Calder Park Raceway
Encyclopedia
Calder Park Raceway is a motor racing circuit in Melbourne
, Victoria
, Australia
. The complex includes a drag strip
, a road circuit with several possible configurations, and the "Thunderdome", a high-speed banked oval equipped to race either clockwise (for right-hand-drive cars) or counter-clockwise (for left-hand-drive cars such as NASCAR
).
Calder Park Raceway was founded in the farming community of Diggers Rest and began as a dirt track carved into a paddock by a group of motoring enthusiasts who wanted somewhere to race their FJ Holdens. one of those men being Patrick Hawthorn, who at the time owned a petrol station in clayton. when one of his clients suggested a place to race, on his property.
The inaugural meeting on a bitumen track was run by the Australian Motor Sports Club and took place on 14 January 1962. The track design was very similar to the existing Club Circuit, which is still in use today. Competitors at this meeting included Bob Jane
(Autoland Jaguar 3.8 #84), Norm Beechey
(Holden #40), John Wood (Holden #83) and Peter Manton (Mini Cooper). In the early 1970s, Bob Jane purchased the track. The Thunderdome was added on the east side of the road circuit in 1987.
located on the grounds of Calder Park Raceway. It was originally known as the Goodyear Thunderdome to reflect the naming rights
sponsorship bought by the Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company.
The track is a tri-oval
shape, with 24-degree banking on Turns 1, 2, 3 and 4.
The Thunderdome was completed in 1987, but can trace its roots back over twenty years previously when Australian motorsport icon Bob Jane
, owner of Calder Park Raceway, travelled to the United States
and visited Charlotte Motor Speedway
and Daytona International Speedway
numerous times to gauge stock car racing
's rise in popularity. In 1981, Jane struck a deal with Bill France Jr. to bring NASCAR
racing to Australia and plans were laid out for a tri-oval at the existing Calder Park Raceway.
Ground first broke for the track in 1983 and took four years to complete. It was built at a cost of A$
54 million - almost completely funded by Jane - and was opened by the Mayor of Keilor
City Council on 3 August 1987.
The first race on the Thunderdome was held just two weeks after its opening, although the track used incorporated both the Thunderdome and the pre-existing National Circuit. It was a 300-kilometre event for touring cars, with John Bowe
and Terry Shiel in a Nissan Skyline
taking first place - to date the only time a Japanese car has won a race held on the Thunderdome.
The first race that used only the oval was the Goodyear NASCAR 500km
held on 28 February 1988, a nationally-televised event which featured some of Australia's top touring car drivers as well as a slew of imports from the Winston Cup, including Bobby Allison
(who had won the Daytona 500
that same month, giving the Thunderdome race a big publicity boost), Neil Bonnett
, Michael Waltrip
, Harry Gant
, Morgan Shepherd
, Dave Marcis
, Rick Wilson
and others. Bonnett won the race in a Pontiac Grand Prix
. This was the first time a NASCAR event had been staged outside North America and it proved so popular that many of the same drivers returned for another race at the Thunderdome that December, along with three-time Indianapolis 500
winner Johnny Rutherford.
The Thunderdome also played host to numerous Australian Stock Car Auto Racing (AUSCAR) events until that series ended in 2001. AUSCAR was unique in that the cars were right hand drive and based on the Australian Ford Falcon
and Holden Commodore
. Engines were limited to 5.0L which allowed use of the existing Holden V8 engine
and the Ford 302 engine. Unlike NASCAR, the AUSCAR's raced clockwise
on oval tracks due to being RHD.
A round of the 1987 World Touring Car Championship
was held on the Calder Park Grand Prix circuit on 11 October 1987
Calder was also the first to host Superbike racing
and Truck Racing
; the trucks competing on both National and Thunderdome circuits in separate events. The AUSCAR series was developed to race on the Thunderdome.
The National Circuit's long front straight also features a drag strip, which was the home of the Australian National Drag Racing Championship for many years.
There are also Legal Off Street Drag Racing every Friday night unless weather is unsuitable for racing.
The strip is still regarded the fastest all-bitumen drag strip in the world. Although owing to a long running animosity with the Drag Racing authority ANDRA it has been several years since national level drag racing has been seen at Calder Park to give credence to the claim.
More recently, Calder Park introduced drifting events to its impressive list of motorsport activities. The first ever Drift Nationals held in March 2004 attracted over 8,000 spectators and added another inaugural event to the long list of new activities nurtured by Calder Park Raceway.
The first 100 metres of the Drag Strip was resurfaced in 2006 due to irregularities in the start line area, the strip reopened for the Legal Off Street Drag Racing event on Friday 17 November 2006.
Melbourne
Melbourne is the capital and most populous city in the state of Victoria, and the second most populous city in Australia. The Melbourne City Centre is the hub of the greater metropolitan area and the Census statistical division—of which "Melbourne" is the common name. As of June 2009, the greater...
, Victoria
Victoria (Australia)
Victoria is the second most populous state in Australia. Geographically the smallest mainland state, Victoria is bordered by New South Wales, South Australia, and Tasmania on Boundary Islet to the north, west and south respectively....
, Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
. The complex includes a drag strip
Drag strip
Drag strip may refer to:*Dragstrip, track used for drag racing*Drag Strip , Transformer character who is one of the Stunticons*Videocart-9: Drag Strip, drag racing videogame released in 1976-See also:*Dover Drag Strip...
, a road circuit with several possible configurations, and the "Thunderdome", a high-speed banked oval equipped to race either clockwise (for right-hand-drive cars) or counter-clockwise (for left-hand-drive cars such as NASCAR
NASCAR
The National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing is a family-owned and -operated business venture that sanctions and governs multiple auto racing sports events. It was founded by Bill France Sr. in 1947–48. As of 2009, the CEO for the company is Brian France, grandson of the late Bill France Sr...
).
History
The inaugural meeting on a bitumen track was run by the Australian Motor Sports Club and took place on 14 January 1962. The track design was very similar to the existing Club Circuit, which is still in use today. Competitors at this meeting included Bob Jane
Bob Jane
Robert "Bob" Jane is an Australian former race car driver and prominent businessman. A four-time winner of the Armstrong 500, the race that became the prestigious Bathurst 1000 and a four-time Australian Touring Car Champion, Jane is perhaps known best nowadays for his chain of tyre retailers,...
(Autoland Jaguar 3.8 #84), Norm Beechey
Norm Beechey
Norm Beechey was an Australian race car driver, given the nickname "Stormin Norman". To some, he was the closest thing Holden had to a star racing driver, before Peter Brock. Beechey competed in the Australian Touring Car Championship from 1963 to 1972 winning the title in 1965 driving a Ford...
(Holden #40), John Wood (Holden #83) and Peter Manton (Mini Cooper). In the early 1970s, Bob Jane purchased the track. The Thunderdome was added on the east side of the road circuit in 1987.
Thunderdome
The Thunderdome is a purpose-built 1.8 km (1.1 mi) speedwayOval track
Oval track racing, also known as oval racing, is a form of closed-circuit automobile racing that is contested on an oval-shaped track. An oval track differs from a road course in that the layout resembles an oval with turns in only one direction, almost universally left...
located on the grounds of Calder Park Raceway. It was originally known as the Goodyear Thunderdome to reflect the naming rights
Naming rights
In the private sector, naming rights are a financial transaction whereby a corporation or other entity purchases the right to name a facility, typically for a defined period of time. For properties like a multi-purpose arena, performing arts venue or an athletic field, the term ranges from three...
sponsorship bought by the Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company.
The track is a tri-oval
Tri-oval
A tri-oval is a shape which derives its name from the two other shapes it most resembles, a triangle and an oval. Rather than meeting at sharp, definable angles as the sides of a triangle do, in a tri-oval these angles are instead rounded into smooth curves. While an oval has four turns, a...
shape, with 24-degree banking on Turns 1, 2, 3 and 4.
The Thunderdome was completed in 1987, but can trace its roots back over twenty years previously when Australian motorsport icon Bob Jane
Bob Jane
Robert "Bob" Jane is an Australian former race car driver and prominent businessman. A four-time winner of the Armstrong 500, the race that became the prestigious Bathurst 1000 and a four-time Australian Touring Car Champion, Jane is perhaps known best nowadays for his chain of tyre retailers,...
, owner of Calder Park Raceway, travelled to the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
and visited Charlotte Motor Speedway
Charlotte Motor Speedway
Charlotte Motor Speedway is a motorsports complex located in Concord, North Carolina, United States 13 miles from Charlotte, North Carolina. The complex features a quad oval track that hosts NASCAR racing including the prestigious Coca-Cola 600 on Memorial Day weekend and the Sprint All-Star Race...
and Daytona International Speedway
Daytona International Speedway
Daytona International Speedway is a race track in Daytona Beach, Florida, United States. Since opening in 1959, it has been the home of the Daytona 500, one of the most prestigious races in NASCAR. In addition to NASCAR, the track also hosts races of ARCA, AMA Superbike, Grand-Am and Motocross...
numerous times to gauge stock car racing
Stock car racing
Stock car racing is a form of automobile racing found mainly in the United States, Canada, New Zealand, Great Britain, Brazil and Argentina. Traditionally, races are run on oval tracks measuring approximately in length...
's rise in popularity. In 1981, Jane struck a deal with Bill France Jr. to bring NASCAR
NASCAR
The National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing is a family-owned and -operated business venture that sanctions and governs multiple auto racing sports events. It was founded by Bill France Sr. in 1947–48. As of 2009, the CEO for the company is Brian France, grandson of the late Bill France Sr...
racing to Australia and plans were laid out for a tri-oval at the existing Calder Park Raceway.
Ground first broke for the track in 1983 and took four years to complete. It was built at a cost of A$
Australian dollar
The Australian dollar is the currency of the Commonwealth of Australia, including Christmas Island, Cocos Islands, and Norfolk Island, as well as the independent Pacific Island states of Kiribati, Nauru and Tuvalu...
54 million - almost completely funded by Jane - and was opened by the Mayor of Keilor
Keilor, Victoria
Keilor is a suburb in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, 18 km north-west from Melbourne's central business district. Its Local Government Area are the Cities of Brimbank and Hume...
City Council on 3 August 1987.
The first race on the Thunderdome was held just two weeks after its opening, although the track used incorporated both the Thunderdome and the pre-existing National Circuit. It was a 300-kilometre event for touring cars, with John Bowe
John Bowe (racing driver)
John Bowe is an Australian racing driver, presently racing a 1969 Ford Mustang in the historic series, Touring Car Masters....
and Terry Shiel in a Nissan Skyline
Nissan Skyline
The first Skyline was introduced in April 1957, by the Prince Motor Company, and was marketed as a luxury car. It featured a 1.5 L GA-30 engine producing 44 kW @ 4400 rpm. It used a de Dion tube rear suspension and was capable of 140 km/h . The car weighed around 1300 kg...
taking first place - to date the only time a Japanese car has won a race held on the Thunderdome.
The first race that used only the oval was the Goodyear NASCAR 500km
1988 Goodyear NASCAR 500
The Goodyear NASCAR 500 race was run at the then new A$54 million Calder Park Thunderdome in Melbourne, Australia on February 28, 1988. The race was the first ever NASCAR event held outside of North America...
held on 28 February 1988, a nationally-televised event which featured some of Australia's top touring car drivers as well as a slew of imports from the Winston Cup, including Bobby Allison
Bobby Allison
Robert Arthur Allison is a former NASCAR Winston Cup driver and was named one of NASCAR's 50 greatest drivers. His two sons, Clifford Allison and Davey Allison followed him into racing, and both died within a year of each other....
(who had won the Daytona 500
Daytona 500
The Daytona 500 is a -long NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race held annually at the Daytona International Speedway in Daytona Beach, Florida. It is one of four restrictor plate races on the Cup schedule....
that same month, giving the Thunderdome race a big publicity boost), Neil Bonnett
Neil Bonnett
Lawrence Neil Bonnett was a NASCAR driver who compiled 18 victories and 20 poles over his 18-year career. The Alabama native currently ranks 35th in all-time NASCAR Cup victories. He appeared in the 1983 film Stroker Ace and the 1990 film Days of Thunder...
, Michael Waltrip
Michael Waltrip
Michael Curtis Waltrip is a semi-former professional race car driver, co-owner of Michael Waltrip Racing, and a published author. He is the younger brother of three-time NASCAR champion and racing commentator Darrell Waltrip. Waltrip is a two-time winner of the Daytona 500; having won the race in...
, Harry Gant
Harry Gant
Harry Phil Gant is a retired American racecar driver best known for driving the #33 Skoal Bandit car on the NASCAR Winston Cup circuit during the 1980s and 1990s.-Nicknames:...
, Morgan Shepherd
Morgan Shepherd
Clay Morgan Shepherd has been a NASCAR Sprint Cup driver since 1977. He has also raced in the Nationwide, and Camping World Truck Series. He is a born again Christian who serves as a lay minister to the racing community...
, Dave Marcis
Dave Marcis
Dave Marcis is a retired driver on the NASCAR Winston Cup circuit whose career spanned five decades. Marcis won five times over this tenure, twice at Richmond, including his final win in 1982...
, Rick Wilson
Rick Wilson (NASCAR)
Rick Wilson is a former NASCAR Winston Cup driver. He began racing in 1980, and posted 23 top-ten finishes over his career...
and others. Bonnett won the race in a Pontiac Grand Prix
Pontiac Grand Prix
Picking up where the Pontiac Ventura model left off, the Grand Prix first appeared in the Pontiac line for 1962. It was essentially a standard Pontiac Catalina coupe with minimal outside chrome trim and a sportier interior...
. This was the first time a NASCAR event had been staged outside North America and it proved so popular that many of the same drivers returned for another race at the Thunderdome that December, along with three-time Indianapolis 500
Indianapolis 500
The Indianapolis 500-Mile Race, also known as the Indianapolis 500, the 500 Miles at Indianapolis, the Indy 500 or The 500, is an American automobile race, held annually, typically on the last weekend in May at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway in Speedway, Indiana...
winner Johnny Rutherford.
The Thunderdome also played host to numerous Australian Stock Car Auto Racing (AUSCAR) events until that series ended in 2001. AUSCAR was unique in that the cars were right hand drive and based on the Australian Ford Falcon
Ford Falcon (Australia)
The Ford Falcon is a full-size car which has been manufactured by Ford Australia since 1960. Each model from the XA series of 1972 onward has been designed, developed and built in Australia and/or New Zealand, following the phasing out of the American Falcon of 1960–71 which had been re-engineered...
and Holden Commodore
Holden Commodore
The Holden Commodore is an automobile manufactured since 1978 by the Holden subsidiary of General Motors in Australia, and, formerly, in New Zealand. In the mid-1970s, Holden established proposals to replace the long-serving Kingswood nameplate with a smaller, Opel-based model...
. Engines were limited to 5.0L which allowed use of the existing Holden V8 engine
Holden V8 engine
The Holden V8 is an overhead valve V8 engine which was produced by the Australian General Motors subsidiary Holden between 1969 and 2000. The engine was used initially in the Kingswood and Monaro model ranges; it was later utilised in the Torana and Commodore ranges...
and the Ford 302 engine. Unlike NASCAR, the AUSCAR's raced clockwise
Clockwise
Circular motion can occur in two possible directions. A clockwise motion is one that proceeds in the same direction as a clock's hands: from the top to the right, then down and then to the left, and back to the top...
on oval tracks due to being RHD.
Motorsport
Calder Park has hosted events involving Australian touring cars, historics, Super Tourers, Super Trucks and Super Bikes to rock concerts featuring world class artists such as Fleetwood Mac, Santana and Guns N' Roses.A round of the 1987 World Touring Car Championship
1987 World Touring Car Championship season
The 1987 World Touring Car Championship season was the inaugural World Touring Car Championship season. It commenced on March 22, 1987 and ended on November 15 after eleven races. The championship was open to Touring Cars complying with FIA Group A regulations.-Drivers and teams:Fifteen registered...
was held on the Calder Park Grand Prix circuit on 11 October 1987
Superbike racing
Superbike racing is a category of motorcycle racing that employs modified production motorcycles. Superbike World Championship is the international superbike championship, and national superbike championships are held in many countries as well, including the United Kingdom, the United States,...
and Truck Racing
Truck Racing
Truck racing is a form of motor racing which involves modified versions of heavy tractor units on racing circuits.The sport started in England in 1984 with the first race held at Donington Park and enjoyed great success, but declined in the 1990s. However, in the last few years the profile of...
; the trucks competing on both National and Thunderdome circuits in separate events. The AUSCAR series was developed to race on the Thunderdome.
The National Circuit's long front straight also features a drag strip, which was the home of the Australian National Drag Racing Championship for many years.
There are also Legal Off Street Drag Racing every Friday night unless weather is unsuitable for racing.
The strip is still regarded the fastest all-bitumen drag strip in the world. Although owing to a long running animosity with the Drag Racing authority ANDRA it has been several years since national level drag racing has been seen at Calder Park to give credence to the claim.
More recently, Calder Park introduced drifting events to its impressive list of motorsport activities. The first ever Drift Nationals held in March 2004 attracted over 8,000 spectators and added another inaugural event to the long list of new activities nurtured by Calder Park Raceway.
Track information
- Thunderdome (Oval circuit): Length 1.801 km / 1.119 mi
- National Circuit: Length 2.280 km / 1.417 mi
- Club Circuit: Length 1.609 km / 1.000 mi
The first 100 metres of the Drag Strip was resurfaced in 2006 due to irregularities in the start line area, the strip reopened for the Legal Off Street Drag Racing event on Friday 17 November 2006.