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Sprint cars are high-powered open-wheel race cars, designed primarily for the purpose of running on short oval or circular dirt or paved tracks. Historically known simply as "big cars," distinguishing them from "midget cars," sprint car racing is popular primarily in the United States and Canada, as well as in Australia, New Zealand, and South Africa.
Midget cars, also speedcars in Australia, is a class of racing cars. The cars are very small with a very high power-to-weight ratio and typically use four cylinder engines. They originated in the United States in the 1930s and are raced on most continents. There is a worldwide tour and national midget tours in the United States, Australia, and New Zealand.
Avalon Raceway is a dirt track racing venue located in Lara, Victoria, Australia. The track is based on a clay sand mix, is oval shaped and is 390 metres in length.
Liverpool Speedway was located in Green Valley, Western Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. Liverpool was officially opened by Frank Oliveri and the Oliveri Family, alongside Ald. E. Smith, the mayor of Liverpool at the time, and ran until its sudden and unexpected closure in 1989. Frank Oliveri would later share track management with track announcer and promoter, Channel 7 television sports presenter Mike Raymond.
Amaroo Park Raceway was a 1.930 km (1.199 mi) motor racing circuit located in Annangrove, New South Wales, in the present-day north-western suburbs of Sydney, Australia. Opened in 1967, the road circuit served as a venue for a variety of competitions including the Castrol 6 Hour motorcycle race, rounds of the Australian Touring Car Championship, Australian Drivers' Championship, Australian Formula Ford Championship, Australian Sports Sedan Championship, the AMSCAR Series for touring cars, historic racing and others. The last Australian Touring Car Championship round to take place at the circuit was in 1994.
Mallala Motor Sport Park is a 2.601 km (1.616 mi) bitumen motor racing circuit near the town of Mallala in South Australia, 55 km north of the state capital, Adelaide.
Robert Frederick Jane was an Australian race car driver and prominent entrepreneur and business tycoon. A four-time winner of the Armstrong 500, the race that became the prestigious Bathurst 1000 and a four-time Australian Touring Car Champion, Jane was well known for his chain of tyre retailers, Bob Jane T-Marts. Jane was inducted into the V8 Supercars Hall of Fame in 2000.
Tralee Speedway was a Dirt track racing venue located in Jerrabomberra on the New South Wales side of the ACT/NSW border near Canberra, the capital city of Australia. The speedway was home to several drivers who went on to become Australian national and state champions. Tralee was a 410 metres dirt surfaced oval raceway.
Motorsport is a popular spectator sport in Australia, although there are relatively few competitors compared to other sports due to the high costs of competing. The oldest motorsport competition in Australia is the Alpine Rally which was first staged in 1921 followed by the Australian Grand Prix, first staged in 1928. The most widely watched motorsport category is Supercars, especially at the Bathurst 1000. Other classes in Australia include Australian GT, Formula 3 and Formula Ford, Superbikes, as well as various forms of speedway racing.
The Adelaide International Raceway is a permanent circuit owned by Australian Motorsport Club Limited under the auspices of the Bob Jane Corporation. The circuit is located 26 km (16 mi) north of Adelaide in South Australia on Port Wakefield Road at Virginia, and is adjacent to Adelaide's premier car racing Dirt track racing venue, Speedway City. AIR is owned by the Bob Jane Corporation and run by the Australian Motorsport Club Ltd.
The American stock car racing category NASCAR raced in Australia from the late 1980s to the early 2000s. After strong initial interest, particularly in Melbourne at Australia's only purpose-built NASCAR style paved oval speedway, the Calder Park Thunderdome, the category collapsed in the early 2000s and has defied several attempts to revive it since then.
Grenville Anderson was an Australian auto racing driver, considered one of the icons of Australian sedan racing. He was the first driver in Australian speedway history to win four Australian Super Sedan Championships. Anderson began his racing career in a 1957 Vauxhall Velox at the old Surfers Paradise Speedway and steadily progressed to an XU-1 Torana. In 1975, Anderson’s father purchased a stroker motor from Bill Mann and success was instant with wins throughout New South Wales and Queensland. NSW North Coast businessman Peter Croke bought the XU-1 and kept Anderson on as the driver. The combination won the 1976 Australian Title at Rowley Park, placed fourth a year later in Tasmania while also winning the NSW Title at Goulburn and took out features in Newcastle, Uralla, Lismore and Toowoomba.Anderson won his second Australian Title in 1978 at the Claremont Speedway in Perth and finished second in 1979 at Toowoomba bouncing back to claim the 1980 Title at Bagot Park in the Northern Territory. Anderson rolled his Torana while defending his title at Newcastle in 1981 and in 1982 Anderson scaled down his racing commitments, driving the second car out of the Croke stable to second place in the Australian Championship at Brooklyn in Victoria.Croke became disillusioned with the way sedan racing was turning in Australia and it took eight long years before Anderson returned to speedway in 1989. Not long after another successful partnership was formed with car owner Murray Gegg, of Murray’s race parts in Nerang. The Chevrolet Camaro was replaced by a CJ Rayburn Chassis built by Nick Girdlestone with a Holden Commodore body and a Mann engine. The car was fast and set track records at Brisbane, Lismore, Newcastle and Canberra culminating in winning the 1993 Australian Championship at Latrobe in Tasmania and the East Coast Grand National. He died on 31 May 2004 as a consequence of injuries he sustained at the then Archerfield Speedway, now Brisbane International Speedway, on 8 May 1993, some 11 years earlier. Anderson, who was running hot laps in practice for the 1993/94 Australian Championship for which he was the defending champion and favourite to win his fifth title, climbed the concrete wall between turns 1 and 2, and rode along the top of the wall for approximately 30 metres. As the wall ended into the pits his car flipped onto the right hand side and struck a concrete retaining wall on the driver's side with his head striking the wall. Grenville preferred using a motocross style helmet over using the traditional style of racing helmet used at the time.
Speedway City is a Dirt track racing venue located 26 km north of Adelaide in Virginia, South Australia, adjacent to the Adelaide International Raceway.
The Murray Machining & Sheds Murray Bridge Speedway is a Dirt track racing venue that is located in the town of Murray Bridge, South Australia, only 66 km from Adelaide. Racing at the speedway generally takes place between September and April meetings held on Saturday nights. Racing has been held at the venue continuously since opening in 1958.
The Australian Sprintcar Championship is a dirt track racing championship held each year to determine the Australian national champion for winged sprint car racing. The single championship meeting runs in either late January or early February and has been held each year since the Windsor RSL Speedway in Sydney hosted the first championship in 1963. After the first nine championship meetings were held in New South Wales, the Sprintcar Control Council of Australia (SCCA) now holds the meeting in a different state on a rotational basis, with 1972 seeing the first championship held outside of NSW at the Premier Speedway in Warrnambool, Victoria. The Australian Sprintcar Title is only open to Australian drivers and is run and sanctioned by the SCCA.
The Australian Super Sedan Championship is a Dirt track racing championship held each year to determine the Australian national champion. The championship is held over a single meeting and has run annually since the 1971/72 season and is awarded to a different state of Australia each year by the national controlling body, the Australian Saloon Car Federation (ASCF).
The Australian Speedcar Championship is a dirt track motor racing championship held in Australia each year to determine the Australian national champion in midget car racing. The single championship meeting, run over two nights in either late January or early February, has been held each year since first being run at the Tracey's Speedway in Melbourne in 1935.
Dirt track racing is a type of auto racing performed on clay or dirt surfaced oval tracks in Australia. The seasons tend to be from September to April. There are a large number of tracks available Australia wide, with some of the most popular ones being Perth Motorplex, Bunbury Speedway, Speedway City, Premier Speedway Warrnambool and Sydney Speedway. The richest and best known Speedway series in Australia is the World Series Sprintcars. The series was conceived by Adelaide based sedan driver and promoter John Hughes in 1986 as an Australian version of the famous World of Outlaws (WoO) series run in the United States since 1978. The most recent season was the 2014–15 World Series Sprintcars season.
The Australian Street Stock Championship is a Dirt track racing championship held each year to determine the Australian national champion. The championship is held over a single meeting and has run annually since the 1989/90 season and is awarded to a different state of Australia each year by the national controlling body, the Australian Saloon Car Federation (ASCF).
Sydney Speedway was a dirt track racing venue on the site of the Granville Showgrounds in Sydney.