73 replies to this topic

[275 GTB-4]

I hate to do this, but the final chapter should be told....

Thanks to the Marshals (friends of Dutchies) who had the forthought to record the moment in February 2010.....please come forward to discuss this lot if you are able to ;-)







































[Expletive Deleted]

Edited by 275 GTB-4, 07 March 2010 - 02:14.

[john medley]

Horrific(but thanks for posting)

[Quixotic]

How Sad Oran Park was where I had my second ever race back in 1984 on a Suxuki X7. Incidently my first race was at Amaroo Park, which also no longer exists.

A Crying Shame

Regards,

Quixotic

[brucemoxon]

The last-ever night meeting.



Can we maybe load 'happy' images as well?




Bruce Moxon

[275 GTB-4]

The last-ever night meeting.

Can we maybe load 'happy' images as well?

Bruce Moxon

Don't see why Bruce...its not like there aren't any other threads on the good times...I'd prefer to just feel bad about it along with a bunch of others thanks

[Ian G]

Yeah,Sad,i remember all the hooplah when they built the Control Tower and then the fly-over....


Oran Park Thread


Lets hope Sydney gets another circuit other than Homebush,looks like Melb. is going to.

Avalon GP Circuit

Edited by Ian G, 08 March 2010 - 09:48.

[LittleChris]

Very sad seeing these pictures. If only it was some soulless shithole like Abu Dhabi or Bahrain that was being dug up instead

Edited by LittleChris, 07 March 2010 - 22:52.

[stuartbrs]

Very sad seeing these pictures. If only it was some soulless shithole like Abu Dhabi or Bahrain that was being dug up instead

Utterly depressing...

[Wirra]

The last-ever night meeting.
Bruce Moxon

I think that photo just about sums up why it closed. Literally two men and a dog (and the dog wasn't allowed in). I wouldn't be surprised to see Eastern Creek go the same way inside ten years.

[Muz Bee]

A tragic waste. Only ever got over once from NZ - Castrol 6 Hour October 1985 - to see what had provided such spectacle on TV coverage. A damp and dreary day couldn't hide the fabulous contours of a superb road race circuit and the crowd spirit was high. The racing was magic and it bettered any facility in New Zealand as a riders/drivers circuit.

When housing deserts take over historic facilities it is a crime, like Australia is short of land to build houses? Sadly the cost of maintaining a permanent circuit is terribly high, we lost our local circuit to the bulldozers and estate agents in the 90s never to be replaced, at least we have Hampton Downs rising from the Waikato swamps.

Condolences all you NSW race fans for your loss.

[Lee Nicolle]

Yeah,Sad,i remember all the hooplah when they built the Control Tower and then the fly-over....


Oran Park Thread


Lets hope Sydney gets another circuit other than Homebush,looks like Melb. is going to.

Avalon GP Circuit

Persnally i will not hold my breath over a proper F1 circuit though it would be good.
They just need to build a proper race circuit here in Adelaide. The traffic disruption cost me a good half hour across town this morning and I was not within 5km of the track. And that is for a V8 Thupercar race.
The disruption to the city is an excess for any so called advantages. And that track is so bloody dangerous.

[Jacer]

First time watching was a day night meeting in 1971, first race was there in 1983. The 10th picture is probably the worst for me, looking down the straight.
I remember my first laps on a race track was there in early 1983. I remember cresting the hill out of BP on my first lap and looking down that straight, seeing almost that same image and feeling ultimate freedom and excitement. I can still remember the smell of the brand new helmet and balaclava and the nose and eyes running from the cold air getting under the helmet as I raced down that straight and just never wanting to come back in the pits. Very, very sad.
I raced at the last state round there last year and camped. I got up at sunrise and rode the bike up to the hill near the start to watch the sunrise over the waking pits( should have taken a photo) and it started to sink in.
Many didn't like Oran but I loved it either in the Vee or the Formula 2. You just had to 'grab hold of them' and have a go around there, a real challenge.
Hope we all learn to appreciate what we have when we have it an realise nothing goes on forever.

Edited by Jacer, 09 March 2010 - 04:08.

[eldougo]

[Bernd]

The South Circuit was a fabulous lap just to pound around finding your limit.

Such a bloody waste.

[GreenMachine]

Agree.

It is nice to have the memories, but they are little consolation for the knowledge that it is gone.

[plannerpower]

I have many happy memories of Oran Park from the sixties;



(This man, to me, was Oran Park).

and, much later, when karting with my son;



But;

The moving finger writes and, having writ, moves on
Nor all thy piety nor wit shall lure it back to cancel half a line
Nor all thy tears wash out a word of it.

Move on; but remember Oran Park with great affection.

[Ray Bell]

Got to agree about George... I've previously posted a similar colour pic of him and his Austin Special...

Originally posted by LittleChris
.....If only it was some soulless sh*thole like Abu Dhabi or Bahrain that was being dug up instead.

Well, against the trend, I'll say that to me it was.

[HistoricMustang]

Sad, very sad!

Henry

[eldougo]

.....From last saturday Telegraph real estate section


I am going down to Camden in a few weeks time i will cal in and try to get some pics.

[Ray Bell]

They'll do anythng to peddle those cars, won't they?

I took some pics the other week, I must post them some time.

[David McKinney]

These last images (and words) are even sadder than the earlier ones

"We've destroyed a much-loved racing-circuit, but it doesn't matter, because we're going to put up a chequered flag..."

[Ray Bell]

I think the bit about Homebush is a bit more demonstrative of the lack of understanding from the writer of that article, David...

But I'm still saying that the loss of Oran Park is, to me, merely the loss of another circuit. Like Pound Hill or Valleyfield, neither of which I ever saw. I'm more cut up about the loss of the likes of Hume Weir than I am about Oran Park.

[gm914]

Really sad news. I grew up 10 mles from Oran Park. It (along with the Liverpool and Parramatta speedways) was a popular place to go when I was a youngun'. (Little too young for Warwick Farm)
Then as a teenager, tooling around and sitting on the hill taking photos with some mates, listening to the sounds of Toranas, Monaros, Falcons, and a glorious yellow RX3 that I can hear winding up to this day, squirming round on to the main straight!

Such a beautiful landscape in the late afternoons too...
Shame its not being upgraded.

So long, Oran..

Here's a pic of the BMWClub of NSW at their final Oran Park meet, September 6th, 2009
Photo by Andrew Wright

Edited by gm914, 22 March 2010 - 20:37.

[eldougo]

That Photo reminds me of the old dummy grid area that used to to be where that built up cement slab is, and they had a little gate you come through and onto the track and line up.

[Option1]

Those pit buildings in 275 GTB-4's original post look ridiculously good for a track that's shut-down and now torn up. Damn, I can think of some famous, currently-operating international circuits, *cough* Mosport *cough*, that have far worse pit facilities than that!

What a bugger!

Neil

[Bernd]

The Pits are actually quite new a few years old at most. They're actually pre-fab rubbish designed to be pulled apart and moved to another circuit.

A lot of Porsches for a Beemer club meet

[eldougo]

Oran Park is closed all fenced off this is the closest you can get from the new town,which is about a 1 kilometer away east of the end of the main straight.

New Entry off Cobbitty Rd about 3 kilometers before old entry. .
Main road in to town track was on the left .
Start of town shops and display homes.
Looking west to the Dogleg & Sutton on the right.
Looking back to the Pits now all removed .

[Team Result]

I just read that a round of the 2011 V8 Superbore Series is slated for Oran Park!
Apparently, the developer who owns the housing development has some spare land to build a new track on somewhere near the original. Anyone closer to the source know the details?

[ellrosso]

Any loss of a permanent circuit in Australia is a real problem and Oran Park is a huge loss for NSW in particular - even though the facilities were pretty ordinary for a long time (traffic jams getting out were legendary too!). I thought the track itself was terrific though and saw some great racing over the years. I only got to drive on the kart track but that was also pretty special with plenty of variety in its layout (maybe Raleigh near Coffs was better but not much in it). I had a win in my first ever race at my first meeting there so it will also be a bit special to me. Pic is Bob Morris in the Phase 3 HO leading Don Holland and maybe Damon Beck in the Charger - good Aussie Muscle car shot.

[Ray Bell]

Not Damon Beck...

Looks like Leo Geoghegan, actually.

[Raido]

Good thing this track was laser-scanned before it was demolished. At least it can still be driven, virtually.


Maybe they should make this standard practice...

[275 GTB-4]

Yeah,Sad,i remember all the hooplah when they built the Control Tower and then the fly-over....

Oran Park Thread

Opened by Nifty Nev! who had a few fingers in a few pies....

[DanTra2858]

The South Circuit was a fabulous lap just to pound around finding your limit.

Such a bloody waste.

I agree with what you say but the GP was so very different, could never get the righthander after going under the bridge right, but the right hander comming off the bridge back onto the South Circuit is the best corner that I have ever driven, you got it correct or you were finding dirt under your wheels on your exit.

So many happydays from a Spectator at the Second Meeting to Driver in late 1980.

[E1pix]

Somehow, many call this "progress."

Heartless bastards.

[Chris Frizell]

that is terrible, I never went to Oran Park, but I spent many happy hours watching racing on the TV...in the days when the TV had something on it that was worth watching...but money talks, and bulls**t walks, and the developers have certainly "walked" into "Oran Park Town"...which in itself is a terrible name....sounds like a place from Alice in Wonderland, not a real place at all...

[Ray Bell]

Let's not forget that Oran Park circuit was but a small part of a huge landholding...

The family who owned it were always going to make a big profit on it one day. The circuit was always giving them grief too, problems they could do without, from the CAMS on down.

[gtsmunro]

Sad to see Oran Park as it is today. We seem to lose tracks with personality all too often.

[DanTra2858]

Sad to see Oran Park as it is today. We seem to lose tracks with personality all too often.

Yes you are correct about personality, in the early 1960 the cattle were moved to another paddock on the Friday & on the Saturday morning those lucky enough to be on Flag Points had to remove all the Cow Pads off the Circuit prior to Practice starting, now that is what I remember as about Personality of Oran Parks in the early years.

[GMACKIE]

Trouble is, it's not so much all the cow sh*t that's the worry now.......it's all the bull sh*t.

Edited by GMACKIE, 14 July 2012 - 21:59.

[mouserat159]

275 GTB-4 & eldougo thanks for posting the photo of Oran park what it is like today however sad they are.
I thought the onwer of Oran Park was going to build a new motor racing circuit somewhere with the same "older style characteristics". Does anyone know if thats still happing? Oran Park was a great track.

Mouserat159

Edited by mouserat159, 17 July 2012 - 03:08.

[Ray Bell]

Last word I heard on that deal was that the one member of the family who was in favour of doing so was getting more and more cheesed off at CAMS and losing his will to battle the other family members...

[gouldo]

I heard that the plan was to build a track near badgery's creek, similiar to OP, but the owners of OP's health was not great. Plus CAMS, plus NSW & Local govt....

[Lee Nicolle]

Yes you are correct about personality, in the early 1960 the cattle were moved to another paddock on the Friday & on the Saturday morning those lucky enough to be on Flag Points had to remove all the Cow Pads off the Circuit prior to Practice starting, now that is what I remember as about Personality of Oran Parks in the early years.

Shades of Collingrove Hillclimb which doubled as a cow paddock. Who kept the grass down nicely!

[Lee Nicolle]

I heard that the plan was to build a track near badgery's creek, similiar to OP, but the owners of OP's health was not great. Plus CAMS, plus NSW & Local govt....

Yes, sad isnt it what a developer/promoter has to go through to build a circuit, or really any sporting venue.

[Ray Bell]

Wherever the plan to build might have been, it was CAMS and the problems of officialdom that stunted it...

I will check and see what the status quo is at the moment. I don't think anyone's health had anything to do with it.

[GMACKIE]

Yes you are correct about personality, in the early 1960 the cattle were moved to another paddock on the Friday & on the Saturday morning those lucky enough to be on Flag Points had to remove all the Cow Pads off the Circuit prior to Practice starting, now that is what I remember as about Personality of Oran Parks in the early years.

The Perich family's Leppington Pastoral Co. owned Oran Park [race circuit], along with many other grazing properties. Much of the 'raw material' for Organic Fertilizers, also a Perich organisation, came from these properties. The race circuit was probably not much of a money-earner, compared to the other ventures.

[Ray Bell]

It seems that the Perich family are doing the residential development themselves, which is naturally enough the best way for them to maximise their profits...

So racing circuits are not a major issue in their minds at the moment. But the facts are that they had three potential sites for a new circuit on land they owned and it was suggested to them that they could also apply to build one on Crown Land. They decided to make applications to build one on each and see what turned up, but the resistance from the State Government - added to problems thrown up by the CAMS - burned them at that time.

Of concern was the fact that the CAMS input was from State Council level and the person producing that input was from the ARDC. The perils of a democratic organisation running the sport, a major conflict of interest there and typical short-sightedness prevailed.

In Queensland back at the close of the Nineties the organisers at Lakeside were absolutely against the construction of the Queensland Raceway project. At that time Morgan Park was a miniscule thing, Surfers Paradise was gone and effectively there was only one circuit within a reasonable distance of Brisbane.

Because of the way they went about it, Lakeside became the loser and was submerged for some time. But today it's alive and well and Morgan Park is thriving with its extended 2.25-mile circuit. To think that Sydney, with twice Brisbane's population, wouldn't see a growth in motor sporting activities with a second circuit is plainly stupid.

There used to be three and it was very healthy. Melbourne had four within a hundred miles and it was even healthier.

[Lee Nicolle]

It seems that the Perich family are doing the residential development themselves, which is naturally enough the best way for them to maximise their profits...

So racing circuits are not a major issue in their minds at the moment. But the facts are that they had three potential sites for a new circuit on land they owned and it was suggested to them that they could also apply to build one on Crown Land. They decided to make applications to build one on each and see what turned up, but the resistance from the State Government - added to problems thrown up by the CAMS - burned them at that time.

Of concern was the fact that the CAMS input was from State Council level and the person producing that input was from the ARDC. The perils of a democratic organisation running the sport, a major conflict of interest there and typical short-sightedness prevailed.

In Queensland back at the close of the Nineties the organisers at Lakeside were absolutely against the construction of the Queensland Raceway project. At that time Morgan Park was a miniscule thing, Surfers Paradise was gone and effectively there was only one circuit within a reasonable distance of Brisbane.

Because of the way they went about it, Lakeside became the loser and was submerged for some time. But today it's alive and well and Morgan Park is thriving with its extended 2.25-mile circuit. To think that Sydney, with twice Brisbane's population, wouldn't see a growth in motor sporting activities with a second circuit is plainly stupid.

There used to be three and it was very healthy. Melbourne had four within a hundred miles and it was even healthier.

agreed Ray, it seems that the confederation is against motorsport. 2 or 3 circuits will be viable near a major city providing they do not run against each other. Ideally as far away from each other eg North South East West etc.
I have heard whispers that AIR may get a track liscence again soon here in Adelaide, I hope so as Mallala is quite hard to access. And the diversity of circuits would be great for all competitors.
As would 2 or 3 circuits near Sydney.

[Ray Bell]

Going back further, and not counting Bathurst, there was for a very short time four circuits within 80 miles of Sydney...

Things were very strong then.

[king_crud]

Oran Park was my circuit, where i have spent the most time watching motorsport in my life. It's really so so sad to see that place go