Oran Park Raceway

Oran Park Raceway

Grand Prix Circuit
Location	Narellan, New South Wales
Time zone	UTC +10
Coordinates	34°00′22″S 150°44′2″E / 34.00611°S 150.73389°E / -34.00611; 150.73389Coordinates: 34°00′22″S 150°44′2″E / 34.00611°S 150.73389°E / -34.00611; 150.73389
Opened	March 1962
Closed	January 2010
Major events	V8 Supercar Australian Grand Prix Superbike World Championship Castrol 6 Hour
Grand Prix Circuit
Length	2.620 km (1.62 mi)
Turns	12
Lap record	1:01.6718 (Tim Leahey, Reynard 92D Holden, 2000, Formula Holden)
South Circuit
Length	1.960 km (1.218 mi)
Turns	7
Lap record	0:37.73 (Paul Stokell, Reynard 91D Holden, 1994, Formula Holden)
North Circuit
Length	0.660 km (0.410 mi)
Turns	6

North Circuit

South Circuit

Oran Park Raceway was a motor racing circuit at Narellan in southwestern Sydney, New South Wales, Australia which was operational from 1962 to 2010.

The circuit was established by the Singer Car Club, with its opening meeting held on the weekend of 17–18 February 1962.^[1] A motorcycle race meeting was held on 17 February 1963, with reigning Grand Prix Champion Jim Redman being the star attraction.^[2] Redman won nearly every class and set the lap record of 50.4 seconds, only 0.8 seconds slower than Frank Matich's outright time set in a 2.6 litre Lotus Sports Car.

The original lap distance of 1.0 miles (1.6 km) was later extended to 1.21 miles (1.9 km) ^[3] with a further extension in 1974 ^[4] creating an alternative “Grand Prix” circuit of 1.63 miles (2.62 km) in length.^[3] The Grand Prix circuit featured a figure-eight shape with a bridge where the track crossed over itself. Despite the loop the racing direction was still regarded as being anticlockwise.

The complex also had a motocross track, a skidpan, a dirt track and four wheel drive course and a 1000 foot drag strip. Most of the circuit was visible from the main grandstand or the grassed banks surrounding the track.

Oran Park was used regularly for rounds of the Australian Touring Car Championship, V8 Supercar Championship Series, Australian Drivers' Championship and Australian Sports Sedan Championship. The Australian Grand Prix was held at Oran Park in 1974 and 1977. In the 1970s the circuit attracted large crowds for the popular Toby Lee Series, initially run for Series Production Touring Cars and later for Sports Sedans. The inaugural Rothmans 500 for Touring Cars was staged in 1977 but the 1978 event was to be the second and last running of this endurance race. Shorter touring car endurance races would continue to be held at Oran Park during the 1980s and apart from the Sandown and Bathurst classics would last the longest before fading interest caused the compression of the endurance season to just those two events. The final such Oran Park enduro would be the 1989 Pepsi 300. The final V8 Supercar round was held in December 2008, won by Garth Tander.

Two international meetings were held in 1988 and 1989, playing host to the Superbike World Championship.

The land on which the racetrack was located was sold to the Government of New South Wales for a new housing development. This led to the eventual closure of the track and ended 48 years of motorsport heritage at the facility. The last motorcycle race meeting, the BelRay 6 Hour, was held on the 21/22 November 2009. The final race meeting was scheduled for 23–24 January 2010 but was cancelled due to a lack of entries.^[5] This meant that the Independent Race Series event on 16 January 2010 ^[6] was in fact the last race meeting to be held at the circuit. The circuit continued to run open track days, where the public could drive road cars and motorbikes around the full circuit. The last ever day before the track closed for good was Monday 25 January 2010.

Australian Touring Car Championship

Oran Park Raceway has hosted a round of the Australian Touring Car Championship every year since 1971. 2008 was the final year of Oran Park in the V8 Supercar Championship Series. Allan Moffat and Mark Skaife are the most successful drivers at Oran Park in the ATCC, with six round wins each.

The first ever race in 1971 saw Moffat in his Ford Boss 302 Mustang and Bob Jane driving his 427 cui powered Chevrolet Camaro ZL-1 go into the round on 31 and 34 points respectively with Moffat needing to either win or score more 3 or more points than Jane to claim the title. With both drivers starting from the front row a capacity crowd saw a titanic struggle with Jane claiming the win from Moffat and securing his 3rd ATCC championship. In a bizarre happening during the race, a spectator driving a road registered Valient drove through an open gate and onto the circuit. The race went on and the driver managed to complete a few laps before exiting the circuit.

Lap Records

Current lap records for the Grand Prix circuit, italics indicate use of short circuit^[7][8][9]: As a comparison, in August 1984 John Bowe set the outright lap record of 1:03.9 in a Ralt RT4 Ford (1.6L) Formula Mondial car. The lap record when the circuit closed was 1:01.6718 by Tim Leahey in a Formula Holden Reynard 92D Holden (3.8L) set in July 2000.

Class	Driver	Vehicle	Time	Date
Outright	Tim Leahey	Reynard 92D Holden	1:01.6718	30/07/00
Racing Cars
Formula Holden	Tim Leahey	Reynard 92D Holden	1:01.6718	30/07/00
Formula Three	Michael Caruso	Dallara 301 Fiat	1:03.9747	13/07/03
Formula 5000	Warwick Brown	Lola T332 Chevrolet	1:05.2	17/11/74
Australian Formula 2	Jon Crooke	Cheetah Mk8	1:05.8	08/06/86
Formula Ford	Steven Richards	Van Diemen RF94	1:11.5614	24/07/94
Formula Vee 1200	Benjamin Porter	Jacer	1:21.9271	19/07/03
Formula Vee 1600	Ryan Simpson	Jacer F2k6	1:18.8632	19/06/06
Sports Cars
Nations Cup	Paul Stokell	Lamborghini Diablo GT	1:08.6267	13/07/03
Carrera Cup	Alex Davison	Porsche 997 GT3 Cup Car	1:09.6224	13/08/03
Production Sports Cars	Tim Mackie	Lotus Elise HPE	1:10.9768	31/05/09
GT Championship	Greg Crick	Dodge Viper GTS ACR	1:11.2863	07/05/06
Invitation Sports Cars	Stan Adler	Porsche 911 Coupe	1:15.6234	30/08/98
GT Performance	Bob Pearson	Mazda RX-7	1:16.0830	13/07/03
Aussie Racing Cars	Nick Percat	ARC Falcon-Yamaha	1:16.6124	12/08/06
MG-F Trophy	Warren Luff	MG-F Trophy	1:23.5348	17/08/03
Touring Cars
V8 Supercar	Craig Lowndes	Holden VT Commodore	1:08.0630	15/09/99
Fujitsu V8 Supercars Series	Dean Canto	Ford EL Falcon	1:10.3812	16/06/00
Sports Sedan	Kerry Bailey	Nissan 300ZX-Chevrolet	1:06.8983	28/07/01
Super Touring	Brad Jones	Audi A4 Quattro	1:10.0464	30/08/98
Performance Cars	Chris Alajajian	Subaru Impreza WRX STi	1:15.6008	13/08/05
Club Cars	Wayne Wakefield	Mazda 808 Station Wagon	1:16.8968	30/08/98
Commodore Cup	Ashley Cooper	Holden VS Commodore	1:18.2003	22/04/07
Saloon Cars	Kris Walton	Ford AU Falcon	1:19.7760	28/10/06
Production Cars	Scott Loadsman	Holden VX Commodore	1:20.3087	24/11/01
Mirage Series	Warren Luff	Mitsubishi Mirage RS	1:20.7364	15/08/99
V8 Utes	Grant Johnson	Holden VZ SS Ute	1:21.4087	07/05/06
HQ Holden	Vince Gatt	HQ Holden	1:27.6977	15/08/99
Historic Touring Cars
Touring Car Masters	Brad Tilley	Ford XY Falcon GT	1:18.0730	07/12/08
Group Nb	Cameron Tilley	Chrysler Valiant S Series	1:21.6603	18/06/00
Trucks
Super Trucks	Ian 'Inky' Tulloch	Freightliner Trucks	0:52.4607	24/03/02
Motorcycles
Superbikes	Mat Mladin	Kawasaki ZX-6R	1:10.2005	06/08/95
Formula Xtreme Motorcycles	Kevin Curtain	Yamaha YZF1000R	1:10.8232	11/10/98

References

1. ^ Clyde Hogkins, New Track for Racing, The Sun Herald, 18 Feb 1962, page 59.
2. ^ The Sydney Morning Herald, 13 Feb 1963 Retrieved from news.google.com on 8 February 2010
3. ^ ^{a b} Terry Walker, Fast Tracks, 1995, page 118
4. ^ Ray Bell, Lucky Stewart Bags AGP, Racing Car News, December 1974, page 60
5. ^ NOTICE OF CANCELLATION - LAST EVER RACE MEETING 23 -24 JANUARY 2010 As archived at www.webcitation.org on 7 February 2010
6. ^ Race Results Archive 2010 Retrieved from www.natsoft.biz on 7 February 2010
7. ^ Oran Park lap records - 2004 V8 Supercar Oran Park round official programme
8. ^ Oran Park lap records - 2007 V8 Supercar Oran Park round official programme
9. ^ "Australian Formula Vee tracks". Official Australian Formula Vee website. 10 May 2007. http://www.fvee.org.au/tracks/. Retrieved 22 November 2008. 

External links

• Official website
• Oran Park Track Days
• Oran Park Hot Laps
• Oran Park LIDAR
• "Oran Park Race Track Details and Motorsport Sport Facilities". Norrgard Motorsport Development. http://www.nmd.com.au/nmd/news/racetrack/OranPark. Retrieved 12 June 2006.