Dirt track racing Dirt track racing is a form of motorsport held on clay or dirt surfaced oval race tracks often used for thoroughbred horse racing. Dirt track racing started in the United States before World War I and became widespread during the 1920s and 1930s ...

is a type of

auto racing Auto racing (also known as car racing, motor racing, or automobile racing) is a motorsport involving the racing of automobiles for competition. Auto racing has existed since the invention of the automobile. Races of various sorts were organise ...

performed on clay or dirt surfaced oval tracks in

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

. The seasons tend to be from September to April. There are a large number of tracks available Australia wide, with some of the most popular ones being

Perth Motorplex Perth Motorplex is a motorsport venue located at Kwinana Beach, Western Australia. It caters mainly for drag racing and speedway, although other events are held there regularly. Over 275,000 patrons attend the venue each year to many varied events ...

Bunbury Speedway text-top, 300px, The main straight during a 2014 meeting. The Bunbury Speedway is a motorsport venue located in Bunbury, Western Australia. It features a dirt oval track. The track is a significant contributor to the sport of speedway in Aust ...

Speedway City Speedway City (known as Speedway Park from 1979 to 2001 and Speedway City from 1997 to 2016) is a Dirt track racing venue located 26 km north of Adelaide in Virginia, South Australia, adjacent to the Adelaide International Raceway. Histo ...

, Premier Speedway Warrnambool (Sungold Stadium) and Sydney Speedway (trading as Valvoline Raceway). The richest and best known Speedway series in Australia is the World Series Sprintcars. The series was conceived by

Adelaide Adelaide ( ) is the capital city of South Australia, the state's largest city and the fifth-most populous city in Australia. "Adelaide" may refer to either Greater Adelaide (including the Adelaide Hills) or the Adelaide city centre. The dem ...

based sedan driver and promoter John Hughes in 1986 as an Australian version of the famous

World of Outlaws The World of Outlaws (often abbreviated WoO) is an American motorsports sanctioning body. The body sanctions two major national touring series. It is best known for sanctioning the World of Outlaws Sprint Car Series and the World of Outlaws Late ...

(WoO) series run in the United States since 1978. The most recent season was the 2014–15 World Series Sprintcars season. There is also a single meeting Australian Sprintcar Championship which is run over 12 rounds during the Australian Speedway season (as of 2013–14). The Australian Sprintcar Championship has been contested every year since 1963. Only open to Australian Sprint Car drivers, the Championship is for winged 410ci cars. It is contested at a different track each season, on a state-by-state rotational basis. The 2015 Championship was held at

Western Australia Western Australia (commonly abbreviated as WA) is a state of Australia occupying the western percent of the land area of Australia excluding external territories. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, the Southern Ocean to th ...

. The 2016 title will be held at Victoria's Premier Speedway. The most successful driver of the Championship's history is Garry Rush with 10 wins. Another popular annual event is the

Australian Super Sedan Championship The Australian Super Sedan Championship is a Dirt track racing championship held each year to determine the Australian national champion. The championship is held over a single meeting (usually on consecutive nights) and has run annually since th ...

The composition of the dirt on tracks has an effect on the amount of grip available. Tracks can be composed of any of the following materials; clay, dirt, sand, Dolomite, crushed granite and crusher dust. Some tracks are also banked or semi-banked, although most are flat. The Ultimate Sprintcar Championship (USC) recently announced a new television show which will be broadcast on

7mate 7mate is an Australian free-to-air digital television multichannel, which was launched by the Seven Network on 25 September 2010. The channel contains sport and regular programs aimed primarily to a male audience, with programming drawn from a c ...

, which is the most comprehensive free-to-air deal in the history of a few premier Sprintcar venues. It will run from early November 2015 until the end of April 2016. The new program will be known as "Ultimate Sprintcar".

Motorcycle Speedway returns to Australia

Despite Australia being the birthplace of

motorcycle speedway Motorcycle speedway, usually referred to simply as speedway, is a motorcycle sport involving four and sometimes up to six riders competing over four anti-clockwise laps of an oval circuit. The motorcycles are specialist machines that use only ...

in 1923, and producing two World Champions since 2002 in

Jason Crump Jason Philip Crump (born 6 August 1975) is an Australian international motorcycle speedway rider. He is a three-time Speedway World Champion, a World Cup winner and a former World Under-21 Champion. In a 21-year career in Speedway, Jason Cr ...

(

2004 2004 was designated as an International Year of Rice by the United Nations, and the International Year to Commemorate the Struggle Against Slavery and its Abolition (by UNESCO). Events January * January 3 – Flash Airlines Flight 6 ...

2006 File:2006 Events Collage V1.png, From top left, clockwise: The 2006 Winter Olympics open in Turin; Twitter is founded and launched by Jack Dorsey; The Nintendo Wii is released; Montenegro 2006 Montenegrin independence referendum, votes to declare ...

and

2009 File:2009 Events Collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: The vertical stabilizer of Air France Flight 447 is pulled out from the Atlantic Ocean; Barack Obama becomes the first African American to become President of the United States; 2009 Iran ...

) and

Chris Holder Christopher Robert Holder (born 24 September 1987 in Sydney, New South Wales) is an Australian speedway rider currently riding for Lejonen in the Swedish Elitserien and for Apator Toruń in the Polish Speedway Ekstraliga. He became the Austral ...

(

2012 File:2012 Events Collage V3.png, From left, clockwise: The passenger cruise ship Costa Concordia lies capsized after the Costa Concordia disaster; Damage to Casino Pier in Seaside Heights, New Jersey as a result of Hurricane Sandy; People gather ...

), as well as dual Under-21 World Champion

Darcy Ward Darcy Stephen Ward (born 4 May 1992 in Nanango, Queensland) is an Australian former motorcycle speedway rider who won the 2009, 2010 and 2011 Australian Under-21 Championships as well as the 2009 and 2010 World Under-21 Championships. His ca ...

(

2010 File:2010 Events Collage New.png, From top left, clockwise: The 2010 Chile earthquake was one of the strongest recorded in history; The Eruption of Eyjafjallajökull in Iceland disrupts air travel in Europe; A scene from the opening ceremony of ...

), the Speedway Grand Prix of Australia has not returned to the

Speedway Grand Prix Speedway Grand Prix are a series of stand-alone motorcycle speedway events over the course of a season used to determine the Speedway World Champion. The series started in 1995 replacing the previous format of a single event final. The first win ...

calendar as of

2014 File:2014 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: Stocking up supplies and personal protective equipment (PPE) for the Western African Ebola virus epidemic; Citizens examining the ruins after the Chibok schoolgirls kidnapping; Bundles of wat ...

. This is set to change from 2015 with

Docklands Stadium Docklands Stadium, also currently known by naming rights sponsorship as Marvel Stadium, is a multi-purpose sports and entertainment stadium in the Docklands area of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. Construction started in October 1997 and was ...

Melbourne Melbourne ( ; Boonwurrung/Woiwurrung: ''Narrm'' or ''Naarm'') is the capital and most populous city of the Australian state of Victoria, and the second-most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Its name generally refers to a met ...

, a 53,359 seat stadium with a

retractable roof A retractable roof is a roof system designed to roll back the roof of a structure so that the interior of the facility is open to the outdoors. Retractable roofs are sometimes referred to as operable roofs or retractable skylights. The term op ...

and movable seating, signing a 5-year deal to host the event. Eithad is mostly used by the

Australian Football League The Australian Football League (AFL) is the only fully professional competition of Australian rules football. Through the AFL Commission, the AFL also serves as the sport's governing body and is responsible for controlling the laws of the gam ...

so a temporary track (early estimates put it at approximately long) will need to be installed for the 2015 event scheduled to be held on 24 October (after the end of the

2015 AFL season The 2015 AFL season was the 119th season of the Australian Football League (AFL), the highest level senior Australian rules football competition in Australia, which was known as the Victorian Football League until 1989. The season featured eigh ...

). The Grand Prix is set to be the 12th and final round of the 2015 Speedway Grand Prix series. Triple World Champion

and ten time Australian Champion

Leigh Adams Leigh Scott Adams (born 28 April 1971 in Mildura, Victoria)Oakes, P.(2004). ''British Speedway Who's Who''. is an Australian former motorcycle speedway rider. He is a multiple Speedway Grand Prix winner and World Team Champion. He also w ...

will serve as Australian SGP ambassadors in 2015. The

Australia national speedway team Australia is one of the major teams in international motorcycle speedway with the country regarded as the birthplace of the sport in the 1920s. The current team is managed by former rider Mark Lemon, and captained by 2012 World Champion Chris ...

are one of the major teams in international motorcycle speedway with the country regarded as the birthplace of the sport in the 1920s. The current team is managed by former rider

Mark Lemon Mark Lemon (30 November 1809, in London – 23 May 1870, in Crawley) was the founding editor of both ''Punch'' and '' The Field''. He was also a writer of plays and verses. Biography Lemon was born in Marylebone, Westminster, Middlesex, ...

, (who also managers the

Australia national under-21 speedway team The Australia national under-21 speedway team is the national under-21 motorcycle speedway team of Australia and is controlled by the Motorcycling Australia. Like the senior Australian team, the Under-21s are managed by former rider Mark Lem ...

) and captained by 2012 World Champion

. Australia finished 3rd in the 2014 Speedway World Cup Final on 2 August in

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It is divided into 16 administrative provinces called voivodeships, covering an area of . Poland has a population of over 38 million and is the fifth-most populous ...

. Of the 15 permanent riders of the SGP, three of them are Australian; *

Troy Batchelor Troy Matthew Batchelor (born 29 August 1987) is an Australian speedway rider. Career Australia Born in Brisbane, Queensland, Troy Batchelor enjoyed his first success when he won the 2001 Queensland and New South Wales Under-16 championships a ...

Jason Doyle Jason Kevin Doyle (born 6 October 1985) is an Australian motorcycle speedway rider. He became World Champion in 2017. He won the 2015 Australian Solo Championship. He has also won the South Australian Championship in 2014, and the Elite Leagu ...

Popular events

Some of the more notable and popular dirt track races include: World Series Sprintcars

Australian Late Model Championship The Australian Late Model Championship is a Dirt track racing championship held each year to determine the Australian Late model national champion. The championship is held over a single meeting (usually on consecutive nights) and has run annuall ...

Australian Speedcar Championship The Australian Speedcar Championship is a Dirt track racing, dirt track motor racing championship held in Australia each year to determine the Australian national champion in midget car racing. The single championship meeting, run over two nights ...

Australian Sprintcar Championship

Australian Street Stock Championship The Australian Street Stock Championship is a Dirt track racing championship held each year to determine the Australian national champion. The championship is held over a single meeting (usually on consecutive nights) and has run annually since th ...

Australian Compact Speedcar Championship

Australian Individual Speedway Championship The Australian Solo Championship is a motorcycle speedway championship held each year to determine the Australian national champion. It is organised by Motorcycling Australia (MA) and is the oldest continuously running national speedway champion ...

Australian Sidecar Speedway Championship The Australian Sidecar Championship is a speedway championship held each year to determine the Australian national champions. The event is sanctioned and run by Motorcycling Australia (MA) and is held in a different state every year. The Australi ...

Australian Speedcar Grand Prix The Australian Speedcar Grand Prix is an annual dirt track racing meeting held in Australia for Speedcars. The meeting has traditionally been held in Sydney, but on occasions has been held on tracks in Victoria and in 2000 the race was held a ...

Grand Annual Sprintcar Classic The Grand Annual Sprintcar Classic is an Australian dirt Sprint car racing meet that takes place at the Sungold Stadium Premier Speedway in Warrnambool, Victoria every year in late January. The classic traditionally takes place one week before ...

Australian Sprintcar Grand Prix The Australian Sprintcar Grand Prix is an annual dirt track racing meeting held in Australia for Sprintcars. The meeting is traditionally held at the Sydney Speedway (formerly the Parramatta City Raceway) and was first staged in the 1978/79 sea ...

Kings Challenge The Kings Challenge is an annual dirt track racing meeting held in Australia for Sprint car racing, Sprintcars. The meeting is held at the long Borderline Speedway in Mount Gambier, South Australia. After the success of the 1995 Australian Sprint ...

National Super Sedan Series Sidecar Grand Slam

Types of classes

There are several types of classes in Australian speedway including: *

Sprintcars Sprint cars are high-powered Open-wheel car, open-wheel race cars, designed primarily for the purpose of running on short Oval track racing, oval or circular dirt track racing, dirt or paved tracks. Sprint car racing is popular primarily in the U ...

* Compact Speedcars (known as TQ Midgets elsewhere) *

Motorcycle speedway Motorcycle speedway, usually referred to simply as speedway, is a motorcycle sport involving four and sometimes up to six riders competing over four anti-clockwise laps of an oval circuit. The motorcycles are specialist machines that use only ...

Sidecar speedway Sidecar Speedway is a motorcycle sport involving 4 crews of a rider and a passenger competing over 4 laps on an oval shale surface. Rules are governed by the national speedway federation and are not dissimilar to conventional speedway rules. S ...

* Stockcars * Speedcars (known as Midgets elsewhere) *

Late model A late model car is a car which has been recently designed or manufactured, often the latest model. (An early model car or classic car is a car old enough to be of historical interest; there is no usual intermediate term.) The precise definition ...

* Open sportsman *

Demolition derby Demolition derby is a non-racing motorsport usually presented at county fairs and festivals. While rules vary from event to event, the typical demolition derby event consists of five or more drivers competing by deliberately ramming their vehic ...

s * Wingless Sprints * Formula 500 * Legend Cars *

Monster truck A monster truck is a specialized off-road vehicle with a heavy duty suspension, four-wheel steering, large-displacement V8 engines and oversized tires constructed for competition and entertainment uses. Originally created by modifying stock pic ...

s * Mod Lites * V8 Dirt Modifieds * SSA Street Stocks * SSA Production Sedans * SSA Junior Sedans * SSA National 4s * SSA Modified Sedans * SSA Super Sedans

References

{{Reflist

External links

Speedway Australia, Governing body

Motorcycle Speedway returns to Australia

Popular events

Types of classes

See also

References

External links