Tralee Speedway
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The Tralee Speedway was a dirt track speedway located near Canberra, the Australian capital. The speedway was home to several drivers who went on to become Australian national and state champions. Tralee (for a time also known as Fraser Park Raceway) was a 1/4 mile dirt surfaced oval raceway. Opened in 1970, the track operated until the 1990s. Many types of cars raced at Tralee - super modifieds, sprintcars, speedcars, three quarter cars (TQs), stock cars, speedway bikes and sidecars, and productions sedans.
In the 1970s, Tralee was best known for its high quality production sedan racing, producing several national and state champions in this category including Australian champions David House (twice National champion) and Dave Wignall.
Other notable drivers from this era include Peter Taunton, Howard Revell, brothers Bob and Harry Bink, Ron Shepard, Bob Rawlings, Max Kennerly, Ken Barlow, John Lange, Roger Emerton, John Forman, Bill Martin (from Cooma) and Bill Martin (from Goulburn).
Many well known drivers from rival Liverpool Speedway in Sydney also raced at Tralee including sedan aces Peter Graham, Peter Crick, Bruce Maxwell, Brian Callaghan, Rick Hunter, and super modified stars Gary Rush, Dick Britton, Jim Winterbottom, Steve Brazier, George Tatnell and Sid Hopping.
The USA Sedan teams returned to race for many seasons at Tralee and the "USA vs. AUST" battles were popular with race fans. Another popular visitor was American sprintcar great Gary Patterson (promoted in Australia as "The Hostile Hippy"), who proved to be unbeatable on nearly every occasion. Other US stars to race at Tralee were Indy 500 winner Johnny Rutherfod, USAC Champ Ron 'Sleepy' Tripp, Larry Rice, and Mel Kenyon. Denmark's Ole Olsen was a visitor several times, competing in the solo bike races. Olsen was World Champion at the time.
The first Australian Production Sedan Championship was held at Tralee in 1971 and was won by Kevin Dalton from Victoria driving a Holden Monaro. Much loved was Tralee's bearded, veteran race caller, Jack Hogg. Jack was well known in both speedway and motor bike racing circles.
In the 1974 the track was surfaced with bitumen. This changed the nature of the racing, producing faster lap speeds but less exciting racing. After a few years the bitumen surface was deemed a failure and was dug up, the track reverting to a dirt surface.
Today, Tralee Speedway complex is long closed and will be part of a new suburban development.
