Jump to content
British Speedway Forum

Aussie Speedway Season


Recommended Posts

Hi,

 

I was wondering if anyone could advise some web-sites where I can find out about speedway meetings in Australia. I'm hoping to take a holiday there in March / April time and was wondering if i would be able to take in a meeting. I'll more than likely be taking the east coast tour Melbourne - Sydney - Newcastle - Cairns etc.

 

Any tips would be appreciated! Thanks.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Guest Sir Lunchalot

In a word Kevin (well three words anyway), no there isn't.

 

Late last season I did hear rumours of either another U21 tour or one of the CL sides having a riding holiday out here but neither came to fruition. It's too expensive to suggest a senior side come out here for tests and nobody is willing to go anywhere near that one.

 

To Diamond Exile, I'm in Melbourne and if you are likely to be here around the right dates send me an email on twofoot123@yahoo.com.au and I'll give you a lift up to Broadford because you will never find it as it's an hour out of town way out in the country. With Broadford the Sundays are the best as they have three classes of solos (A grade, veterans, and classic) three classes of sidecars (100cc, 250cc, and classic) plus some juniors and they are a good day out. The Saturdays are just practice days.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Thanks for the posts guys, really appreciate the help. I'm going to be putting a plan together over the next few weeks... at the moment i'm likely to travel out around 20th March for 5 weeks or so.

 

I'll come back onto this thread in a couple of weeks once I've got a better idea of a route and dates. Sir Lunchalot, thanks for the offer, hopefuly I'll be in Melbourne when there's a meeting on. Aussie Tjukurpa Mutitjulu Sempi, thanks for the links & research. Cheers!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Guest Sir Lunchalot

Tell us about it Kevin !!

 

We are starved for top level speedway here and it's all jam packed into December / January (if that) and even then we don't get all the top guys riding. i went to all four rounds of the Oz titles and apart from Gosford where the weather looked dodgy the crowds were huge. I heard an unofficial crowd figure for the midweek round at Gillman (Adelaide) of 2600. Bear in mind Gillman is one of many of our tracks that don't have grandstands or terracing and you can imagine how full the place was. I would guess that Mildura had an even bigger crowd.

 

Still, Gillman was the only one of the rounds to be actually held in a capital city and until we can somehow get meetings held in the capital cities and at venues where they can handle bigger crowds then we are pushing it uphill.

 

Having said that it's the chicken & the egg scenario, do you wait till the big crowds come first and then you try for a capital city venue or do you risk a big venue and hope the crowds will come ?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Sorry to say unless the problems are sorted out quickly with the juniors in adelaide, you will find that you wont have any up and coming riders in south aus.If you look at the riders at present nearly all of them came through the juniors.In the 80s you would get motocross riders and people off the street which doesnt seem to happen anymore.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Guest SwineTown
Hi,

 

I was wondering if anyone could advise some web-sites where I can find out about speedway meetings in Australia.  I'm hoping to take a holiday there in March / April time and was wondering if i would be able to take in a meeting.  I'll more than likely be taking the east coast tour Melbourne - Sydney - Newcastle - Cairns etc.

 

Any tips would be appreciated! Thanks.

Try looking on my site. We have every country we can find links for.

 

(ps-sorry to keep doing this people but its this reason that we bothered doing the site so i want people to know!)

 

Click HERE for the S.Y.P. Australian Section

 

 

And if you can't be bothered to go to the site - here are the links:-

 

Peter White's Speedway world: www.peterwhitesspeedwayworld.com

 

Classic Motorcycling (excellent Australian site): www.classicmotorcycling.com.au - NEW!!

 

Speedway Net: www.speedway.net.au

 

Australian Motorcycle Association: www.ma.org.au

 

Australian speedway motorcycles: www.ausm.info

 

Gillman speedway: www.gillmanspeedway.com

 

Gosford speedway: www.countrynetsolutions.com.au/~tr0011/gosfordspeedway

 

Motorcycling Victoria: www.motorcyclingvic.com.au

 

Motorcycling New South Wales : www.motorcycling.com.au

 

Steve Magro's Historical world of speedway : http://homepages.ihug.com.au/~stvmagro

[also contains many interesting historic links]

 

Speedway racing news: www.speedway.com.au

 

Mildura Motorcycle Club: www.milduramotorcycleclub.org.au

 

Australian Speedway: www.australianspeedway.com

Go to "Motocycle Speedway" on the Forum.

 

Aussie speedway motorcycles discussion list : http://sports.groups.yahoo.com/group/aus_speedway_bikes

Edited by SwineTown
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Guest SwineTown
Not to mention the rather excellent http://www.ssrav.org.au

Not my site by the way, it's the site of the nearest speedway body to where I live and where I am taking Bryn in the morning (Sunday) after I meet him off the 6 am flight from Adelaide !!

I have added this link to the Australia section and the Sidecar section.

 

and may i say Swiney what a credit this site is to you mate well done :D

 

 

Thanks for the compliment! ...sincere?....:)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

and may i say Swiney what a credit this site is to you mate well done :D

 

What about me Anth, I'm working hard too. :(

 

I have added this link to the Australia section and the Sidecar section.

 

I've now rebuilt Australian section, added some more links and put them into 3 categories : Official bodies, General links and Speedway clubs.

Edited by tomazpozrl
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Guest SwineTown

Just to make it "official" - tomazpozrl is an absolute marvel and has done the bulk of the international pages and rider sites, going out of the way to post ads, links, and requests for info all over the globe.

 

I did not know what I let myself in for when I made him moderator! We have already almost completed what i lazily dreamed up. An asset to any speedway site - but tomazpozrl is ours! :D

 

We now have many italian, russian, polish and slovenia visitors,- latvians, czechs, germans, danes, .....................on it goes.- even scottish

Edited by SwineTown
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Hi,

 

I've got a better idea of my route now: Arriving Sydney 25 March, travelling up the east coast for the next 4 weeks. I've used the Yellow Pages to help my research - great links cheers!

 

I see there's a meeting on at Gosford on the 26th March, so could try to get there... train takes a little over an hour, so is easily possible I would think (correct me if i'm wrong, i'm just going from internet research). Can anyone advise start times? or when the bikes are on?

 

All of the posts from Aussie Tjukurpa Mutitjulu Sempi seem to have been removed from this thread which is a shame as there was some great information... can anyone give any pointers of other speedways which operate up the east coast? I can't find any info on Newcastle Showground, or Brisbane... do they run regularly, or infrequently? ...it would be great to visit Newcastle, just to see how it compares with the hallowed Brough Park shale!

 

Thanks for any help you can offer...

 

Sir Lunchalot, it seems like I won't be travelling down to Melbourne which is shame, as I appreciated your offer of going up to Broadford... opted to spend some time in the North instead (i've got a girlfriend to keep happy, as well as my speedway trips on the holiday!)

 

Cheers!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Guest Sir Lunchalot

No problems DE, next time you are in Oz you can try Melbourne !!

 

The meeting at Gosford on 26th March is there last scheduled one for the year but that is the Easter weekend so you might wish to arrange accomodation sooner rather than later if you plan to stay overnight in Gosford. Gosford is easily reached by train in not much more than an hour and in fact is one of the prettiest train trips there is (once you leave the suburbs of Sydney behind that is). The train travels through National Park after leaving Sydney and then all of a sudden you go round a bend and there is the very picturesque Hawkesbury River smack bang in front of you. After crossing the river you have another 10 or 15 minutes or so running right alongside the waters edge with bushland on one side and water on the other and not a road or car in sight. If you go make sure you sit upstairs and on the right hand side of the train.

 

Once you get to Gosford the track is about a 10 minute walk from the station. Get off the train and outside the station turn left and go through the bus area to the road. Walk up a small hill till you reach a set of traffic lights and turn left there. Go over the small bridge that goes back over the train line and you should see a sign for the hospital straight ahead and you should see a high school to your right. Turn right and walk past the school and the showgrounds are right next to the school. The racing usually starts at 7:30.

 

As for regular race meetings Newcastle Showground doesn't have any. The round of the Oz title there was a once off. I would think it would have problems running regularly anyway as houses back onto the property behind the back of the grandstands and it must get rather noisy for the residents. Regular meetings are held at Labrador on the Gold Coast (near Southport) and there is a meeting programmed there for 2nd April. Other tracks in Sth Queensland are at Nth Brisbane but I can't see any meetings scheduled there while you are in Oz, and at Gatton where there is a meeting scheduled for 30th April. I've never been to Gatton but it's about 75 minutes west of the city (I think, might be 90 minutes even) and is a very large track (something like 510 meters) with very fast racing.

 

Happy travelling !!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Guest Sir Lunchalot

Fact this year ML !!

 

At Newcastle this year the track was so big and fast they only ran three laps because of the worry of running out of fuel.

 

At Tamworth (450 m) they only ran three laps for all 20 heats both for the qualifying meeting and the final meeting, yet for the final (ie the top 4 after 20 heats) they ran over 4 laps for some reason.

 

At Gatton I know they run over 3 laps because I overheard a conversation on the weekend (don't worry, they knew I was there !!) that said running over 4 laps was making the engines too hot and causing mechanical problems so they only run over 3 laps now.

 

When are you coming over on a fact finding mission ML ?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

The question about doing less laps on the larger tracks is a valid and topical one.

I'd go as far to say its probably the norm in Australia to run races over three laps at the larger venues, surprisingly some of the smaller venues like Labrador do the same in non championship events.

I've always had problems understanding the latter, a 3 lap race on a 320 metre circuit doesn't make sense to me but it happens.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Thanks for the info Lunchy and BrizHeathen :)

 

When are you coming over on a fact finding mission ML ?

 

I would dearly love to come over to Australia and you never know that could well happen in the next couple of years. I just can't get my head around flying to and from meetings once there tho :P

But this year I am concentrating on getting to Poland to see my hero (Tomasz Gollob) in action :)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 1 month later...

Hi, I've just read that the Gosford meeting I was hoping to take in has been cancelled - :( ...it's starting to look like i'm not going to see any speedway on my trip down under (unless something turns up in Queensland - still hoping). Don't suppose anyone would know of anything (even cars!) scheduled between 25 March and 18 April between Sydney and Cairns? Running out of ideas really - have spent hours looking on the net, so would appreciate any help! Cheers.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

We have placed cookies on your device to help make this website better. You can adjust your cookie settings, otherwise we'll assume you're okay to continue. Privacy Policy