Oran Park Raceway

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 February 1962 until its closure in January 2010.

History

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. Due to the nature of the land on which the circuit was built, 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 won by Andrew Miedecke and Andrew Bagnall driving a Ford Sierra RS500. The final V8 Supercar round was held in December 2008, won by Garth Tander driving a Holden VE Commodore.

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 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 Grand Prix

Oran Park twice hosted the Australian Grand Prix during its 42 years of operation, with both events held for Formula 5000 cars. The first Grand Prix held at Oran Park in 1974 was won by Max Stewart driving a Lola T330 Chevrolet. The last time the circuit hosted the event was in 1977 when Warwick Brown drove his Lola T430 Chevrolet to victory. Alan Jones had actually 'won' the 1977 race on the road and was some 40 seconds ahead of Walker when he crossed the line for what should have been the finish. However he was penalised 60 seconds for jumping the start and would eventually be classified in 4th place.

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 Valiant drove through an open gate and onto the circuit. As there were Group E cars in the race, the officials seemed to miss the extra car and the race continued with the driver managing to complete a few laps before exiting the circuit.

Touring Car round winners

Year	Driver	Car	Entrant
Improved Production
1971	Bob Jane	Chevrolet Camaro ZL-1	Bob Jane Racing Team
1972	Allan Moffat	Ford Boss 302 Mustang	Allan Moffat Racing
Group C
1973	Allan Moffat	Ford XY Falcon GTHO Phase 3	Ford Works Team
1974	Allan Moffat	Ford XB Falcon GT Hardtop	Allan Moffat Racing
1975	Allan Grice	Holden LH Torana SL/R 5000 L34	Craven Mild Racing
1976	Allan Moffat	Ford XB Falcon GT Hardtop	Allan Moffat Racing
1977	Allan Moffat	Ford XB Falcon GT Hardtop	Moffat Ford Dealers
1978	Peter Brock	Holden LX Torana A9X SS Hatchback	Holden Dealer Team
1979	Bob Morris	Holden Torana LX A9X SS Hatchback	Ron Hodgson Channel 7 Racing
1980	Bob Morris	Holden VB Commodore	Craven Mild Racing
1981	Dick Johnson	Ford XD Falcon	Palmer Tube Mills
1982	Kevin Bartlett	Chevrolet Camaro Z28	Nine Network Racing Team
1983	Allan Moffat	Mazda RX-7	Peter Stuyvesant International Racing
1984	Bob Morris	Mazda RX-7	Barry Jones
Group A
1985	Robbie Francevic	Volvo 240T	Mark Petch Racing
1986	George Fury	Nissan Skyline DR30 RS	Peter Jackson Nissan Racing
1987	Jim Richards	BMW M3	JPS Team BMW
1988	Dick Johnson	Ford Sierra RS500	Shell Ultra-Hi Racing
1989	Peter Brock	Ford Sierra RS500	Mobil 1 Racing
1990	Jim Richards	Nissan GT-R	Nissan Motorsport Australia
1991	Mark Skaife	Nissan GT-R	Nissan Motor Sport
1992	Mark Skaife	Nissan GT-R	Winfield Team Nissan
Group 3A Touring Cars
1993	Jim Richards	Holden VP Commodore	Winfield Racing
1994	Glenn Seton	Ford EB Falcon	Peter Jackson Racing
1995	John Bowe	Ford EF Falcon	Shell FAI Racing
1996	Peter Brock	Holden VR Commodore	Holden Racing Team
1997	Greg Murphy	Holden VS Commodore	Holden Racing Team
1998	Craig Lowndes	Holden VS Commodore	Holden Racing Team
V8 Supercars
1999	Mark Skaife	Holden VT Commodore	Holden Racing Team
2000	Mark Skaife	Holden VT Commodore	Holden Racing Team
2001	Mark Skaife	Holden VX Commodore	Holden Racing Team
2002	Mark Skaife	Holden VX Commodore	Holden Racing Team
2003	Marcos Ambrose	Ford BA Falcon	Stone Brothers Racing
2004	Marcos Ambrose	Ford BA Falcon	Stone Brothers Racing
2005	Russell Ingall	Ford BA Falcon	Stone Brothers Racing
2006	Craig Lowndes	Ford BA Falcon	Team Betta Electrical
2007	Lee Holdsworth	Holden VE Commodore	Garry Rogers Motorsport
2008	Garth Tander	Holden VE Commodore	Holden Racing Team

Touring Car endurance races

A number of endurance races for Touring Cars were staged at Oran Park Raceway between 1977 and 1989.

Year	Race	Winning driver(s)	Car	Entrant	Status
Group C
1977	Rothmans 500	Warren Cullen	Holden LH Torana SL/R 5000 L34	Pioneer Electronics	Non–championship race
1978	Rothmans 500	John Harvey	Holden LX Torana SS A9X	Marlboro Holden Dealer Team	Non–championship race
1978	ABE Copiers 250	Peter Brock	Holden LX Torana SS A9X	Marlboro Holden Dealer Team	Round 1 of 1978 Australian Championship of Makes
1981	Valvoline 250	Dick Johnson	Ford XD Falcon	Palmer Tube Mills	Round 2 of 1981 Australian Endurance Championship
1982	Perrier Gold Cup	Bob Morris Alan Jones	Ford XE Falcon	Alan Jones	Round 1 of 1982 Australian Endurance Championship
1983	Oran Park 250	George Fury	Nissan Bluebird Turbo	Nissan Motor Co.	Round 2 of 1983 Australian Endurance Championship
1984	Valvoline 250	Allan Moffat Gregg Hansford	Mazda RX-7	Peter Stuyvesant International Racing	Round 2 of 1984 Australian Endurance Championship
Group A
1985	Pepsi 250	Jim Richards	BMW 635 CSi	JPS Team BMW	Round 2 of 1985 Australian Endurance Championship
1986	Pepsi 250	George Fury	Nissan Skyline RS DR30	Peter Jackson Nissan Racing	Round 6 of 1986 Australian Endurance Championship
1987	Pepsi 250	Jim Richards	BMW M3	JPS Team BMW	Non–championship race
1988	Pepsi 250	Peter Brock Jim Richards	BMW M3	Mobil 1 Racing	Non–championship race
1989	Pepsi 300	Andrew Meidecke Andrew Bagnall	Ford Sierra RS500	Miedecke Motorsport	Non–championship race

Superbike World Championship

Oran Park twice played host to the Superbike World Championship. It hosted the second last round of the inaugural season of the championship in 1988, and also hosted the second last round in 1989 (since 1990 the Australian round has been held at the Phillip Island Grand Prix Circuit in Victoria).

Australia's future five time 500cc Motorcycle World Champion Mick Doohan easily won both races in 1988 on his Yamaha FZR750, while fellow Australians Peter Goddard and Michael Dowson won the 1989 rounds heat races also riding the Yahama FZR750.

A number of the international WSBK riders were critical of the Oran Park circuit, particularly of the fact that many of the concrete walls that lined the outside of the circuit (especially on the outside of turns 3, 4, 9 and 12) left little to no runoff room should a rider come off their bike.

NASCAR / AUSCAR

During the mid-1990s, the Australian NASCAR and AUSCAR series raced at Oran Park, utilising the 1.96 km South Circuit, with the track's lights upgraded to allow for night racing. The night races at Oran Park were a popular edition to the series, which other than one off support races at the Bathurst 1000 the Gold Coast Indy 300, had previously run exclusively on the only paved oval tracks in Australia, the Bob Jane owned Calder Park Thunderdome in Melbourne and the Speedway Super Bowl at the Adelaide International Raceway.

Lap records

Lap records shown are for the Grand Prix circuit. Italics indicate use of shorter South Circuit.^[7][8][9]

As a comparison, in November 1974, Warwick Brown set the outright lap record on the then new "Grand Prix Circuit" with a 1:05.2 lap in a Lola T332-Chevrolet Formula 5000. Ten years later in August 1984, John Bowe set the outright lap record of 1:03.9 in a Ralt RT4-Ford (1.6L) Formula Mondial. When the circuit closed in 2010, the outright lap record stood at 1:01.6718 by Tim Leahey in a Reynard 92D-Holden (3.8L) Formula Holden set in July 2000. Note that in mid-1984 the circuit was changed slightly with the addition of a straight run after turn 3 heading to what was turn 5 and eliminating what was turn 4. This made turn 3, and subsequently the new turn 4, slightly faster and gave the Grand Prix Circuit 12 corners instead of 13. The result was an overall improvement in lap times of approximately 0.5 to 1 second per lap. Motorbikes continued to use the pre-1984 sequence of turns until one year before the circuits closure.

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Oran Park Raceway.

• 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. Retrieved 12 June 2006.