The Loxford Park Speedway is a
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 ...
track located in the town of
Loxford
Loxford is part of Ilford in the London Borough of Redbridge in east London, UK. It is a built-up, multi-ethnic locality.
History
The medieval manor of Loxford was in the possession of Barking Abbey and in 1319 the Abbess of Barking was li ...
near in
New South Wales
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, image_map = New South Wales in Australia.svg
, map_caption = Location of New South Wales in AustraliaCoordinates:
, subdivision_type = Country
, subdivision_name = Australia
, established_title = Before federation
, es ...
(NSW). It is home to the Kurri Kurri Speedway Club and the Kurri Cobras.
History
Construction of the track commenced in 2008 with the speedway opening later that year giving NSW a second full-time motorcycle speedway (the other being the
Gosford Speedway
Gosford is the city and administrative centre of the Central Coast Council local government area in the heart of the Central Coast region, about north of Sydney and about south of Newcastle. The city centre is situated at the northern extre ...
, though there are also other tracks including the
Nepean Speedway in north west
Sydney
Sydney ( ) is the capital city of the state of New South Wales, and the most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Sydney Harbour and extends about towards the Blue Mountain ...
and the rarely used
Newcastle Showgrounds
Newcastle Entertainment Centre is a multi-purpose Australian arena within the Newcastle Showgrounds. It was opened in 1992 at a cost of .
The centre's original tenant was the Newcastle Falcons NBL team who moved to the new venue in 1992 from th ...
). Loxford park also has a junior track built on the infield of the main track with the junior track joining onto the main straight and sharing the start-finish line.
Loxford Park held its first championship meeting in 2010/11 when it hosted the
New South Wales Solo Championship which saw reigning
Australian Champion 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 ...
win his 5th NSW Championship in six years. Loxford Park then hosted the first of two rounds in the 2011/12 NSW Championship before being the sole host in 2012/13, 2013/14 and 2014/15.
In 2011, Loxford Park hosted the opening round of the four round Australian Solo Championship. It has hosted a round of the championship each year since 2011 and hosted the final round of the
2015 Australian Championship on 10 January. Both the final round and the championship were won by local (Newcastle) rider
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 ...
. Loxford also hosted the 2012, 2013 and 2015
Australian Under-21 Championships. The speedway has also hosted the NSW Under-21 Championship.
The speedway hosts both solo and sidecar racing, as well as junior solos and sidecars. It hosted its first
Australian Sidecar Championship in 2012, won by Darrin Treloar for a record 6th time and his passenger Simon Cohrs. The 2014 championship was also held at the speedway with NSW pair Grant Bond and Glen Cox winning their first national championship.
Loxford Park also hosts a round of the Sidecar Grand Slam series which often attracts the best riders and passengers from around Australia, New Zealand, the United States and the United Kingdom.
The junior speedway track has also hosted both the NSW and Australian Under-16 Championships. The 2012 Australian Under-16 Championship saw an all-NSW podium with Brady Kurtz defeating Jack Holder and Lawson Walters.
Loxford is also the site of the
Todd Wiltshire
Todd Wiltshire (born 26 September 1968 in Bankstown, New South Wales) is a retired Australian motorcycle speedway rider who competed at the highest level of the sport, finishing a career best third in the 1990 Individual Speedway World Champ ...
Cup for junior solo riders. The cup is named for the former NSW and Australian champion who finished third in the
1990 World Championship. Wiltshire is generally on hand to award the placegetters with their trophies. The speedway also hosts the
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 ...
Invitational meeting each December on
Boxing Day
Boxing Day is a holiday celebrated after Christmas Day, occurring on the second day of Christmastide (26 December). Though it originated as a holiday to give gifts to the poor, today Boxing Day is primarily known as a shopping holiday. It ...
in honour of Australia's only triple
Speedway World Champion.
Like a number of motorcycle speedway tracks, Loxford Park has an through the turns for the safety of the riders.
Australian championships
Australian Solo Championship
* 2011 – Round 1
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 ...
(''series winner – Chris Holder'')
* 2012 – Round 2 Chris Holder (''series winner – Chris Holder'')
* 2013 – Round 3
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 ...
(''series winner – Troy Batchelor'')
*
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 ...
– Round 1
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 ...
(''series winner – Chris Holder'')
*
2015
File:2015 Events Collage new.png, From top left, clockwise: Civil service in remembrance of November 2015 Paris attacks; Germanwings Flight 9525 was purposely crashed into the French Alps; the rubble of residences in Kathmandu following the Apri ...
– Round 4 Jason Doyle (''series winner – Jason Doyle'')
*
2016
File:2016 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: Bombed-out buildings in Ankara following the 2016 Turkish coup d'état attempt; the impeachment trial of Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff; Damaged houses during the 2016 Nagorno-Karabakh ...
– Round 1
Rohan Tungate (''series winner –
Brady Kurtz
Brady Kurtz (born 27 September 1996) is an Australian speedway rider.
Biography
Born in Cowra, New South Wales, Kurtz isn't the only racer in his family. Brady's older brother Todd Kurtz is a fellow Speedway rider, who has ridden for the Plymo ...
'')
*
2017
File:2017 Events Collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: The War Against ISIS at the Battle of Mosul (2016-2017); aftermath of the Manchester Arena bombing; The Solar eclipse of August 21, 2017 ("Great American Eclipse"); North Korea tests a ser ...
– Round 4
Brady Kurtz
Brady Kurtz (born 27 September 1996) is an Australian speedway rider.
Biography
Born in Cowra, New South Wales, Kurtz isn't the only racer in his family. Brady's older brother Todd Kurtz is a fellow Speedway rider, who has ridden for the Plymo ...
(''series winner –
Sam Masters
Samuel Peter Masters (born 23 May 1991) is an Australian motorcycle speedway rider who won the Premier League Riders' Championship in 2011. Masters is an Australian Champion having won the Championship in January 2017.
Career
Masters was bo ...
'')
Australian Under-21 Championship
* 2012 – Taylor Poole
* 2013 –
Max Fricke
Max Fricke (born 29 March 1996) is an Australian speedway rider. He is a World team champion, twice Australian champion and four times Australian Under-21 Champion.
Career Juniors
Fricke competed in junior levels of motocross and speedway in ...
* 2015 – Max Fricke
* 2017 – Max Fricke
Australian Under-16 Championship
* 2012 –
Brady Kurtz
Brady Kurtz (born 27 September 1996) is an Australian speedway rider.
Biography
Born in Cowra, New South Wales, Kurtz isn't the only racer in his family. Brady's older brother Todd Kurtz is a fellow Speedway rider, who has ridden for the Plymo ...
Australian Sidecar Championship
* 2012 – Darrin Treloar / Simon Cohrs
* 2014 – Darrin Treloar / Blake Cox
References
External links
* {{Official website, http://www.kurrikurrispeedway.org.au
Motorsport venues in New South Wales
Speedway venues in Australia