Valvoline Raceway

Valvoline Raceway
Location 21 Wentworth St, Granville, NSW
Capacity 10,000
Broke ground 1976
Opened 1977
Former names Parramatta Speedway
Parramatta City Raceway
Sydney Speedway
Major events World Series Sprintcars
Australian Sprintcar Championship
Australian Speedcar Championship
Australian Super Sedan Championship
Australian Late Model Championship
National Super Sedan Series
World of Outlaws
NSW Sprintcar Championship
Oval
Surface Clay
Length 0.285 mi (0.460 km)
Lap record 0:11.564 (Cody Darrah, , 2011, 410 Sprintcar)

Valvoline Raceway (formerly known as Parramatta Speedway, Parramatta City Raceway and Sydney Speedway) is a Dirt track racing venue located on the site of the Granville Showgrounds in Sydney

History

Speedway racing had taken place at the Granville Showgrounds during the 1930s with races using the existing ½ mile Harness racing track. However, with speedway already established at the Sydney Showground Speedway and Sydney Sports Ground, as well as racing at the nearby Cumberland Oval, racing at Granville was short lived.

The new 460 metres (500 yards) long clay surfaced oval was the brainchild of former Sydney driver Sid Hopping who wanted to give Sydney a track purpose built for the new, faster breed of American style Sprintcars. Sydney's two other tracks at the time, the Showground and the Liverpool Speedway, did run sprintcars, though the Showground was deemed too narrow while Liverpool had changed from dirt to bitumen in 1974 which suited the sedans, but not no much the Super Modifieds (later to become sprintcars) and Speedcars.

The clay track at the Granville Showgrounds was laid out and first practices took place in January 1977 to test out the track. Hopping and his partner Bert Wilder ran meetings on Friday nights so as not to compete with the Showground or Liverpool which raced on Saturday nights. From its opening, the new speedway became known as the premier sprintcar track in Australia, a title it still enjoys (as of 2015). With its wide open spaces (the track itself has no actual safety fence with the old trotting track forming a barrier between the track and the outside safety fence) and long straights, Parramatta City Raceway was home to some of the countries best drivers including multiple Australian Champions Garry Rush, George and Brooke Tatnell, Bob Tunks and Skip Jackson, as well as other top drivers including Bob "The Streak" Blacklaw, former motocross star Stephen Gall and John Walsh calling the speedway 'home'.

Since its opening, the speedway has hosted the Australian Sprintcar Championship on five occasions (1978, 1992, 1997, 2002, 2008), as well as the Australian Speedcar Championship (1988, 1994, 2006) and the Australian Super Sedan Championship (2003). It also hosted rounds of David Tapp's Australian Speedway Masters Series for Solos (in a rare visit to the track) and in 2004 became the first speedway outside of North or Central America to host the famed World of Outlaws sprintcar series which featured some of America's best taking on the locals. The winner of the event was Outlaws 'King' and regular visitor to both Australia and Parramatta, Steve Kinser. Valvoline Raceway has also been the venue for the Australian Sprintcar Grand Prix since its inception in 1979 as well as hosting the Australian Speedcar Grand Prix in 1997, 1998, 2001 and 2011.

Wayne Fisher set the very first one-lap record on 9 December 1977 with a time of 16.70 seconds. As of November 2015, the one lap record is held by American Cody Darrah with a time of 11.564 seconds set on 7 January 2011.[1][2]

Midnite Spares

Parramatta City Raceway was used during filming for scenes of the 1983 Australian movie Midnite Spares about a young sprintcar driver Steve Hall who had returned to Sydney from Queensland to team up with his father on both the track and in his dad's towing business, only to find that his dad had gone missing (presumed and later confirmed murdered) and his business partner being pressured into becoming part of a 'midnite spares' network for stolen cars. A number of scenes were shot at the speedway with a number of drivers having cameo appearances (as themselves) including Garry Rush, George Tatnell, Terry Becker and Bob Blacklaw. Local driver Rob Worthington stood in for lead actor James Laurie during the racing scenes.

During filming for the movie, focus puller David Brostoff was tragically killed when he was hit by the out of control sprintcar driven by Steve Brazier Jr. The movie, which starred Max Cullen, Jonathan Coleman, Gia Carides, Bruce Spence, David Argue, Terry Camilleri, Graeme Blundell and former Australian Playboy playmate Amanda Dole, was dedicated to the memory of Brostoff.[3]

Lap records

as of November 2015. All are 1 lap with a rolling start.[4]

References

External links

This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the Friday, January 29, 2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.