Warwick Farm Raceway was a motor racing facility which was in operation from 1960 to 1973. Warwick Farm Raceway hosted numerous major events during its life such as the
Australian Grand Prix
The Australian Grand Prix is an annual Formula One motor racing event, taking place in Melbourne, Victoria. The event is contracted to be held at least until 2035. One of the oldest surviving motorsport competitions held in Australia, the Gran ...
and rounds of both the
Australian Touring Car Championship
The Australian Touring Car Championship (ATCC) is a touring car racing award held in Australia since 1960. The series itself is no longer contested, but the title lives on, with the winner of the Repco Supercars Championship awarded the troph ...
and the
Tasman Series
The Tasman Series (formally the Tasman Championship for Drivers)Tasman Championship for Drivers, CAMS Manual of Motor Sport with National Competition Rules 1974, pages 80 to 83 was a motor racing competition held annually from 1964 to 1975 ove ...
.
History
Warwick Farm Raceway was built in 1960 on the site of the
Warwick Farm Racecourse
Warwick Farm Racecourse is a racecourse at Warwick Farm, New South Wales, Warwick Farm, a south-west suburb of Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. It is used as a racecourse for Thoroughbred horse racing. The racecourse is owned and operated by ...
, a horse racing track with which it was to co-exist throughout its history. When a motor racing meeting was scheduled, two "crossings" had to be placed over the top of the horse racing track, and then removed after racing had finished. The first, known as the Western Crossing, came between turns two and three while the second called the Northern Crossing was located later in the lap between turns 8 and 9.
Known as either The Farm or simply Warwick Farm, the circuit became one of Australia's premier motor racing venues and gained a reputation as a "drivers' track", hosting the
Australian Grand Prix
The Australian Grand Prix is an annual Formula One motor racing event, taking place in Melbourne, Victoria. The event is contracted to be held at least until 2035. One of the oldest surviving motorsport competitions held in Australia, the Gran ...
and rounds of both the
Tasman Series
The Tasman Series (formally the Tasman Championship for Drivers)Tasman Championship for Drivers, CAMS Manual of Motor Sport with National Competition Rules 1974, pages 80 to 83 was a motor racing competition held annually from 1964 to 1975 ove ...
, both of which attracted the top Formula One drivers of the day including World Champions
Graham Hill
Norman Graham Hill (15 February 1929 – 29 November 1975) was a British racing driver, rower and motorsport executive, who competed in Formula One from to . Nicknamed "Mr. Monaco", Hill won two Formula One World Drivers' Championship titles ...
,
Jim Clark
James Clark (4 March 1936 – 7 April 1968) was a British racing driver from Scotland, who competed in Formula One from to . Clark won two Formula One World Drivers' Championship titles with Lotus, and—at the time of his death—held the ...
,
Jackie Stewart
Sir John Young "Jackie" Stewart (born 11 June 1939) is a British former racing driver, sports broadcasting, broadcaster and motorsport executive from Scotland, who competed in Formula One from to . Nicknamed "the Flying Scottish people, Scot" ...
,
Jochen Rindt
Karl Jochen Rindt (; 18 April 1942 – 5 September 1970) was a racing driver, who competed under the Austrian flag in Formula One from to . Rindt won the Formula One World Drivers' Championship in with Lotus, and remains the only driver to ...
,
John Surtees
John Norman Surtees (11 February 1934 – 10 March 2017) was a British racing driver and motorcycle road racer, who competed in Grand Prix motorcycle racing from to , and Formula One from to . Surtees was a seven-time Grand Prix motorcycl ...
, and
Denny Hulme
Denis Clive Hulme (18 June 1936 – 4 October 1992) was a New Zealand racing driver, who competed in Formula One from to . Nicknamed "the Bear", Hulme won the Formula One World Drivers' Championship in with Brabham, and won eight Grands Pri ...
, plus
Bruce McLaren
Bruce Leslie McLaren (30 August 1937 – 2 June 1970) was a New Zealand racing driver, automotive designer, engineer and motorsport executive, who competed in Formula One from to . McLaren was runner-up in the Formula One World Drivers' Champ ...
,
Chris Amon
Christopher Arthur Amon (; 20 July 1943 – 3 August 2016) was a New Zealand racing driver and motorsport executive, who competed in Formula One from to . Widely regarded as one of the greatest drivers to never win a Formula One Grands Prix, ...
,
Piers Courage
Piers Raymond Courage (27 May 1942 – 21 June 1970) was a British racing driver, who competed in Formula One from to .
Courage participated in 29 World Championship Formula One Grands Prix for Lotus, Parnell and Frank Williams, debuting a ...
,
Derek Bell and Sydney's own World Drivers' Champion
Jack Brabham
Sir John Arthur Brabham (2 April 1926 – 19 May 2014) was an Australian racing driver and motorsport executive, who competed in Formula One from to . Brabham won three Formula One World Drivers' Championship titles, which he won in , and , ...
.
[Warwick Farm, www.tasman-series.com, as archived at web.archive.org](_blank)
/ref> The Farm also hosted rounds of the Australian Drivers' Championship
The Australian Drivers' Championship is a motor racing championship contested annually since 1957 by drivers of cars complying with Australia's premier open-wheeler racing category. This category was determined by the Confederation of Australia ...
which saw the local stars such as Frank Matich
Francis Anthony Matich (25 January 193511 May 2015) was an Australian racing car driver. A highly successful motor racing competitor in the 1960s and 1970s, Matich built his own range of Matich sports cars and open wheel cars, mainly to sup ...
, Frank Gardner, Kevin Bartlett, Max Stewart
Malcolm Clarke Stewart (14 March 1935 – 20 March 1977) was an Australian racing driver. He was known as the "Jolly Green Giant" for his disposition and height.
Stewart was born in Orange, New South Wales. He began his motorsport career r ...
and Leo Geoghegan
Leo Francis Geoghegan (16 May 1936 – 2 March 2015) was an Australian racing driver. He was the elder of two sons of former New South Wales car dealer Tom Geoghegan, both of whom become dominant names in Australian motor racing in the 1960s. ...
battling it out. It also staged Australian Touring Car Championship
The Australian Touring Car Championship (ATCC) is a touring car racing award held in Australia since 1960. The series itself is no longer contested, but the title lives on, with the winner of the Repco Supercars Championship awarded the troph ...
races during its later years which saw top line racing from the likes of Allan Moffat
Allan George Moffat, Order of the British Empire, OBE (born 10 November 1939 in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada) is a Canadian-born Australian racing driver known for his four championships in the Australian Touring Car Championship, six wins ...
, Pete Geoghegan, Bob Jane
Robert Frederick Jane (18 December 1929 – 28 September 2018) was an Australian race car driver and prominent entrepreneur and business tycoon. A four-time winner of the Armstrong 500, the race that became the prestigious Bathurst 1000 and a ...
and Norm Beechey
Norman Edward Beechey (born 9 July 1932) is a retired Australian race car driver, who was given the nickname ''"Stormin Norman"'' by his fans. To some, he was the closest thing Holden had to a star racing driver, before Peter Brock. Beechey com ...
, with the last major race at Warwick Farm being the final round of the 1973 Australian Touring Car Championship
The 1973 Australian Touring Car Championship was an Australian motor racing competition for Group C Touring Cars. It began at Symmons Plains on 5 March 1973 and ended at Warwick Farm after eight rounds. The championship, which was authorised b ...
on 15 July (won by Peter Brock
Peter Geoffrey Brock (26 February 1945 – 8 September 2006), known as "Peter Perfect", "The King of the Mountain", or simply "Brocky", was an Australian motor racing driver. Brock was most often associated with Holden for almost 40 years, al ...
) and the final race meeting was a club day held in August 1973.
The reason for the closure was financial - the Confederation of Australian Motorsport
Motorsport Australia, formerly the Confederation of Australian Motor Sport (CAMS), is the nationally recognised governing and sanctioning body for four-wheeled motorsport in Australia. It is affiliated with the Federation Internationale de l'A ...
(CAMS) wanted to have armco fencing installed around the circuit, and the AJC (Australian Jockey Club
Australian Turf Club (ATC) owns and operates thoroughbred racing, events and hospitality venues across Sydney, Australia. The ATC came into being on 7 February 2011 when the Australian Jockey Club (AJC) and the Sydney Turf Club (STC) merged. The ...
) wasn't willing to spend the money to upgrade the circuit.
Warwick Farm held its first meeting in December 1960. On a wet track, Ian "Pete" Geoghegan won the opening touring car race driving a Jaguar 3.4 Litre.
When it closed as a motor racing facility in 1973, the lap record of the long Warwick Farm circuit was held by Australian motor racing legend Frank Gardner. Driving a Chevrolet
Chevrolet ( ) is an American automobile division of the manufacturer General Motors (GM). In North America, Chevrolet produces and sells a wide range of vehicles, from subcompact automobiles to medium-duty commercial trucks. Due to the promi ...
powered Lola T300
The Lola T300 was an open-wheel formula race car, designed, developed and built by Lola Cars, for Formula 5000
Formula 5000 (or F5000) was an Open-wheel car, open wheel, single seater auto-racing formula that ran in different series in vario ...
Formula 5000
Formula 5000 (or F5000) was an Open-wheel car, open wheel, single seater auto-racing formula that ran in different series in various regions around the world from 1968 to 1982. It was originally intended as a low-cost series aimed at open-wheel ...
during the 1972 Tasman Series
The 1972 Tasman Series was a motor racing competition staged in New Zealand and Australia for racing cars complying with the Tasman Formula.''Programme of Events and Awards'', Official Programme, Adelaide International Raceway, Sunday 27 Februar ...
, Gardner set a time of 1:24.0 during the Warwick Farm 100. Gardner finished second in the race he had won in 1971 *
The year 1971 had three partial solar eclipses (Solar eclipse of February 25, 1971, February 25, Solar eclipse of July 22, 1971, July 22 and Solar eclipse of August 20, 1971, August 20) and two total lunar eclipses (February 1971 lunar eclip ...
, 18 seconds behind Frank Matich driving his self-designed and built Matich A50 The Matich name was applied to a series of sports racing cars and open wheel racing cars produced in Australia between 1967 and 1974 under the direction of Sydney-based racing driver and engineer Frank Matich.The Macquarie Dictionary of Motoring, 19 ...
Repco-Holden.
Australian Grand Prix
Warwick Farm Raceway hosted the Australian Grand Prix
The Australian Grand Prix is an annual Formula One motor racing event, taking place in Melbourne, Victoria. The event is contracted to be held at least until 2035. One of the oldest surviving motorsport competitions held in Australia, the Gran ...
a total of four times:
International 100
Warwick Farm hosted the annual International 100 from 1961 to 1973:
Australian Touring Car Championship
Warwick Farm Raceway hosted the single race Australian Touring Car Championship
The Australian Touring Car Championship (ATCC) is a touring car racing award held in Australia since 1960. The series itself is no longer contested, but the title lives on, with the winner of the Repco Supercars Championship awarded the troph ...
in 1968, and hosted rounds of the championship in 1970, 1972 and 1973.
Tasman Series
Warwick Farm Raceway hosted a round of the Tasman Series
The Tasman Series (formally the Tasman Championship for Drivers)Tasman Championship for Drivers, CAMS Manual of Motor Sport with National Competition Rules 1974, pages 80 to 83 was a motor racing competition held annually from 1964 to 1975 ove ...
each year from 1964 to 1973.
Australian Drivers' Championship
Warwick Farm Raceway hosted a round of the Australian Drivers' Championship
The Australian Drivers' Championship is a motor racing championship contested annually since 1957 by drivers of cars complying with Australia's premier open-wheeler racing category. This category was determined by the Confederation of Australia ...
on 11 occasions. The Hordern Trophy race was named for Sir Samuel Hordern, a businessman who was sent by the AJC (Australian Jockey Club
Australian Turf Club (ATC) owns and operates thoroughbred racing, events and hospitality venues across Sydney, Australia. The ATC came into being on 7 February 2011 when the Australian Jockey Club (AJC) and the Sydney Turf Club (STC) merged. The ...
) to investigate how the British venue at Aintree combined car
A car, or an automobile, is a motor vehicle with wheels. Most definitions of cars state that they run primarily on roads, seat one to eight people, have four wheels, and mainly transport people rather than cargo. There are around one billio ...
and horse racing
Horse racing is an equestrian performance activity, typically involving two or more horses ridden by jockeys (or sometimes driven without riders) over a set distance for competition. It is one of the most ancient of all sports, as its bas ...
.
Australian Sports Car Championship
Warwick Farm hosted a round of the Australian Sports Car Championship
The Australian Sports Car Championship was the national title for sports car racing drivers sanctioned by the Confederation of Australian Motor Sport from 1969 to 1988. Each championship was contested over a series of races with the exception of ...
each year from 1969 to 1972.
* 1969
1969 ( MCMLXIX) was a common year starting on Wednesday of the Gregorian calendar, the 1969th year of the Common Era (CE) and ''Anno Domini'' (AD) designations, the 969th year of the 2nd millennium, the 69th year of the 20th century, and the ...
RAC Trophy – Frank Matich
Francis Anthony Matich (25 January 193511 May 2015) was an Australian racing car driver. A highly successful motor racing competitor in the 1960s and 1970s, Matich built his own range of Matich sports cars and open wheel cars, mainly to sup ...
– Matich SR4 Repco
Repco is an Australian automotive engineering/retail company. Its name is an abbreviation of Replacement Parts Company and was for many years known for reconditioning engines and for specialised manufacturing, for which it gained a high repu ...
* 1970
Events
January
* January 1 – Unix time epoch reached at 00:00:00 UTC.
* January 5 – The 7.1 1970 Tonghai earthquake, Tonghai earthquake shakes Tonghai County, Yunnan province, China, with a maximum Mercalli intensity scale, Mercalli ...
RAC Trophy – Neil Allen – Elfin ME5
Elfin Sports Cars Pty Ltd (formerly known as Elfin Sports Cars) is an Australian car manufacturer company that was founded by Garrie Cooper. It has been an Australian manufacturer of sports cars and motor racing cars since 1959.
Elfin Sports C ...
Chevrolet
Chevrolet ( ) is an American automobile division of the manufacturer General Motors (GM). In North America, Chevrolet produces and sells a wide range of vehicles, from subcompact automobiles to medium-duty commercial trucks. Due to the promi ...
* 1971 *
The year 1971 had three partial solar eclipses (Solar eclipse of February 25, 1971, February 25, Solar eclipse of July 22, 1971, July 22 and Solar eclipse of August 20, 1971, August 20) and two total lunar eclipses (February 1971 lunar eclip ...
RAC Trophy – John Harvey John Harvey may refer to:
People Academics
*John Harvey (astrologer) (1564–1592), English astrologer and physician
*John Harvey (architectural historian) (1911–1997), British architectural historian, who wrote on English Gothic architecture a ...
– McLaren M6 Repco
Repco is an Australian automotive engineering/retail company. Its name is an abbreviation of Replacement Parts Company and was for many years known for reconditioning engines and for specialised manufacturing, for which it gained a high repu ...
* 1972
Within the context of Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) it was the longest year ever, as two leap seconds were added during this 366-day year, an event which has not since been repeated. (If its start and end are defined using Solar time, ...
RAC Trophy – John Harvey John Harvey may refer to:
People Academics
*John Harvey (astrologer) (1564–1592), English astrologer and physician
*John Harvey (architectural historian) (1911–1997), British architectural historian, who wrote on English Gothic architecture a ...
– McLaren M6 Repco
Repco is an Australian automotive engineering/retail company. Its name is an abbreviation of Replacement Parts Company and was for many years known for reconditioning engines and for specialised manufacturing, for which it gained a high repu ...
Australian Manufacturers' Championship
Warwick Farm hosted a round of the Australian Manufacturers' Championship
The Australian Manufacturers' Championship was a motor racing title awarded by the Confederation of Australian Motor Sport (CAMS) to the winning car manufacturer in an annual series of races held throughout Australia. Whilst the first two champi ...
in 1971.
* 1971 *
The year 1971 had three partial solar eclipses (Solar eclipse of February 25, 1971, February 25, Solar eclipse of July 22, 1971, July 22 and Solar eclipse of August 20, 1971, August 20) and two total lunar eclipses (February 1971 lunar eclip ...
– Castrol Trophy – Colin Bond
Colin John Bond (born 24 February 1942) is an Australian former racing driver. Bond reached the highest levels in Australian motorsport in 1969 when he was recruited by Harry Firth to the newly formed Holden Dealer Team. He quickly found succ ...
– Holden LC Torana GTR XU-1
The Holden Torana is a mid-sized car that was manufactured by Holden from 1967 to 1980. The name apparently comes from a word meaning "to fly" in an unconfirmed Aboriginal Australian language. The original HB series Torana was released in 196 ...
Australian Formula Junior Championship
Warwick Farm hosted the Australian Formula Junior Championship in 1963.
* 1963
Events January
* January 1 – Bogle–Chandler case: Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation scientist Dr. Gilbert Bogle and Mrs. Margaret Chandler are found dead (presumed poisoned), in bushland near the Lane Cove ...
– Leo Geoghegan
Leo Francis Geoghegan (16 May 1936 – 2 March 2015) was an Australian racing driver. He was the elder of two sons of former New South Wales car dealer Tom Geoghegan, both of whom become dominant names in Australian motor racing in the 1960s. ...
– Lotus 22
The Lotus 22 was a racing car built by Lotus cars in 1962, and a total of 77 cars were built. It was developed from the 1962 Lotus 20, with the major differences that it had disc brakes all round, a top link and the 'rubber doughnut' to the rea ...
Ford
Australian GT Championship
Warwick Farm hosted the Australian GT Championship
The GT World Challenge Australia, formerly known as the Australian GT Championship, is a Motorsport Australia-sanctioned national title for drivers of GT cars, held annually from 1960 to 1963, from 1982 to 1985 and from 2005. Each championship ...
in 1962.
* 1962
The year saw the Cuban Missile Crisis, which is often considered the closest the world came to a Nuclear warfare, nuclear confrontation during the Cold War.
Events January
* January 1 – Samoa, Western Samoa becomes independent from Ne ...
– Frank Matich
Francis Anthony Matich (25 January 193511 May 2015) was an Australian racing car driver. A highly successful motor racing competitor in the 1960s and 1970s, Matich built his own range of Matich sports cars and open wheel cars, mainly to sup ...
– Jaguar D-Type
The Jaguar D-Type is a sports racing car that was produced by Jaguar Cars Ltd. between 1954 and 1957. Designed specifically to win the Le Mans 24-hour race, it shared the straight-6 XK engine and many mechanical components with its C-Type ...
London to Sydney Marathon rally - 1968
Warwick Farm was the venue for the finish of the London-Sydney Marathon. First place went to the Hillman Hunter
Hunting is the human practice of seeking, pursuing, capturing, and killing wildlife or feral animals. The most common reasons for humans to hunt are to obtain the animal's body for meat and useful animal products ( fur/ hide, bone/tusks, ...
crewed by Andrew Cowan, Colin Malkin and Brian Coyle.
References
Notes
Bibliography
*
External links
*
*
{{Australian GT circuits
Sports venues in Sydney
Former Supercars Championship circuits
Defunct motorsport venues in Australia
Australian Grand Prix
Sports venues completed in 1960