
developing the track a bit more and they were pulling the arm co-railing out widening the track a little bit and putting concrete walls in.
53:26
Well the rain had held them up and that side of the track wasn't prepped properly at all and it was actually mud.
53:38
You know, we're all smart asses, I can do this, you know, I can run down here.
53:44
Well I jumped on the throttle
53:47
And I'm trying to think, I think it was Rice and Louis
53:52
And as the car left, the back hung out, and one back wheel dropped off the concrete.
54:01
Yep.
54:01
Got one back wheel in the mud, so it couldn't go anywhere.
54:05
It just started to pick up the front end.
54:08
And I've reefed it around, but to no avail, because the car's in the air.
54:14
And finally the back wheel come back on, and it just come up higher.
54:19
And I'm looking over the other side and I thought, I can't steer this because I can't get hold of it.
54:24
I'm gonna crash.
54:25
So I put this hand in here and grabbed the seatbelt.
54:29
That hand in there grabbed the seatbelt.
54:30
So you're crossing your arms here as you're telling the story.
54:32
You've crossed your arms, hands off the wheel, grabbing the belts.
54:34
Yes.
54:36
And here comes the Armco railing.
54:40
Well, the front sword up and over it.
54:43
And next minute I know I'm up in the air and it's upside down.
54:48
And I'm looking down thinking, why is that guy running for his life through the car park?
54:53
Sugar.
54:53
Because there's a car park out to the left.
54:55
The car's going backwards, up in the air.
54:59
And here's this guy running for his life.
55:02
Well, I didn't know until we looked at the footage later the reason he's running for his life.
55:07
There's one back wheel that had come off and was chasing him through the car park.
55:10
Instead of darting up the side of the car, the wheel weren't going to make a right or a left-hand turn.
55:15
But he's running away from it, stupid.
55:17
Anyway, so was I.
55:18
So the car's upside down, and I'm thinking, this is going to hurt.
55:23
This is going to hurt next minute.
55:25
I feel whack, this crash.
55:29
Boom, boom, boom, lands on the ground.
55:32
Everything's black by this.
55:34
I thought, shit, I'm dead.
55:37
I swear to God, I thought I was dead.
55:39
Everything was black.
55:40
I couldn't see any.
55:41
Not a thing.
55:43
I thought, oh, well, I'm dead.
55:45
It's not as bad as I thought it was going to be.
55:48
Next minute I hear this voice, Jim, Jim, are you all right?
55:52
It's one of the officials.
55:54
And as I flicked my head back, the mask went up and I could see the mask had come down.
55:59
Come down.
55:59
Okay.
56:00
I said, I think so.
56:04
I said, get me out of here.
56:05
No, no, no, I've got to leave you there until the end.
56:07
I said, get me out of here.
56:08
I want to get out.
56:09
Next minute, Rob Cav come along, walks over, picks him up, threw him to one side.
56:14
He said, what do you want to do, mate?
56:16
He said, wiggle your fingers.
56:18
This hand was out here.
56:20
The front end was on it.
56:22
This hand's out here.
56:23
The fuel tank's sitting on it.
56:25
So despite being cross-armed, your arms are being in the crash flung outside?
56:29
Out through the window.
56:31
If the car had a roll, it would have broke, tore both my arms off.
56:34
It didn't.
56:35
Hit the pole, fell to the ground.
56:38
First thing that was in my favour, it was daytime.
56:40
There was no power on.
56:41
Okay.
56:41
The lights weren't on.
56:42
If there was, I was dead.
56:43
Because the wires were wrapped all around the car.
56:46
Yes.
56:48
I'm going, oh, Jesus, they're not supposed to be there.
56:50
I could wiggle everything.
56:51
I said, I can wiggle everything.
56:53
So I pulled my arms back in, and they got me out of the car.
56:57
And I can hear the motor still going, coughing.
57:01
It's rolling down the track.
57:02
Boom, boom, boom, boom, boom.
57:04
Still, it was way down.
57:06
So it's separated from the car, and it's rolling away.
57:08
It was probably the shed away from it.
57:11
So that was fine.
57:15
And they said, how do you feel?
57:16
I said, look, I feel all right.
57:18
Nothing's broke.
57:19
I feel all right.
57:20
Well, it's funny.
57:21
If you watch the footage, you'll see Louis and Sando taking me to the avalanche.
57:28
Really?
57:28
Yeah.
57:29
If you watch the footage, it's eerie.
57:32
Well, um...
57:36
The ambulance guy said, Jim, we'll take you in for a check-up, make sure everything's fine.
57:40
He copped any wax in the head.
57:42
I said, I wouldn't have felt him anyway.
57:43
I'm too stupid.
57:44
He laughed.
57:46
And he said, no, we'll take you to the hospital.
57:49
So a couple of minutes go by.
57:54
He said, listen, Jim, do you mind if we pick up a lady who's had a little accident up in the pits?
58:01
Hmm.
58:02
No, sorry, on the spectator mountain.
58:03
I said, no, there's no problem.
58:05
So off we go.
58:06
We go up to pick up this lady.
58:08
Well, here's this poor little old lady with a bone sticking out of her leg, right angles, a left leg.
58:16
Jim, Jim, are you all right, son?
58:19
Oh, Jim, you poor devil.
58:22
Oh, I feel so bad for you.
58:25
And I'm looking at her.
58:25
She's got a broken leg.
58:27
She fell off a milk crate because all these people jumped up.
58:30
She couldn't see it.
58:32
Anyway, they put her in the ambulance and all she could do was lay there and look at me, smiling away.
58:38
I'm looking at her leg and they mop and blow it up and I'm thinking, you poor devil.
58:44
So as we go into which hospital, it goes down underneath, see?
58:48
I can hear the screaming going on.
58:50
There's some girl out there, she's screaming her frigging head off.
58:58
Down in we go, they open the back doors, there's Bert come around, mum, mum, mum, mum, mum, what have you done?
59:04
And mum's laying there going... ..pointing at Jim Reid.
59:08
That's Jim Reid, that's Jim Reid.
59:10
She goes, I don't give a fuck who it is.
59:12
Mum, what have you done?
59:13
She's got the bone hanging out her leg.
59:15
Turns out, Greg, that this woman used to follow us all over the country.
59:22
Amazing.
59:22
The daughter ended up telling us the story.
59:24
Oh, no, if mum isn't at the speedway, Jim...
59:28
The only reason she'll miss the speedway if you're racing somewhere else.
59:32
She just loves your racing.
59:34
Anyway, she ended up having operations and everyone used to come to the races and everything.
59:39
She only died about a year ago, the poor devil.
59:42
And we never, ever knew.
59:44
The following that you have, even to this day, mate, they still want to talk to you.
59:50
It never stops.
59:51
It never stops.
59:53
As you've learned, I can talk.
59:55
I don't mind talking, Greg.
59:58
It's lovely to sit down and think back because it's, you know, there's, we could sit here for a week and I can tell you stories, funny stories about trips where Noel and I were travelling.
1:00:15
That's the end of part one of my podcast with International Drag Racing Hall of Famer Jim Reid.
1:00:21
But in many ways, we are just getting started.
1:00:24
Because of the significance of what he has achieved over more than half a century of drag racing, we have dedicated...
1:00:31
three parts to this one, so you're only a third of the way through.
1:00:36
When you have time, fire up part two and then enjoy part three, as Jim shares more of his journey from plumber and pool builder to champion, record breaker and
1:00:48
and a driving force in the sport.
1:00:51
Some would say an unstoppable force, particularly when it comes to Sydney Dragway.
1:00:55
Plus, a frightening crash that he recounts in vivid detail, the car that he has a fondness for, and much more.