Dick Crawford was in his 80th year at the time of his induction in 1996, and had only retired from racing a few seasons before.

Born in Devonport in 1916, he built his first race car as a young man of only 17 years of age in 1933.

It was built from spare parts he obtained from wreckers, but was capable of a top speed of 80 mph (about 140 km/hr).

In 1934 Dick turned his head to speed boat racing and enjoyed many successes as a competitor.

Over his many years of racing, he drove many different types of boats and in an equally impressive career of circuit racing, Dick also raced more than 30 different cars, but was always willing and available to give advice to younger up and coming competitors.

He was a founding member of the Hobart Sporting Car Club and raced his side-valve Morris Minor at the first ever meeting at the Baskerville Raceway near Hobart, and missed very few meetings until he retired from racing well into his 70s. 

Towards the twilight of his racing career, Dick Crawford became better known as a Formula Vee racer, winning many major events and also being the oldest licensed competing driver in Australia for a number of years.

Always a character of Tasmanian motorsport, Dick enjoyed competing as much as winning.

A reformed non-smoker in later years, Dick was known to light up a smoke on his cool down laps in his earlier days - something that would be definitely frowned on by today’s officials.

Another story often told about Dick in his power boat racing days is that on occasions he often had power boat racing and car racing on the same day.

After racing his boat in the morning, Dick would hop in his car and drive to Baskerville and race his car.

One particular day he was running a bit late, so his crew put a mannequin in the car and pushed it onto the dummy grid to fool officials until Dick arrived just in time for the start of the race.

It certainly puts a whole new slant on the term of dummy grid !

Dick Crawford enjoyed an illustrious career over his more than 60 years of motor racing in Tasmania - a truly remarkable record in itself.

It would take a book to detail his exploits fully, but his induction into the Tasmanian Motorsport Hall of Fame is another chapter in what has been a great innings for one of the true stalwarts of Tasmanian Motorsport.

Written by Martin Agatyn