Throughout the seventies Australia’s home of illegal drag racing was on an isolated stretch of smooth concrete known as Bennelong Road at Homebush Bay (now part of the Olympic Park site). This was supposedly a private road leading from the State Abattoirs site across some wasteland to a dead end by the water. The place was known as Brickies because of the State Brickworks quarry nearby. It was the perfect location for street dragging and this activity had taken place here since the late fifties.
By the seventies things had started to get organised.
Up to 50 cars and a few hundred spectators would meet here on a hot summer’s night.
At one stage temporary staging lights were set up on the start line. The date and start time was promoted by word of mouth and the pre-race meeting point was the Big Chief Hamburger Bar on Parramatta Road. Here challenges would be thrown down by competitors, sometimes for large amounts of money.
One famous challenge was for $3000, winner takes all.
Monaros and Mustangs were among the most popular Brickies machines but really anything went. One guy turned up in a truck one night and set his tyres on fire. Another competed on a motorcycle. The police turned up regularly, especially after a fatal accident. A few unfortunates lost their lives when they couldn’t slow down in time to make the 90-degree left turn at the end of the quarter mile.
Such was the level of organisation that if there was a warning that the cops were coming the live-in caretaker of one of the Bennelong Road warehouses would allow competitors to park their cars in the back of his yard until they’d gone.
In 1975 Wheels magazine ran an investigative report on the secret existence of Brickies, compiled by an anonymous reporter and photographer. A secret to those in Perth maybe, but in the western suburbs of Sydney everyone with a hot car knew exactly where Brickies was. You weren’t a real revhead unless you’d raced here at least once.
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