Lobethal – Big, bad and plenty fast
When it comes to road circuits, Lobethal had it all. Bumps, jumps, bridges and unforgiving corners through the hills east of Adelaide. Lobethal, in the Adelaide Hills, is half a world away from the former […]
Tracks
Amaroo Park – Paradise Lost
A road racing circuit, motocross track, tar hill climb, oiled-dirt short circuit (and briefly, a speedway). And less than an hour from Sydney CBD. A dream? No, for 35 years, this was Amaroo Park; the […]
Agro in Assen – Riders Strike of 1955
Saturday July 30th, 1955 was a tumultuous day in the history of motorcycle Grand Prix racing. For a bunch of Australasians, it marked a watershed in their careers. It’s a tough life being an international […]
The Crafers TT: Storm in a teacup – March 15th, 1947
Up in the well-to-do Adelaide Hills, the teacups were rattling one weekend in 1947. “A less-likely venue for motorcycle racing is hard to image”. These are the words of Doug Voss, keen student of the […]
Hume Weir – The valley of the kings
Race tracks have been crammed into some unlikely places, but few as unlikely as the site of the circuit built in 1959 in an old quarry which sat in the shadow of the dam wall […]
Bandiana Army Camp – The blast around the barracks
Back in 1954, excitement amongst the motorcycling fraternity was at fever pitch with the confirmation that the works Gilera duo of dashing English World Champion Geoff Duke and Irishman Reg Armstrong had agreed to an […]
1959 Australian Grand Prix, Florida Gardens Estate – The not-so Grand Prix
The most remarkable thing about the 1959 Australian Grand Prix, held on Sunday July 26 at the partly-finished Florida Gardens Estate residential development at what is now part of Broadbeach Waters in the heart of […]
Catalina Park – Grand Prix de Gully
Circuits come and go. Some are revered, others quickly forgotten. Catalina Park, in a dreary gully at Katoomba in the NSW Blue Mountains, is an example of the latter. A more hazardous concoction of made-for-racing […]
The Murder Drome
It was known as the Suicide Saucer, the Bowl of Death, or the Murder Drome, and for good reason. Many riders (including racing cyclists) lost their lives on the concrete banking before its demise, but […]
Darley Days
As the war clouds disappeared from the horizon, members of Melbourne’s Preston Motorcycle Club began casting around for a suitable site on which to unleash six years of pent-up need for speed. About eight kilometres […]