History... Speedway Royale - Sydney Showground. [Archive] - Auto Racing Memories

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bobjeffreson

11-23-2009, 04:50 PM

My introduction to dirt track speedway racing began in the early 1960s, when as a 13 year old I attended the Sydney Showground Speedway Royale. I would continue to frequent the place regularly through the summers, until its demise in 1996, due to noise issues. Funny that as when it started hardly anybody lived anywhere near the place.....ah progress!
The place was owned by the Royal Agricultural Society, hence the animals seen here.This photo was taken not long after speedway racing commenced. It was a 570 yard shale track and pretty narrow. That meant excitement plus......geez at the end of its time they were racing 372ci sprintcars around there.

http://i56.photobucket.com/albums/g181/bobjeffreson/Showground.jpg

rapid30

11-23-2009, 07:15 PM

Bob,
Thanks for sharing some stories from down under and welcome to ARM, I am sure that you will enjoy this as much as we all do.
Bruce "rapid30" Rhoades

bobjeffreson

11-23-2009, 07:58 PM

Bruce,
Mate, anything to do with dirt track speedway racing gives me enjoyment!
Thanks for the welcome.

webby

11-23-2009, 08:21 PM

Bob it looks like the corners are longer than the straights, is that an optical illusion?

Quick Time

11-23-2009, 09:06 PM

Bob,

Thanks for the great posting.....By the way I really enjoyed the videos on the other thread. Glad to have you on board, this is a great site.

Chuck

bobjeffreson

11-24-2009, 05:14 AM

One of the many super stars that Empire Speedways, Promoters of the Sydney Showground, brought to Australia to race was Californian ace, Marshall Sargent. Driving this car he was a absolute sensation. We had seen nothing like Sargent in his "Super Modified". He would start 1 lap down to give the rest of the field a chance and still win!

http://i56.photobucket.com/albums/g181/bobjeffreson/SCAN_0080.jpg

bobjeffreson

11-24-2009, 05:18 AM

Webby,
You're dead right, the corners were long...it's not an illusion.

bobjeffreson

11-24-2009, 03:08 PM

Here's another American that made a huge impression at the Royale.........
Jim Davies

http://i56.photobucket.com/albums/g181/bobjeffreson/jimdavies.jpg

bobjeffreson

11-24-2009, 04:03 PM

bobjeffreson

11-24-2009, 10:42 PM

The Modified class that ran at the showground back then were home built machines that looked a little agricultural.....

http://i56.photobucket.com/albums/g181/bobjeffreson/cre_014.jpg

Then someone discovered the west coast of America...wow what a difference in a very short time. We had CAE cars imported......
Bill Warner in his CAE Mod....

http://i56.photobucket.com/albums/g181/bobjeffreson/mooneyes.jpg

and copies of this Edmunds Modifieds appearing...
http://i56.photobucket.com/albums/g181/bobjeffreson/Edmundsmod.jpg

Bob Tunks' locally built Edmunds...

http://i56.photobucket.com/albums/g181/bobjeffreson/60mod39.jpg

The class had gained some respectability and we were on our way towards sprintcars

webby

11-25-2009, 11:35 AM

The Modified class that ran at the showground back then were home built machines that looked a little agricultural.....

http://i56.photobucket.com/albums/g181/bobjeffreson/cre_014.jpgNo doubt! Check out that left rear tire, it looks like it came off a tractor. Wild stuff! :chuckle:

And oh.... those Edmunds mods are the most beautiful thing ever!

bobjeffreson

11-25-2009, 03:03 PM

This guy means business.........He's got the sleeves rolled up and he's into it .......
......and he is still wearing his watch.....he can check his own lap times....:rolleyes:

VintageBuzz

11-25-2009, 03:20 PM

One of the reasons for the success of the Royale was the diversity of racing on the programme. As well as the midgets, there were 500cc solo bikes and 1000cc HRD Vicent sidecars. Super modifieds made regular appearance also.
Everyone was catered for......
The solos and sidecars were extremely fast and look how close that wooden fence is....
http://i56.photobucket.com/albums/g181/bobjeffreson/solos.jpg

Hey, Bob! Welcome to ARM and thanks for all your contributions to date. You really got me with those bikes. They look like a combination of a "speedway bike" and a "flat tracker." I too love the midgets, modifieds, and sprinters. But as a teenager & young-adult, I worked at a motorcycle shop in Wyoming. We raced a lot of TT-Scrambles and 1/2-mile & 1-mile Dirt Flat Tracks in the open competition class with Triumph Bonneville twins in custom TrackMaster frames. Man, those were the days! ~VB

bobjeffreson

11-26-2009, 05:33 AM

Buzz,
Those are dead set speedway 500cc bikes....either English built JAPs or Czech built JAWAs. The current advertising campaign on the FIM World circuit for these machines today goes...........
No Brakes... NO Gears ... No Fear..... Man, it was the same back in the 1960s... they just didn't have the marketing gurus around!

bobjeffreson

11-26-2009, 08:29 PM

The Showground was narrow and there was little or no margin for error. The field rolls past the pits.

http://i56.photobucket.com/albums/g181/bobjeffreson/Narrowshowground.jpg
W Bridge photo

bobjeffreson

11-26-2009, 08:52 PM

Short video of midgets at the Showground......

http://speedwayroyale.homestead.com/Movie.wmv

Quick Time

11-26-2009, 11:57 PM

Hey Bob,

Fun short video, any idea of the year??? Looks like around early sixies....

Thanks for sharing, you have posted several nice photos on this thread.

Chuck

bobjeffreson

11-27-2009, 12:27 AM

Thanks Chuck,
Yeah, some where around there...... I'm thinking maybe mid 1960s. I'll have to have a closer loook at the cars and try and recognise the drivers....lol

Mitch G.

11-27-2009, 11:22 AM

Bob, amazing stuff, keep it coming. It's amazing how one image can spark your memory. In that short video toward the end, they show the drivers on the pace lap, and they all hold up their hands when the flagman gives them the "one lap to go, before green signal". That really got the old memory going as I recall how cool it was at Lakeside or Englewood Speedway to clearly see the drivers in the open cockpits, open face helmets, no cages, raise their hand with one to go. What a great memory.

bobjeffreson

11-27-2009, 01:46 PM

Mitch,
You're so right..it certainly added some flair and gave the drivers a personality. It was a hugely different world back them.......maybe better......maybe not! Don't know. We were possibly a little too naive, looking through those rosy coloured glasses.
My only experience driving a full-size speedway car was when a mate of mine built a AMCA.... the equivalent of your IMCAs. Mate it was a FAST car. On a practice day I was given 3 x 15 lap sessions on a 1/4 mile dirt oval. Scariest thing I have ever done. I'd forgotten that exciting taste of adrenaline from my youth.
With the hans device, neck band, helmet, helmet to shoulder restraints, arm restraints and a seat that fitted so tight and protected the right side of my body and helmet and seat belts that were pulled so tight I couldn't breathe.....man I was almost unable to put my hand up, even if I wanted to go to the toilet...which I did to as the first session started :rolleyes:
That day .... I was on the track with one other car, half a lap apart..... stopped me being an armchair, grandstand critic of racecar drivers. Especially sprintcar drivers who raced at that track often and purposely put their right rear close to the fence......an object that approached me way too fast on a couple of occassions.

bobjeffreson

11-27-2009, 03:11 PM

As I said in the other thread.....the place was always packed.
Sometimes during the winter off season the Promoters would run afternoon shows. Nothing changed............."Standing Room Only"
The #76 and #1 cars were American built and running Offenhausers. The #4 Don Murray midget was one of the best examples of a locally built midget. It ran a 6 cylinder motor called a Holden.They were built in Australia by General Motors Holden, the Australian division of your GM Company. The #2 car was also built in America... some time in the 1940s I believe. It was still a good quick car in the 60s with a Holden motor under the bonnet.....I mean hood... as you guys say!!!.

http://i56.photobucket.com/albums/g181/bobjeffreson/SCAN_0086.jpg

lakeside #29

11-28-2009, 05:58 PM

Bob, Who was the driver of the #34 modified? The car was really good looking machine. It showed a some fine craftsmanship. The Edmunds cars were beautiful cars, but I really appreciate the invovation of cars like #34. I guess having raced homebuilt cars during my racing career I'm a little biased. Your photos are great thank you.

bobjeffreson

11-29-2009, 05:23 PM

Mate,
I'm not totally sure of the driver. Might actually be Peter Dykes from Queensalnd.
Don't get me wrong on the old Mods. They provided just as much excitement as the new, prettier cars. With the American cars appearing at our tracks it seemed the professionalism went up a notch.

fifty9fordman

01-14-2010, 11:22 PM

wow, reading about racing from back in the 60's in australia just gave me a great history lesson, im 26 now living in california getting a car ready to race my self. i would have never thought australia got into racing that soon. thanks for sharing your stories, pics, and vids.

bobjeffreson

01-16-2010, 06:12 AM

Hey fifty59,
Thanks for the kind words. Actually Australia has a long history of dirt track speedway racing, going back to the early 1900s. American racers have been coming down under for most of that time. I have been lucky enough to see some of your greatest drivers.....Jim Davies, Tattersall, Warriner, Foyt, Rutherford, Kenyon, Gary Patterson, Jack Hewit, Bobby Allen, Steve Kinser, Sammy Swindell...the list goes on and on.Tony Stewart raced sprintcars here just 2 weeks ago with Don Schatz.
A lot of your top guys come here in December/ January as the money's pretty good and the weather is great, as it's summer!

rapid30

01-16-2010, 09:54 AM

Bob,
Thanks again for the great stories and photos, I really enjoy reading about how it was done down there.
rapid30

bobjeffreson

01-17-2010, 06:23 AM

USA Midget ace Perry Grimm, toured Australia in the 1940s and made a huge impression, not only for his driving, but also for this magnificent V8/60 midget he brought to Australia. It was way above the standard of local cars!

http://i56.photobucket.com/albums/g181/bobjeffreson/SCAN_0101.jpg

bobjeffreson

02-08-2010, 07:22 PM

Just found some video from the Showground from the about mid 1990s. Note that frequent visitor to our shores Jerry Coons was racing that night.

YouTube- The Showground on SBS

bobjeffreson

09-28-2010, 04:11 PM

There must be miles of 8mm footage of just about everything in peoples attic and garages. Finding it is the only issue.
This classic piece of footage from the Sydney Showground in the early '60s has just been released. You'll see how narrow the track was and what about the fence and the uprights sticking out above the top....
Freeman and Stewart were the 2 top drivers of that era.
It's in colour and only very short...

http://www.vintagespeedway.com/Rose_Royale_1.wmv