Amaroo Park

[Aussiegay]

Has anyone been out to the old Amaroo track to see what remains of it? It is sad to see a piece of Australian history disappear. Bet the ARDC which they still owned it and not Eastern Creek. They are really up the creek now that they don't have the option of developing Sydney's only drag strip. Can't see how they will make it viable...

[Buckshot]

I actually asked this question here myself a couple of months ago and I believe the place is now under a new housing development ?

If not - where exactly is it and I'll go for a sticky beak one day...I have far too much spare time on my hands and a new VX Commodore S

[Aussiegay]

Got this from the ARDC web site. http://www.ozemail.com.au/~ardcec/amaroo.htm

It is located about 40 kilometres north-west of Sydney in the semi-rural area of Annangrove.
Annangrove Road, Annangrove
Sydney, Australia

I would check it out myself but I live in Melbourne...
Thanks

[elephino]

I'd be surprised if it was under anything as the land is useless for housing. Made of used tyres and rubble and all sorts of rubbish (and I mean under the ground to quite a few metres). Last I heard it was to be used for hobby farms and such. But if it isn't, and the track is still all there, you cannot go for a quick spin as there is a huge gash down the straight to stop people doing just that.

[Buckshot]

Hahaha I wasn't going there for hot laps !

Just out of curiosity as that location is only 20 minutes or so away from my home.

Will let you all know.

[Buckshot]

Ok, I've been out to what's left of Amaroo Park and this was the only photo I took. All that is left standing of the track is that dunny in the background.

The land to the left of this photo is where the track was and it can kinda be made out through the grass but I didn't take any photos as I didn't think they would come out any good.

There is a new small road out there with about 4 houses on it called Amaroo way or something which is part of the old track but if you didn't know there was once a race track there you wouldn't have any idea. There is even a Tennis Court where the last 2 turns would have been.

This land has been subdivided and is being sold off.

So there you have it...

[Alan Jones]

What a sad, sad thing to do to a racetrack. And replacing it with Eastern Creek. Even sadder. Aaaahhh, I remember it well, Moffatt in the xc flighing up the hill, over the lip and hard on the brakes for the tight righthander. Swooon Swoon, those were the days!!!
Other favourite memories include Brock into the wall with his Torana,
truly a joyous occasion.

[Crash Test]

Arrrghhhh...that's depressing. The sad bit is that it seems to me like only yesterday when they last ran on the track...

[elephino]

Very sad.

I remember Wayne Wakefield going around Amaroo. The only man to turn stop/go corner into a left-hander every lap and get away with it.

I remember Bosnjak crashing his Porsche 911 into stop/go corner after brake failure and flying high in the air. Scary stuff.

I remember Brock swearing on national TV going into stop/go because everyone had virtually stopped due to an accident.

Many many memories...

[Buckshot]

Sounds like it was a great track...unfortunately I wasn't into motorsport when this faciility was used.

[DAVID PATERSON]

I only went to Amaroo twice. I saw the first Club Car race to be held in NSW, 36 cars no less. Years later I went to the last ever Historic meeting, Bob Pearson's BDA Escort all over the big V8s.

[Crash Test]

Probably my fondest memory of the place would have been the series production days....and all that tyre screetching

[elephino]

Ah...Bob's BDA. Lovely car. I remember that car more from Oran Park, but it was a quick little thing.

[Crash Test]

Elephino mentioned the Bosnjak crash....there were some big ones there over the years.

There was the Fitzgerald Peugeot ST crash there in 1997 after Brad Jones tapped him going up the hill.

There was that terrible open wheeler crash there in the mid 80s when a car went into the crowd killing a spectator.

There was Bap Romano's massive off over the top of the hill in his sports car.

Also, Dick Johson had a couple of rolls there

[marcus]

what a wonderfull place amaroo park was..i never went there at all but enjoyed many race meetings on TV..there are so many great memories..the Amscar series for one...was good to see the Touring cars race outside of the Shell series..it must have been an amazing feeling going up the hill over the top and into the loop ..that is one piece of road that I always wanted to have a crack at...the loop provided its share of incidents over the years ..like the F Ford crash in 1990 involving russel Ingall ..now that was scary..what a place but what a shame it has turned into this.

at least it can live on in our memories.

P.S ..nice car by the way Buckshot

[Buckshot]

haha thanks marcus - someone finally spotted the shameless plug !

[Ray Bell]

Well, it surprises me what I'm reading here... 'wasn't into motor sport then...' The place only shut down about three years ago!

I raced there, quite a number of times, running three cars all told. My Hustler-Renault Clubman mostly, but once each in the Falcon 6-powered Tornado Sports Car and a Nota Clubman. It was certainly fun and demanding and a really good place to have a go.

But the carnage!

I can remember many meetings where the queue at the scrutineering bay for damaged cars to be checked was all too long. And always the August meeting, the last major meet of the year, produced more than any.

Every meeting saw major car damage. And there were other incidents, too... quite apart from the tragedy when poor Peter Hopwood got launched in his Ralt RT3 and finished up killing a woman sitting on a foldup chair on the embankment.

One meeting there was a crash at each end of the circuit, each requiring some medical help, but the race was going on. Graham Engel and Terry Finnigan were the combatants in their Cheetah-Corollas, with another driver in an older car bringing up a solid third place.

But he kept on closing on them at the waved yellows areas, and was making a real nuisance of himself, so they red flagged the race. I reported this properly in Racing Car News, including the bit where he said he won the race to the red flag (overtaking the cars that were stopping...!) and he threatened to sue unless we retracted...

There may well be some areas where rubbish has been buried on the grounds, by the way, but only small areas where the ARDC had its own private tips.

The original plan, by the way, was for a 2.5 mile circuit, with what was finally built being originally intended as the extension to make it a full three mile circuit... I guess not many around here knew that. There was a hillclimb, dirt short circuit and go-kart track on the property, which meant it had something going on there all the time... and there was a quarter mile speedway around the lake inside the stop corner, too...

Remind me to tell you one day about how I commentated a race for Vees in which one drove itself into that lake!

ps. when did Brock hit a wall there?

[Alan Jones]

To be perfectly honest Ray, I'm not sure, I just seem to remember a meeting there where Brock kissed the wall on the second last right hander leading onto the main straight. Could be I am mistaken but I think I recall my father, brother and myself dancing around celebrating the demise of another XU1!!! Never a big Brock fan as he drove Holdens for 1, and used more than 1 car to win at times, which even if it was legal, just didn't seem right or fair.Funny how 20 odd years on, the supercar series has it's own ideas and rules to try and make it more exciting. I must confess, a race where the fastest guy wins has always been the most exciting format for me. Reverse grids = Hollywood, not racing.

[Crash Test]

I think I remember Brock hitting the wall in one of the enduros there, might have been 1984, the last meeting before the big fluro VK was brought in.

I've always wondered about that short circuit, did anyone ever race on it?

[Ray Bell]

The dirt short circuit saw motorcycle races and lots and lots of Club sprint events.

Brock never hit any wall with any XU-1.. maybe the last enduro... (looks it up)... yes, hit the wall in the pit entry coming in on slicks to get wet tyres on... pretty rare event.

Nobody's interested in the real circuit, the he-man's circuit that was originally planned?

[marcus]

Originally posted by elephino
I remember Brock swearing on national TV going into stop/go because everyone had virtually stopped due to an accident.

If I remember correctly what elephino is referring to was 1993 round one of V8 supercars ...there was a big crash at stop go corner between Terry Finnigan , Bob Pearson and a corolla (sorry dont remember the driver) the track was blocked and the red flag came out...brocky slowed heading into the corner and Brock was slammed from behind from Jim Richards in the Winfield Commodore.

Brocky of course was carrying a racecam and the languagu that came out of his mouth was quite colourfull..and was used during the entire 93 season (but censored of course) by channel hopeless ..oopps I mean channel 7 on their promo reels.

[Crash Test]

Yep, Brock hit the wall entering the pits in the '84 Silastic 300. (Cripes, 140 laps of Amaroo, you'd be pretty dizzy by the end ). I was wrong however that it was the last race for the older model Commodore, that didn't come into use until the third round of the Endurance Championship at Sandown.

I remember reading in "Fast Tracks" that they wanted to make ti a 3 mile long track, but too much of it would have been out of sight of the tower. So I take it it would have continued on straight ahead at the Loop?

BTW, how did on track commentary go when there was no TV?? You really couldn't see too much of the track from the tower...

[mtpanorama]

Amaroo Park, I loved the plce. I only got to race there on two occasions, and one of those was very entertaining.See link http://tentenths.com/forum/showthrea...&threadid=7533

I also remember the ford laser series and the alfa sud series. The lasers were unbelievable. A full grid of them up and over the top of bitupave hill. It was the ultimate traffic jam.

The first time i went there as a crew member the guys told me to stand near the pit wall right on the entrance to the straight when the sports sedan race was on. Bryan Thomsons Chev monza ,Mark Trenowiths jag, Bob Jollys commodore etc one behind the other.The whole place shook and i just stood there totally amazed. Stood there again for the production cars and got hit in the head with a piece of blinker from Jim zerephos' commodore when they treid to come onto the straight three wide.
I was at the meeting when Peter brock was involved in the pile up.When he leaves the pit lane he pulls the gantry down and im on the telly in the backround making a goose of myself having a good old gawk
I miss the place

[Ray Bell]

Originally posted by Crash Test
I remember reading in "Fast Tracks" that they wanted to make ti a 3 mile long track, but too much of it would have been out of sight of the tower. So I take it it would have continued on straight ahead at the Loop?

BTW, how did on track commentary go when there was no TV?? You really couldn't see too much of the track from the tower...

Poor Terry, did he write that?

Absolutely not, the start/finish was going to be where the dirt short circuit always was, up on the shelf above it, anyway, and it would have had a pretty good view... recall what I said was that what was built was essentially what was planned as the extension?

Well, the circuit proper was to the right as you drove in the main gate, north of what was built, with a long straight along the 'plateau' leading into a downhill twist (really steep, fairly tight on the way in) and then there was a straight down the gully, with the road curling around the end of that 'peninsula' of high ground that formed the car park in the end.

Then it came into where the stop corner was, followed around to where the pits finished up, and then turned right where the tower was eventually built (recall the little link across there, that was basically it...), went back towards the stop corner, but swung left and followed Cattai Creek around to climb back up to high ground next to the hillclimb, with what was effectively a mini hillclimb of its own, a loop to the main straight completing the lap.

You think that wouldn't be good? I know it would have been great!

I drove around most of it back in 1963, the earthworks having been done over the preceding two years or so by the owner, Oscar Glaser. The hillclimb, go karts and dirt circuit were in use then, I have no idea why the circuit was eventually built the way it was, probably because of the cost of hotmix.

But one thing is for sure. The ARDC took a lease over it about 1969 after the Amaroo Park Sporting Country Club (maybe no 'Park' in that name?) ran about three or four meetings. Maybe five or six, but anyway, the ARDC saw it as a better bet than Catalina, which their lack of promotion was slowly strangling....

With the lease there was a buy-in clause, $500,000 if they bought it by a certain date, I think it was five years hence, and they lucked in with booming land values and poor Oscar stuck with the agreement to sell. That was when they sold the clubrooms at Leichhardt, tossed out all their old records, photos, memorabilia and anything else anyone could use when tracing racing history, truckloads of it to the Tempe Tip...

The rest you can probably guess... the ARDC slipped along nicely with profits from Bathurst growing nicely despite themselves (lucking into the Armstrong 500 was a real boon... recently saw somewhere that it was offered to Longford... that would have been a truly great option... Longford would still be going, while somebody else would have made a success of running regular racing at Bathurst!), and because they had Bathurst Channel 7 were prepared to televise the Amaroo meetings, so it boomed.

But when Channel 7 went, and then the AVESCO split the Bathurst 1000 down the middle, they got caught out with heavy commitments to spend heaps at Eastern Creek...

They sold everything to honour their agreements.

So the ARDC have sold, given away or emaciated the following circuits:

Mt Druitt.

Catalina Park.

Mount Panorama.

Amaroo Park.

Fortunately, just as Bathurst continued to have life (with the ARDC) after the ASCC gave it up and went to Gnoo Blas, it continues to have life with AVESCO and their cronies who organise the 1000.

What on earth will happen to Eastern Creek?

err... mtpanorama... I know I take a hard line on things, and it may not be something you can see sense on, but the one-make racing at Amaroo was another way the ARDC cut into the guts of those who had real racing cars to race.

And about commentary at the Amaroo we all knew and loved, they simply did without knowing what was going on, keeping an eye on any sign of blue flags or yellow flags for the 400m or so they couldn't see.

At the big meetings, they had TV monitors too, so saw what there was to see if the director had the camera on that area.... but in truth it wasn't so much of a problem... we had to be a little silent as we waited for cars to appear on the first lap, generally saying something like "...who will be the first to appear as they come down into Mazda House, Jones or Brown, no, here they come now, White's got past both of them..."

It wasn't hard, some of the best days of my motor racing viewing were spent sharing the duties with Russell Mansfield at the AARC meetings, and then there was the classic time I had to do commentary as Alan Goldsmith's GAS Vee went into the lake... poor marshall....

[mtpanorama]

err... mtpanorama... I know I take a hard line on things, and it may not be something you can see sense on, but the one-make racing at Amaroo was another way the ARDC cut into the guts of those who had real racing cars to race

No problems there Ray, I was just remembering back to those days. when the laser series was on I would have only been about 10 or 12 years old and it was just the action that got you in at that age. I can see it differently these days having been around motorsport for a little while now and would have to agree with you. The one make series are usually just a way for someone else to make some money from other people. I know of a person who one one of those one make series who is still owed approx $10000 in prize money. He won the series but it still hasnt really gotten him anywhere.
Gee we've dived off the topic now