New dimension for Aust, racing

Press, 25 February 1988, Page 34

New dimension for Aust, racing

A new dimension will be added to Australian motor racing on Sunday when its first N.A.S.C.A.R. event will be contested by 24 American teams together with at least eight Australians at Bob Jane’s Calder Park Thunderdome, near Melbourne. The race, billed as the Goodyear N.A.S.C.A.R. 500, will be a 278-lap, 500 km thrash around the Thunderdome’s highbanked tri-oval for $365,000 in prize money. Such American N.A.S.C.A.R. stars as Bobby Allison, Kyle Petty and Neil Bonnett will be among the visitors as well as the only woman in N.A.S.C.A.R. racing, Patty Moise.

The Americans, ranging in age from the early twenties to 61, will race against an expatriate New Zealander, Jim Richards, and the Australians, Dick Johnson, Allan Grice, Garpr Rush, Terry Byers, Robin Best, John Lawes and Tony Spanos. These men have racing backgrounds as diverse as Group A touring-car racing and speedway.

Grice is the only Australian who has had experience in N.A.S.C.A.R. racing. He contested last year’s Coca-Cola World 600 at Charlotte and is an early favourite in his Fos-ter’s-sponsored Oldsmobile.

Richards, aged 41, the Otahuhu-born Australian touring car champion, will also drive a Foster’s-spon-sored Oldsmobile. N.A.S.C.A.R., the National Association of Stock Car Auto Racing, attracted more than 2.5 million spectators to its 29 championship races in the United States last year.

It is big business. More than SUSI 6 million was paid in prize money and the N.A.S.C.A.R. Winston Cup champion, Dale Earnhardt, became the second driver in the 40year history of N.A.S.C.A.R. to earn more than SUS2 million in a season.

Sunday’s race will be the culmination of a dream for the millionaire promoter, Jane, a N.A.S.C.A.R. fan who has spent more than sAust2o million to bring the big American cars to Australia.

The Thunderdome, built next door to Jane’s existing Calder Park road-rac-ing course, to which it is linked to form a 4.2 km Grand Prix layout, was

completed last year after two years of construction. A lap is 1.85 km. It has two big turns banked at 24deg., while the third, in front of the pit lane, is at a gentler 6deg. Calder Park cost nearly sAust2o million, five million tonnes of dirt were required to transform it into the huge ampitheatre it is today. Sunday’s event will be the first of six N.A.S.C.A.R. races in a season at the Thunderdome. It will also be the first leg of a special Aus-tralia-America challenge. Jane has ambitious plans for the multi-million dollar centre he has created. In an interview a

couple of weeks ago on Australian television, he said that he believed that Calder Park was the logical venue for the Formula One Australian Grand Prix which, three years ago, was established on a city-street circuit in Adelaide with the backing of the South Australian Government. The Grand Prix has been a great moneyearner for South Australia. In addition to pinpointing Adelaide, it has also brought in between $4O and $5O million to the city each year. This is revenue that the city could not possibly have attracted without the motor race and, naturally enough, every other state is envious of South Australia. Queensland is also lobbying to get the Grand

Prix, but Jones is the only individual who has furnished material evidence that Victoria is ready to go.

Certainly its circuit, which would include the Thunderdome tri-oval and

Calder Park road-racing track, has all the safety features that F.1.5.A., the controlling body, and the Formula One Constructors’ Association demand for the staging of a Grand Prix.