Abandoned racetracks: Amaroo Park

It's been a quarter of a century since the last race was run at Amaroo Park, but this quirky little track almost literally carved out of the rocky terrain in the Annangrove hills in Sydney's north-west is still deeply missed by those who raced there and those who watched the racing.

Story: Luke West

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Come see the touring cars bark at Amaroo Park,” the Mike Raymond-voiced radio advertisements of the 1980s insisted. These rapid-fire ads were laced with such Raymondisms as “rural Dural”, “Tricky Dicky”, “Perfect Pete” and “Spicy Gricey”, before ending with his trademark “be there!”
Those who got their “backside trackside” found the racing was as fast and furious as the venue’s commercials. As many as 20 short races filled the AMSCAR meetings’ program, with one category heading out on its formation lap as another filed into pit entry having received the chequered flag.

Amaroo Park’s main paddock area in August 1972. Credit: Jeff Neild

There were no self-important looking officials undertaking endless ‘course’ laps between events or eternal delays due to a TV network’s football commitments. And unfathomable pitstop-laced strategy races were still the figment of some marketing genius’ imagination.
Somewhere along the way motor racing lost the plot, but that’s a story for another day.
No venue did a better job of giving spectators an action-packed day of car racing than the little circuit on Sydney’s bushy, craggy north-western outskirts.

The ARDC’s first Amaroo meeting, 12 March 1967.

Amaroo was the antithesis of the 6km Mount Panorama – also operated by the Australian Racing Drivers Club through the 1970s, ’80s and well into the ’90s – but its short length was part of its charm. It was a cauldron that afforded spectators great views of most of the action that always came thick and fast.
What it lacked in facilities it made up for in character. The main paddock area was tiny, so the overflow spilled into whatever bush clearings could be found.
On the track, Amaroo tossed up a variety of winners; the tight, twisting layout giving the smaller cars better than a fighting chance. Titanic battles during the Series Production, Group C, Group A and the early 5.0-litre V8 touring car eras well and truly earn Amaroo the label of ‘sacred site’.