Bruce Higgs started his involvement in Tasmanian motorsport in 1947 when he started racing motorcycles.

He met with almost instant success, winning the 1947 Tasmanian Scrambles Championship (the forerunner to today’s motocross) at Evandale.

Having spent some time in New Guinea and the Top End, Bruce has a connection with the Territory and returned to win the 1947 Northern Territory road racing championship (for motorcycles).

Back home in Tasmania, he competed in just about every possible way there was to race a motorcycle, wining numerous speed trials, beach races, scrambles events, acceleration tests and hillclimbs, often winning or taking out fastest lap time honours and his trusty BSA motorcycle, with Bruce sitting resplendent upon it, were often used in newspaper and magazine advertisements for BSA..

In 1949, he moved to Queensland, where he helped build the first Formula Three car to race in Australia, which was to eventually lead to his love of race cars.

Bruce later returned to Tasmania and raced a variety of cars, but also continued racing motorcycles, winning the beach racing championship at Pardoe Beach, near Devonport, in 1954.

In 1964 a new form of motorsport was introduced to Tasmania – speedway racing.

Bruce raced for a few years on a solo motorcycle, but was also one of the first in Tasmania to race speedway in a variety of cars known as three-quarter (or TQ) midget racers -- the forerunner to today's Formula 500 class.

Bruce often designed and built his own cars and met with much success over the next 26 years, reaching a pinnacle in 1970 when he finished second in the Australian TQ Midget Championship on his home rack at Latrobe.

A year later, he won the Tasmanian TQ championship, also held at Latrobe, setting a new lap record in the final.

Bruce continued to race both TQs (F500s) and speedway solo motorcycles at the same time for a number of years, finishing second in the State B grade solo championships at Latrobe in 1979.

Bruce’s family and business partners often became involved in his passion for speedway, with his sons Richard and Chris both racing solos and Formula 500s and the Higgs and Meer Racing Team was a regular sight at Tasmanian speedway tracks during the 1970s.

In 1981 Bruce again showed his prowess on the national scene, finishing third in the Australian Formula 500 Short Course Championship at Harveydale Speedway, near Westbury.

He went on to finish third in the Tasmanian F500 championships in 1985 and 1986, proving he was still competitive even though he was in his early 60s at the time.

Bruce continued to race until 1990, finally hanging up his helmet at the age of 68 as Tasmania’s oldest licenced speedway driver at the time.

In 1992 he was made a life member of the Formula 500 Association of Tasmania.

Written by Martin Agatyn