Eastern Creek

– Take One

The tumultuous beginnings of Eastern Creek Raceway have been well recorded; a game of political football between the NSW and Victorian State Governments that saw the prestigious Australian Motorcycle Grand Prix shift from Phillip Island following the 1990 event. At that stage the proposed venue in western Sydney was little more than a waste dump, but a game of brinkmanship between the various land holders saw the entire site moved 500 metres further west at the last minute – a move that involved the complete re-routing of Ferrers Road and saw the costs of the exercise skyrocket. This recently discovered paper from October 1989 shows the original layout for the track, with a proposed length of 4.2 km. The design was substantially influenced by Phillip Island and conceived to allow the same fast, flowing lap. When finally constructed, the length was reduced to 3.93 km and the layout substantially changed.