Speedway love fuelled by high-octane passion '

School never quite caught the attention of a young Tony Luxley.

Long, dreary days were spent staring at girls he fancied, or out the window, dreaming about his high-octane passion.

"I remember 1977, I was about 16 or 17 . . . and Dad took me down to Parramatta City Raceway.

"I could see all the lights on the hill and lines of people waiting to get in," Luxley reminisced.

"There was this rumbling in the background and just a kaleidoscope of colour.

"Then I saw my first sprintcar race.

"From then on I was just sitting in school waiting for the weekend when I could get to the race track.

"There were a few other things; there were girls and I played a fair bit of rugby league.

"But there was just something about the smell of methanol and the atmosphere.

"I was captured by motor sport."

Luxley's love for racing inspired him to record the moments of exhilaration, anxiety and terror that he had become engrossed by.

For years he took photos and wrote about sprintcars, speedway bikes, formula 5000 and other motor sports, publishing book after book.

In 2001, Luxley joined the NSW Police Force and is now Senior Constable Luxley, of Parramatta police.

But the passion continued; three years ago Luxley started company Full Throttle Publishing and has put out six books since.

In the lead-up to the 1000th race meet at Parramatta Raceway at Granville in January, Luxley is working on a book detailing the history of the track.

It's all done after his full-time job is finished for the day.

"It's my hobby," he said.

"It keeps me on a level playing field.

"It helps me deal with the stress of policing. You see some heavy things.

"But I can come home, turn on my computer and work on my books and it becomes my own world."