It took just three residents to close off speedway at the Showground. What a sick joke. The shameful Day when the majority loses was the Day democracy in this country died. Now it’s open slather for anybody to complain and sue. Wokes was certainly very much alive back then. 😡😡
There was nothing better than watching Andrew Cleave & Dave Power, Jimmy Meckaroff & the boys belting around the Undera Park Speedway back in their heyday, what a blast!
Loved Violet Loraine and especially the Cinema scene with the huge sounding organ rising and the jaunty cheery tuneful big studio orchestra as "Piccadilly Playground" starts.
Very well done video. I was hoping it would have a better ending but those were very dangerous days in open wheel racing. Took lots of courage and skill to drive them, and even then sometimes bad luck would just catch up, just like it did this young man.
My God you’ve taken me back to the days of the Wembley Lions! How well I remember Oli Olsen, Ivan Mauger, etc, etc. It was so long ago I can’t even remember a lot of their names now. ( I may have dementia, but at least I don’t have dementia!).
No longer matters, but I could never understand why they never took a foot or so off the infield all the way round to make it a better shape for racing. As I always comment on vids from THE Sydney Showground, though, it is an absolute tragedy that the venue is no more due to selfish nimbies.
Peter Boland Raced at Westmead, Liverpool Raceway, Sydney Showgrounds and other Speedway Tracks, he was always in the mix, and actually was the first Aussie to beat Jeff Freeman on Aussie Soil. If anyone has any footage of Pete it’d be great to see!
Great film so many memories with all those great drivers in that era.Thank you for showing the footage. I just LOVED THE SYDNEY SHOWGROUND IN THE SIXTIES. SPEEDWAY IS KING.
I was there for that Speedway Test along with 25000 plus fans.Those were the days at the SYDNEY SHOWGROUND ROYALE. The ENGLAND side had the BOOCOCK brothers Nigel and Eric the AUSSIE side Jim Airey and Gordon G. Wonderful memories the smell of the racing fuel covered in dust and dirt from the track. THE PROMOTER. MR SHERWOOD deserves a pat on the back we will NEVER SEE ANY THING LIKE THAT AGAIN THE WORLD HAS CHANGED.
I was there as well. The atmosphere, the smell of the fuel, the roar of the crowd and the noise of the solo's was something I will never forget. Went to the racing at the showground every Saturday night - never missing a race night.
Great footage l remember 1962 like yesterday those were the days brave men NO ROLL CAGES HARVEY BROCK STEWART TATTERSALL FREEMAN CLEVELAND MARSHALL REVELL THE CUNEEN BROTHERS and many many more those guys were CHAMPIONS in my eyes as a young man couldn’t get to THE SYDNEY ROYALE on SATURDAY NIGHT QUICK ENOUGH. WHAT MEMORIES. THANKS ONCE AGAIN. SPEEDWAY WOW. PETER. WADE.
Look at this classic old venue in Brisbane! Always reminded me of the old Sydney Showground Speedway, they both had very similar appearances, although this track was a great deal shorter than the old Sydney Showground, which was a hairs breadth longer than a 1/3 of a mile long. Both venues are now long gone, but not because they weren't "drawing the crowd's in," that's for sure. No, as with everything else concerned with Real Estate, it's all about "location, location, location."
Wow...absolutely fabulous images of some of the sport's greatest names. '48 when speedway was at the height of it's post WW2 boom. What fabulous times for those able to witness all this...🤗🤗
I saw Jeff race many times and I was there when he had the accident at westmead len brock was a very good friend of mine and he told me he had warned Jeff before they raced of the mud near the fence rip
Wow! I haven't seen real slot cars since the 1970s. They used to have a slot car track at Cabramatta in Sydney, a few stops on the train from Liverpool, where I grew up. As I remember, it was straight across the road from the station at Cabramatta, and although I had no slot car of my own, you could hire one their for one or two dollars when you got there, and off you'd go!! You were a little "Speed King" for an hour or two on a Saturday afternoon!! P.S : - Serious question, is this track meant to be reminiscent of the old Sydney Showground Speedway? I thought it might have been, just going by the name of the video, but if it is, it's a terrific effort!! You've succeeded with it at level, and it's a really fantastic job people!! Thanks for posting the video too!!
Yeah, I always get a bit nostalgic whenever I see an Australian Speedway "blast from the past", but what a shame it is that we've lost so many of these historic venues? And for what? The almighty dollar!!
