Racing in the Super Comp category with his Toyota Supra, Simms has missed just one season out of an incredible 45. So long is his racing career that Simms estimates his current car has made over 3600 passes.

This season Simms has chosen to dedicate his car to the 7RAR he served with in Vietnam and to the current serving personnel in the Australian Defence Force.

As a passionate racer, Simms sees drag racing as representative of the freedoms he and fellow soldiers protected.

“We've got the lifestyle we have thanks to these guys who were out there,” he said.

Another satisfaction Simms gets is to see young racers come up through the ranks and compete with him. Drag racing is unique as a sport in that young drivers can be on a level pegging with champions of the sport such as Simms.

“That's the beauty of the sport,” he said. “There are some killer cars, they are bringing tough deals to the table. We've got to be on our own game, we're the ones getting chased all the time.”

As for his run of wins this season, Simms says it comes down to some hard work in research and development on his unique 4.2 litre V8 race engine and a change to a clutchless gear box.

“The clutchless allows us to keep the engine in the power range, before we would always risk bogging it down,” he said. “There's not another engine like this one. It's not something you can get off the shelf bits for or call someone else for advice about.”

He may be older than the rest of the Super Comp field, but Simms has the wiles it takes to win.