71 replies to this topic

[Torston]

This weekend is the 49th anniversary of the first race meeting at Amaroo Park. Actually it was the 12th March, but close enough.
For the historians among us, I have included an image of the real corner names. The original ones used before advertisers took over and started changing them at whim.
I would hope somebody will do something special for the Golden Jubilee next year.


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[brucemoxon]

Best thing would to be reopen it. Bulldoze the houses and let's go racing again!

 

 

Bruce Moxon

[Librules]

Fantastic idea,  Bruce.  When we've finished there can we take the machinery down to Oran Park Town and retro-fit it???

[DJH]

I remember doing laps on the speedway circuit around the puddle in my hot A 30 . The bitumen circuit hadn't been done at that stage . I did have photos , long since lost unfortunately .

Did some lap dashes there in the 70's  with Torana Viva Club . I loved the flat out four wheel drifts through Repco kink .

Edited by DJH, 09 March 2016 - 11:02.

[rasimmo]

If you are going to re-open old race tracks - start with Warwick Farm, and when you get that going, Catalina Park, Katoomba, please.

PS Hume Weir third.

Simmo ( The geriatric, living in the past )

[Ray Bell]

Originally posted by DJH
I remember doing laps on the speedway circuit around the puddle in my hot A30. The bitumen circuit hadn't been done at that stage . I did have photos , long since lost unfortunately.....

I also did some driving around there prior to the construction...

And the dam inside the speedway, I drove up a bank and nosed over the top in my old Holden and came to a sudden halt as I realised I was about to drown the thing!

I trust you did a lap of the grander circuit which was proposed too?

It would be worth levelling the houses to build that one...


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Edited by Ray Bell, 09 March 2016 - 20:40.

[GMACKIE]

If you are going to re-open old race tracks - start with Warwick Farm, and when you get that going, Catalina Park, Katoomba, please.

PS Hume Weir third.

Simmo ( The geriatric, living in the past )

Don't think it would be hard to find bulldozer drivers, Simmo...I'll be in it !

 

A great shame it was, to lose those tracks, however I feel privileged to have raced on all five of them.

[Torston]

This is what it looked like before we put the bitumen down. Unfortunately I didn't photograph the larger "GP circuit"
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[Torston]

A few more pics that I took

[Torston]

And for DJH, a shot of the dirt circuit with a Jensen on it!

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[Ray Bell]

Somewhere I have a photo of a Chrysler Royal there...

An AP3 V8 with pushbutton auto.

[Torston]

How about a photo of a buckle!:

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[Torston]

Don't know why that image was "not available". Not sure what is going on.
Postimage has suddenly decided it no longer likes my images................

[GMACKIE]

Don't often see a Jensen driven in that manner...let alone a 541.

[Torston]

What about the hillclimb?

Here's Stan Rumble in the scary twin engined Jindivik


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[GMACKIE]

Nice to see the 'photo problem' is now sorted, Torston.

 

And what a character was Stan Rumble. He built some great hillclimb cars, mostly powered by Renault.

 

I remember Stan at a Christmas party at Silverdale, in the late '70s, turning up in his Veteran Renault...dressed as Santa.

[Ray Bell]

What a beast is that thing!

I'd never heard of that before. Is that a Citroen front end and engine?

Stan did a nice job of setting up that yellow Cheetah with the V6 Peugeot engine for Robbie. And he had some fun with a Cooper Climax for a while.

[Tim Murray]

Ray, if it's the same car you told us about in the Twin-engined racing cars thread the engines are Renaults. Sadly of course, your photo is no longer available:
 

I don't think this one's been mentioned, though it should have been...

Stan Rumble's twin Renault powered 4WD hillclimb special... photo courtesy of Ron Thorp (whose Cobra is in the background)...

[Torston]

And one of the quickest up the hill was Dick Shoebridge.


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[Ray Bell]

If only Windows still allowed a file search I'd be able to find that pic and post it again!

And on looking more closely I can see the Renault 750 wheels on the front, so no Citroen stuff at all...

[Librules]

Young Kiwi Kenny seems to be enjoying himself.

[Hank the Deuce]

Stan did a nice job of setting up that yellow Cheetah with the V6 Peugeot engine for Robbie...

That he did.  The first live motorsport event I attended was Mountainview Hillclimb, not far from home, in 1985-sh.  Robert Rumble's last run of the day produced a record... the crowd on the hill had a sniff of a good run by the time he'd exited the first left-hander... as the Cheetah arrowed out of the second corner, the right-hander with the off-camber exit, everybody was on their feet.  Great memories...

 

Similarly, in my yoof, Amaroo was the source of so much televised motorsport - and by extension, the basis of a lot of what I learned of the national racing scene.  A televised AMSCAR meeting, or the ATCC would feature footage of Minis, sports sedans/GT, clubmans, FVee, FF, Formula Pacific, F2, Group E, the one-make fun and games... of course, I would've said that I was watching it for the touring cars, but without the other races, how else would I have heard the names  of stalwarts, stars and upstarts like Hahnle, Crooke, Costanzo, Brook, Romano, Dane et al?  

 

The modern telecasts (on the odd occasion they come to Free-To-Air these days) are a bit two-dimension and tunnel-visioned by comparison...

Edited by Hank the Deuce, 11 March 2016 - 20:28.

[E1pix]

And one of the quickest up the hill was Dick Shoebridge.


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All right, the karters smoke 'em again!!! 

[GMACKIE]

Dick Shoebridge had a 650 Triumph Thunderbird engine in the 'Voodoo', and he wasn't afraid to use all its power.

[E1pix]

Had to be all he could do to manage wheel spin!

[Torston]

And the quickest Valiant of the time - Des Lennard


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[bradbury west]

What year are we talking about with Mr Rumble's Jindivik twin engine device?
Roger Lund

[GMACKIE]

[Torston]

What year are we talking about with Mr Rumble's Jindivik twin engine device?
Roger Lund

Unfortunately when I took all those early shots it was from a film camera (obviously) and there is no date identification. My guess would be mid 1960s. My files are not good enough to allow me to work out when. This one of Brian Mayman might help others pin it down more accurately.


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[GMACKIE]

Great shot of 'Blue', Torston. The letter C next to the 3 has me confused...anyone know what that's about ?

 

Brian's son, Colin, is currently doing quite well in the NSW Hillclimb Championships...in his VW Beetle :-

 

http://bathurstlight...-05-03-2016.pdf

[Torston]

Great shot of 'Blue', Torston. The letter C next to the 3 has me confused...anyone know what that's about ?
 
Brian's son, Colin, is currently doing quite well in the NSW Hillclimb Championships...in his VW Beetle :-
 
http://bathurstlight...-05-03-2016.pdf

From memory it was the class designation - Production and Touring Cars. Here's another from the start:


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[GMACKIE]

This is the 'Deek', that I built with a 350cc DKW bike engine. The above 'FTD' was in this car, but with a 500cc Tiger 100 engine...much more power.

 

The first photo is building the car, with the DKW engine, which was in the car in the 2nd shot - Silverdale hill. The bottom 2 are at Amaroo H/C, with the Triumph engine fitted. 25/6/67.

 

Sorry about the quality...

 

[Torston]

In the windmills of my mind I have a memory of your DEEK.
Here's another change of cars with Bob Kennedy in the Nota Din.


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[DanTra2858]

Greg I like your FTD medalion, well done but the wording at the bottom RHS encourages me to think that you had a hand in picking your own trophy. 😂

[Torston]

Just found a colour shot from the hillclimb. Apologise about the quality, but my camera at the time was a 21/4" square bellows job.


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[E1pix]

Greg I like your FTD medalion, well done.

Yes, Yes, my thoughts exactly.

[Torston]

Returning to the subject of this topic, this is the club that started it all. They were mainly all guys from the North Shore Sporting Car club.

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[TerryS]

Returning to the subject of this topic, this is the club that started it all. They were mainly all guys from the North Shore Sporting Car club.picture upload

The Amaroo clubhouse is now an Indian restaurant, called "The Kashi"

[Ray Bell]

And there, as they say, goes the neighbourhood...

Even Bob Winley has moved out of the workshops.

There used to be such a great atmosphere up at the entry to the place, where Bulant Motors, Bob Winley and several others had workshops. Robbie Rowe eventually moved in there too (I think he bought out Rawlo), Lionel Lawson had a place, and it was all abuzz when a race meeting was on.

Of course, the ARDC's licensed club eventually moved in, but I don't think it ever had the atmosphere that their Leichhardt Clubroom.

[Torston]

Actually, the original clubhouse (illustrated) was never built. It was to have a view over the circuit.

The one finally used ended up as the ARDC's room, but was started by the ACSCC.

[Ray Bell]

And, as such, it was pokey, cramped and crowded whenever a race weekend was on...

The circumstances under which the ARDC bought the property from Oscar were all a stroke of luck - for the ARDC. When they took the lease over it there s a clause which said they could buy the place, I think the price was $500,000, but there was a time limit.

Real estate took a huge jump and it was easy for them to justify the purchase, though they still had to sell the Leichhardt premises to complete the deal.

The ARDC Club Meeting called for the members' decision on that sale was rife with argument about the loss of a motor sport-oriented drinking hole so conveniently located in Sydney. The numbers seemed very much in favour of the arm-benders and barflies.

"I had enough proxies to carry the vote myself," someone said, I don't remember whether it was John Hinxman or Ray Price.

[Ian G]

From memory it was the class designation - Production and Touring Cars. Here's another from the start:
 

 

Yeah,not universal but the organising club handed out your number & Class letter at scrutineering.

Edited by Ian G, 18 March 2016 - 11:21.

[Torston]

The ARDC stuff was later on. The 49th anniversary relates to the start of the circuit and the ACSCC

[Ray Bell]

Originally posted by Torston
The ARDC stuff was later on. The 49th anniversary relates to the start of the circuit and the ACSCC

I feel your pain...

The beginnings of racing at Amaroo were full of promise - a new 'promoting club', a new circuit, fresh ideas. And it all fell into the ARDC's lap to (undoubtedly) hasten the demise of Catalina Park.

[TerryS]

It is interesting to compare what has happened in the developments of Amaroo Park and Oran Park, Sydney's two great circuits, after their closures.
 
Amaroo was developed into only about 10 houses with maybe 30 residents.
 
Oran Park is still being developed into 7,000 houses and 25,000 residents.
 
The difference reflects their different sizes, topographies and market demographics.
 
Amaroo is for executives wanting rural lifestyle on small acreages. Oran Park is basically for first home buyers and probably on less than quarter acre blocks.
 
With Amaroo the old circuit racing surface was completely ripped up and grassed over. The main road is Amaroo Park Drive which goes up the hill roughly where the old spectator road was. It ends in a cul-de-sac where the Loop stood.

Here are two photos, the first when racing circuit and the second showing the houses and circuit superimposed for comparison.

http://aerialf1.com/...stralia/amaroo/
https://www.google.c...SBddM_O7I-DEfM:

[Ray Bell]

The climb up the hill is definitely not along the path of the circuit, Terry...

I went out there shortly after the road was built and you could see they'd moved it. But I can't remember now which way they moved it!

[Torston]

The other factor with Amaroo was that it is on a flood plain which severely limited the housing development possibilities.

We had a flood one time half way up the Armco on pit straight!

[TerryS]

The other factor with Amaroo was that it is on a flood plain which severely limited the housing development possibilities.
We had a flood one time half way up the Armco on pit straight!

Probably why they built a three storey Control Tower............

[Torston]

This before and after might help a bit.
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[Torston]

And this one:
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