Rowley Park Speedway

Rowley Park Speedway
is a former dirt track racing venue that was located on Torrens Road in Brompton, South Australia and supplanted the Kilburn speedway (1946–1951) on Churchill Road, and the earlier Camden motordrome (1935–1941) on the Bay Road. The speedway ran continually during Australia's speedway seasons (usually October to April) from its opening meeting on 21 December 1949 until its last meeting on 6 April 1979.

History

Rowley Park was originally conceived in 1948 by a group of Kilburn Speedway Speedcar drivers who were disgruntled with its Melbourne-based promoters Kirjon Speedway. The Soccer Association of South Australia owned the site of a former "pughole" (South Australian term for a clay pit or brick pit) on Torrens Rd. at Brompton named Rowley Park which was located only 5 km from the city and the original plan was for the land to be the home of soccer in South Australia. It was purchased by, and named after Ted Rowley, an English-born dentist who moved to Adelaide from Kalgoorlie in 1908 where he had forged a reputation as being Western Australia's best goalkeeper. However, the Soccer Association had received bad press regarding its failure to grow grass on the site. Rowley Park also had a tendency to flood during winter as the bottom of "The Brick Pit" was below the level of the water table, which made playing soccer virtually impossible.

The Soccer Association then obtained a lease on Hindmarsh Oval from the Hindmarsh Council but, as owners of Rowley Park, were keen to make money from it rather than let it sit unused. The initial lease for the speedway was £26 per meeting plus a toll of 1 penny per head through the gate based on a minimum of 23 race meetings per season.

The speedway was originally shaped with four distinct corners and the safety fence was almost rectangular in shape and was nicknamed "The Butter Box". The first meeting at Rowley Park took place on Wednesday 21 December 1949. The original promoter of Rowley Park Speedway was Wal Watson, one of the group of disgruntled drivers who brought about the new speedway. In 1951 Watson sold the lease to former Sydney solo rider and speedcar driver of the 1930s, Alf Shields, who had moved his family to Adelaide. During his time as promoter, Shields also regularly drove speedcars at his own track. Shields ran and gradually improved the speedway until 1954 when he sold the lease to local entrepreneur Kym Bonython. For the next 20 years Bonython, who had first attended speedway as a young boy in the late 1920s at the Wayville Showgrounds, successfully set about making Rowley Park Speedway the place to be in Adelaide on a Friday night during the summer.

In 1953 the track surface was changed from shell grit and brick pipe clay to dolomite, which was ideal for both cars and bikes at the time. In 1955 the track was given a more oval shape and its length became , with a circumference of (the track length would not be changed again). A safety catch fence was also added on top of the existing safety fence, which was re-shaped to follow the track in 1955. The catch fencing was upgraded again in 1965 and lasted until the track's closing in 1979. The chain mesh used in the catch fence was of such a heavy gauge steel that it was then transferred and used at the new Speedway Park track that opened in November 1979, while the catch fence itself was sold to the similar sized () Borderline Speedway in Mount Gambier.

Under the promotion of Bonython and his company Speedway Pty Ltd, Rowley Park Speedway began attracting crowds every Friday night upwards of 15,000. This era was aptly named "The golden era of speedway" in Australia with large crowds attending meetings in other cities around Australia such as ( Sydney Showground), ( BrisbaneEkka) and Perth Claremont Speedway. "Friday night is Speedway night" was the publicity slogan Bonython used for Rowley Park, as was a cartoon, with the words "Almost everybody goes to Rowley Park on Friday nights", which showed everyone from a grandmother to ambulance drivers (complete with a bandaged patient on a stretcher), and a jockey all making their way into the speedway. In January 1963 a reported crowd of 20,000 "Pie Eaters" (Bonython's nickname for the regular speedway crowd) packed into the speedway to see Australia's first Demolition Derby. The South Australia Police were called in to handle traffic and hundreds of fans were turned away as the 'House Full' signs went up. The derby itself had 100 entrants and lasted for over 75 minutes.

Another of Bonython's ideas was to import overseas drivers and riders to race full seasons at Rowley Park. His first import was speedcar driver Dick Brown from the US, then in 1957–58 Bonython contracted Bob Tattersall from Streator, Illinois, in the United States, arguably the most popular American speedcar driver ever to race in Australia, and the winner of the 1969 USAC National Midget Series. Unlike other American drivers or overseas solo riders who had raced in Australia until that point, whose fees had been paid for by various promoters ensuring they would appear at tracks around the country, Bonython was forced to pay Tattersall himself when others showed a lack of interest. Tattersall's crowd-pleasing performances at Rowley Park soon had other promoters changing their tunes though. "Tats" as he was known, made his international debut racing a V8/60 at Rowley Park, but ended his first night in hospital after an accident in the speedcar feature race where he hit the turn 3 fence, causing him to miss the next month's racing. One of his races at Rowley Park has gone down in history, and will forever be remembered by all those who witnessed it. During the feature of the 50 Lap Australian Speedcar Derby on 2 February 1962, Tattersall's car lost its inside (left) front wheel on lap 26, but showed his enormous skill by driving the next 20 laps (approx. 7 km!) on three wheels. Legend has Tats winning that race, though the reality was that he retired only 3 laps from the finish with engine failure and the win being taken by local driver Ron Wood.Rowley Park Speedway – History
/ref> After 13 years racing in Australia, his final win 'down under' came on 13 February 1970 at Rowley Park. Born in 1924, Tattersall died of cancer at his home in Streator in 1971, having been first diagnosed with the disease in Adelaide shortly after his final race there.

For the 1959–60 season, Bonython also went all out and paid for Peter Craven, the 1955 World Champion from England, to be based at the speedway for the Australian season. At Rowley Park Craven would be regularly matched against the 1951 and 1952 World Champion, Adelaide's own Jack Young and would become a crowd favourite at the speedway. Another import was in the very next season in 1960–61, when a young solo rider from Christchurch in New Zealand named Ivan Mauger raced the Australian season primarily at Rowley Park. Mauger would go on to win a record six individual Speedway World Championships, and 15 World titles overall with wins in World Pairs, Teams and Long Track championships before retiring in 1986. It was while competing at Rowley Park that Mauger became friends with Jack Young, the rider he regards as his speedway idol. Mauger would later credit Young with setting him on the path to becoming a World Champion. To supplement his income while living in Adelaide so he would be able to support his young family, Bonython also found Mauger work as a Truck driver.

Kym Bonython also brought out American speedcar driver Jimmy Davies