Sacred Sites
A racing historian once wrote that race tracks were sprinkled through NE Victoria in the late 1950 and early ’60s “like currants in a bun!” An apt description for the Ovens Valley!
Terry Walker in his book Fast Tracks: Australia’s Motor Racing Circuits 1904-1995 used some colourful phraseology to sum up the proliferation of small country racing circuits in north-eastern Victoria in the 1950s and ‘60s. He wrote of such tracks being sprinkled through the region “like currants in a bun!” An apt description indeed given the region included the Ovens Valley! The earliest of these circuits was the Wangaratta air-strip track that sprang to life in 1953. Over the next eight years it was followed by Barjarg, Bright, Hume Weir, Tarrawingee, Undera and Winton. All of these were CAMS affiliated.
There were ‘unofficial’ tracks too, such as Shepparton, Wahgunyah and Beechworth. Combined, they made for an especially sweet and fruity bun. So what drove this, erm, rise in motorsport activity?
A huge boom in car clubs and motorsport generally occurred off the back of the nation’s obsession for the highly-publicised Redex Trials. Off the back of this, Jack Brabham’s World Championship success stimulated interest in racing at a time when car ownership increased and Australians became more mobile generally.
While most clubs in other regions of the country were content to run trials and motorkhana events, the budding car enthusiasts of north-eastern Victoria must have hankered for motor racing proper. And as each small clublevel race track sprung up neighbouring towns likely yearned for their own circuit. In other words, creating race tracks became a trend in this one area.
All tended to be about one mile (1.6km) in length and attracted the same drivers and cars that were to be found at every country track close by. For many, it was largely a case of racing at your ‘home’ track one meeting, then competing ‘away’ the next, while enjoying another town’s or club’s hospitality.
Many tracks came to life as oil-bonded dirt tracks, while others were sealed. In some cases the line between traditional circuit racing and speedway was blurred.
Sadly, over time those currants were picked from the bun and discarded as CAMS track licensing requirements increased and the maintenance load proved unmanageable. By the 1970s only Winton and Hume Weir remained. By the 1980s Winton was going it alone and the ‘nation’s action track’ located midway between Benalla and Wangaratta continues to y solo today. Both Winton and Hume Weir were covered separately in Sacred Sites in recent years.
While we can’t go into depth for each of the others – for reasons including a lack of publishable photographs – over the following pages we’ll examine one CAMS-affiliated track, Tarrawingee, and one non-CAMS circuit, Beechworth.
Tarrawingee, population 500, is 15 minutes drive east of Wangaratta. Racing around Tarrawingee’s circuit began in 1957, the year after events on Wangaratta Common’s gravel air-strip ended.
Those races up and down Wang’s ‘runway’ – with a wiggle at one end to spice things up a bit – were organised by the North Eastern Car Club. Drainage problems on what was a pretty basic circuit, even by club racing standards of the time, curtailed that location being developed into something bigger and better. The last meeting at Wangaratta was held in 1956.
Instead, the NECC cast its gaze towards Tarrawingee’s recreation reserve, where all-manner of sports were played. The small town’s hotelier, Pete Nolan, was said to have greatly encouraged the move!
Cleverly, a 1.25 mile (2km) layout was devised that wrapped around the town’s Aussie Rules football oval to maximise the available space and avoid trees. This way, a small grandstand could also provide viewing of the action only seen at Wangaratta by standing on a parked truck. After the races, drivers and spectators, just like footy players and supporters only had a short walk to the pub.
The Tarrawingee track was built entirely by volunteer labour, with the local Fordson tractor agent a member of the NECC and eager to display his product’s capabilities in the grading and forming work. The dirt-surfaced circuit was initially bonded only by oil. Imagine doing that today!
The startline was located on a short straight that headed south along the alongside the oval and led into a long left-hander. Competitors then negotiated a series of ve
right-handers, starting with Tree Corner, that took them back to the startline, punctuated by the Back Straight and a mild left esse bend.
Over time the circuit was progressively bitumen sealed. Funding for the upgrades came largely from gate-takings from the two or three open race meetings held each year. The rst was held on November 10, 1957 and a pattern of busy November and April meetings was set.
The NECC claims that the track, at its peak, hosted an Australian record one-day program of 26 races. Spectators must have gotten their money’s worth as one event boasted 7000 paying punters, swelling the club’s coffers by an impressive 1000 pounds.
A sign displayed on the site today declares that three of our country’s most famous drivers competed at Tarrawingee – Peter Brock, Allan Moffat and Norm Beechey. Drivers regularly came from as far away as Sydney and Melbourne given the dearth of circuits in the big capital cities at the time.
It was, however, only ever a small country circuit and was never going to hit the giddy heights that metro tracks did in the 1960s.
Len Lukey was a frontrunner in races for sedans, but on one occasion lost control of his Ford Customline at the end of the Back Straight and ran over a ag marshal, without signi cant injury!
Keeping control on the oil surface was difficult enough in the dry, but nigh on impossible in the wet, with more than one driver adopting a strategy of driving on the dirt verge in such conditions.
By 1965 the track needed signi cant upgrading to meet CAMS’ new safety standards, to bring it into line with newer circuits such as Winton and Hume Weir. The success of these two venues, particularly Hume Weir with its superior spectator viewing, hastened Tarrawingee’s demise. With attendances – and therefore revenue – dwindling, the decision to close the deteriorating circuit was reluctantly taken by the club and the last race meeting was held on April 4 that year.
Fittingly, one of the region’s most famous racers, Bryan Thomson, holds the lap record, jointly with Pat Hawthorn. Thomson (Cooper Climax) and Hawthorn (Aston Martin) both posted a time of 1min 00.7seconds, tantalisingly close to breaking the one minute barrier.
What’s left today
Despite the passing of 54 years since the nal race meeting, there’s quite a bit of evidence today of the location’s racing past. And the good news is that anyone can enter the Tarrawingee reserve, hunt around and soak up the atmosphere. Just as AMC did one morning recently.
The North Eastern Car Club’s rooms are located on the site and the football oval remains in its original location. This means it’s easy to work out where the track once stood given that it wrapped around said oval, with many patches of surviving bitumen poking through the reserve’s grass.
Some of those patches sit on the fairways of the nine-hole Tarrawingee Golf Club. Close your eyes and that might just be the sound of race engines you can hear.