Calder Park Raceway

Motorsport venue
Name = Calder Park Raceway
Nicknames = The Thunderdome | Time =
Location = Calder Freeway, Keilor, Victoria, 3036


Image_caption =
Capacity = 44,000
Owner = Bob Jane
Operator = Australian Motorsport Club Limited
Broke_ground =
Opened = January 14, 1962
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Former_names =
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Layout1 = Tri-Oval
Surface = Asphalt
Miles_first =
Length_km = 1.8
Length_mi = 1.12
Turns = 4
Banking = Turns - 24°
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Record_driver =
Record_team =
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Layout2 = Road Course
Surface2 = Asphalt
Length_km2 = 2.32
Length_mi2 = 1.45
Turns2 = 9
Record_time2 = 0:52.69
Record_driver2 = John Bowe
Record_team2 = Veskanda-Chevrolet
Record_year2 = 1986
Record_class2 = Australian Sports Car Championship
Layout3 = Grand Prix Course
Surface3 = Asphalt
Length_km3 =
Length_mi3 =
Turns3 = 15
Banking3 =
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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 anti-clockwise (for left-hand-drive cars such as NASCAR).

History

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.

The inaugural meeting on a bitumen track was run by the Australian Motor Sports Club and took place on January 14, 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 S).

In the early 1970s, Bob Jane purchased the track.

The Thunderdome was added in the south side in 1987.

Thunderdome

The Thunderdome is a purpose-built 1.8 km (1.12 mile) speedway 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 a 24-degree banking on Turns 1 and 2.

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 $AU54 million - almost completely funded by Jane - and was opened by the Mayor of Keilor City Council on August 3, 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.Fact|date=February 2007

The first race that used only the oval was on February 28, 1988, a nationally-televised NASCAR 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 AUSCAR events until that series ended in 2001. AUSCAR was unique in that the cars were right hand drive - based on Ford Falcon and Holden Commodore chassis - and raced clockwise around the circuit.

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 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.Fact|date=February 2007 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.

References

*Calder Park Motorsport Official Website: http://www.calderpark.com.au [http://www.trackpedia.com/wiki/Calder_Park_Raceway Trackpedia's guide to racing and driving Calder Park]

External links