A FOND FAREWELL TO MY FAVOURITE SPEEDWAY

Before I start this post, let me state that I’ve never raced a sprint car nor have I ever driven one. But, let me tell you as a raw, gritty race fan I would love to tick it off my bucket list one day!

I’ve always loved sprint cars growing up. I fondly remember as a kid my first memories of motorsport were from the now defunct Parramatta Speedway, where my Aunty Di took me along to watch the legendary Garry Rush in his Castrol back 410 Sprintcar. I honestly don’t think speedway or sprint cars get the coverage it should in the motorsport world. Back in the day, you’d hear it on the radio, see adverts on TV and the good ol’ Speedway was always packed out on a Saturday night.

Over in America, the homeland of sprint car racing, they have big money pools for sprint car racing. When Kyle Larson got booted from his NASCAR team during COVID-19, he went out and raced everything under the sun on speedway and dirt! He was winning just about everything in sprint cars during the 2020 season to earn a spot back in NASCAR. He’s made a fortune racing on dirt, unlike in the lower tier divisions in tar racing where you don’t earn as much.

WHY?

Because around local tracks they try to generate crowd numbers and sponsors to make it one massive prize pool and give the fans ideally what they want from an entertainment aspect. We rarely get to see sprint cars on TV these days and it is only streamed on various servers in the US.

You have to be a huge racing fan to know when races are on in Australia otherwise you will miss out on some exciting action. As a driver myself, I’ve always loved racing in the wet and on dirt. I wish I had the opportunities to race sprint cars many years ago, but unfortunately I live in the city in a small apartment and don’t have a farm or the right people to back me in sprint cars.

In my home city of Sydney, we are starved for sprint car action as the local track at parramatta is closed down, whilst they build a new speedway facility out near Eastern Creek, Sydney Motor Sport Park. Most teams and drivers post COVID-19, have either sold their equipment or are in a holding pattern waiting for the national schedule, when all the borders open for them to race again.

I love the smell of the gritty engines and hearing the roaring V8 sprint cars buzz around the track as they fling dirt into the crowd. Sprint cars are what got me into motorsport all these years ago and the nostalgic memories will always be there. I’d even go to the speedway a lot on my own before the local track shut down because it would fill the void of when I’m not racing and when the Formula 1 is in it’s off-season. Ah, I miss it.

I’d love to hear your thoughts on what made you fall in love with sprint cars and the speedway scene. Comment below and let me know.

Until next time,

DH

Parramatta Speedway was built in 1977 by founder Sid Hopping, and has become a home away from home for generations of Australian families in the Sydney Region. - Photo and all rights reserved by Full Throttle Publishing