Wild, Wild West!

There was a time when Sydney, Brisbane, Perth and Adelaide all held regular speedway racing throughout each summer on tracks situated in the heart of these cities. During the ‘60s and ‘70s, these venues helped make speedway one of Australia’s top spectator sports.
This was an early example of what we call ‘sports-entertainment’ these days; part motor sport-part showbiz, run under bright lights at night with all the razzle-dazzle of the circus.
The long-gone Sydney Showground is probably the most famous of these speedways, yet quite a few who were around at the time say the best dirt track speedway was 5000km away on the other side of the continent - Claremont Speedway in Perth, WA.
It too was part of the city’s showgrounds complex, situated in a prime position just a few kilometres out of the city centre. The first speedway events were held there as early as 1927. This was also the last of the capital city speedways to close at the end of 1999.

This wonderful track took centre stage at Perth’s city showgrounds complex.

The first meetings were held for motorcycles but it soon became obvious that Claremont was perfectly suited to cars. The track was officially described as ‘651-and-a-quarter’ yards (586 metres) in length measured a yard from the inside edge. Those racing up near the fence would have covered closer to 700 metres a lap.
More important was the generous track width - 22 metres on the turns and 18 metres on the straights - making overtaking possible on the inside or outside. Racing three-wide at Claremont was a regular spectacle. Tracks like the Sydney Showground and Brisbane’s Exhibition Ground were only half as wide and, in the case of Brisbane’s ‘Ekka’, only two thirds as long.
Midgets (Speedcars) and Super Modifieds were already racing at Claremont, but something definitely clicked when Production Sedans first appeared in 1967.
By 1970 there were around 40 to 50 of these cars in the pits, with a regular supply coming from regional speedways like Bunbury and Collie and from winter season tracks like Bibra Lake and Wattle Grove.

One of the regular stars of Claremont’s muscle car wars was Bert Vosbergen ‘The Flying Dutchman’ in his wild HQ Holden Monaro. Porn star moustaches were big in the ‘70s.

Muscle cars take centre stage

Those first sedans were mainly old Holdens, especially FX/FJ ‘Humpies’, and the racing was rough. But by 1970 a few drivers decided to take things more seriously and late model Monaros and Falcon GTs started to appear.
The first Claremont muscle cars included Ian Diffen’s ‘World of Tyres’ Monaro, initially driven by Bob Shepherd then by Ian himself for a few meetings. The similar Monaro of Laurie Hardie was another pioneer, along with Rod Watson in a well-presented ‘Titan Ford’ Falcon GT (allegedly sourced from the dealership’s used car lot) and former road racer Stan Starcevich in another near-new Falcon sponsored by Anderson Ford.
Barry Blake turned up in a tough-looking red and black V8 Valiant and Wayne Negus briefly raced a Mini fitted with a wing before trying one of the first Toranas.
Soon speedway had its own version of the Series Production sedan category that was the big thing on road racing circuits. Long, wide and fast, Claremont was the track best suited to this new generation of muscle cars.