Red dirt and racing
The racing circuit at Mallala, 58km north of Adelaide, has served South Australia’s motor sport needs on and off for six decades. But its very existence came about due to what was described by motor sport journalist and racing driver David McKay as somewhat of a travesty. “Under the present ridiculous rotational system it was their (South Australia’s) turn to host the Australian Grand Prix, so SA was forced into a premature GP.” The system administered by the Confederation of Australian Motor Sport (CAMS) called for its premier event, the Grand Prix, to be hosted by a different state each year, and SA had last done so at the remote and rudimentary 1.5 mile Port Wakefield circuit in 1955. However for 1961, when SA was due to again stage the GP, CAMS decreed that Port Wakefield – the only permanent circuit in a state where racing on public roads was banned – was too short, and the facilities too primitive. The state therefore had two choices; to find an alternative venue – and quickly – or forfeit the date and wait another six years until it was their turn again.
Bravely, the Austin 7 Car Club, which promoted Port Wakefield on behalf of the owners, the Brooklyn Speedway Company, chose the former, and set about the not inconsiderable task of identifying a site on which to construct a suitable circuit. One of Port Wakefield’s many drawbacks was its distance from Adelaide and the club set about locating a site closer to the city. The hunt identified one very interesting possibility, although there were numerous hurdles. Just outside the township of Mallala was a large site which contained the airfield occupied by the RAAF 24 Squadron, and which had been gazetted for sale sometime in 1962. The venue had pretty much everything that was needed, including a network of perimeter roads surrounding the grass runways. There were also existing facilities such as amenities blocks, sheds and even the airfield control tower which would be ideal for race use. The major stumbling block was the gazetted sale date, which was too late for the Grand Prix. An entreaty to CAMS requesting a year’s deferment was typically stonewalled – it was 1961 or get back in the queue. ‚
Thus began an urgent process of lobbying the defence force to bring the sale forward by a year, and this was achieved with the proviso that the sale be an open auction. Alas, the club was outbid and the entire real estate package sold to the Mallala Pastoral Company. As the club wanted only the airfield section, a deal was struck with the pastoral group to purchase this section, with the remainder retained for farming. The new ownership of the airfield by the Brooklyn Speedway Company became effective in April 1961, just six months before the date set for the Grand Prix.
A new start
Immediately following the final car race meeting at Port Wakefield on 3rd April, 1961, infrastructure including the grandstand, fences and anything else that could be salvaged was rapidly transported to Mallala, where frantic working bees by club members cleared the site of unwanted material and converted existing buildings for a new life. Somewhat optimistically, a shakedown meeting was scheduled for May 14, then shifted to June 12, and finally staged on August 19/20. The State Premier, Sir Thomas Playford, officially opened the circuit and drove a lap in a gleaming white Rolls Royce in front of a crowd of 15,000.
What greeted competitors was a basically flat layout of 2.1 miles (3.38km) with a minimum width of 30 feet (9.1m) with three fairly short straights and plenty of sweeping bends and slow corners. The opening seven events on the card were for motorcycles, and Victorian Ron Robinson completely dominated, winning the 350cc Junior, 500cc Senior and the A Grade Scratch on his 350cc Manx Norton. Another Victorian, Rudi Vorderwinkler, rode his 125cc Honda to wins in both 125 and 250cc races which were held concurrently. Locals dominated the Sidecar race with the win going to BSA-mounted L. Wilson ahead of D. Fleet and Alex Campbell.
And so the stage was set for the much-hyped Australian Grand Prix for cars on October 9 – a blisteringly hot day that saw the track surface break up in several places, notably the hairpin at the top (northern) end of the circuit (Bosch Corner). The terrain on this section of the circuit was deemed too unstable for repair and the lap subsequently shortened by 0.4 mile (640m) by replacing the hairpin with a less-tight right hander back onto the main circuit. The official circuit length was thereafter 1.6 miles (2.58km).
Throughout the ‘sixties, Mallala served as South Australia’s motor sport hub for both cars and motorcycles, although the bikes admittedly also had McNamara Park in Mount Gambier. The only major change was the relocation of the pit and paddock areas from the inside of the track to a location roughly opposite on the outside. On December 28th, 1967, Mallala hosted the biggest motorcycle race in the country, the Australian TT.
The meeting was billed as a showdown between Ron Toombs and Jack Ahearn, but after Toombs’ G50 Matchless blew up in practice he was restricted to the smaller classes. Ahearn made good use of the 750cc Dunstall Atlas imported by Sydney-based Competition Motorcycle Spares, winning the Unlimited title easily from Bill Horsman and Dick Reid. Local hero Horsman took out the 125cc title on a Bultaco, as well as the Senior on his Manx Norton. Dick Reid on the Ron Angel-tuned Kawasakis, won both 250cc and 350cc classes, while Sidecar
titles went to Alex Campbell (Unlimited) and Stan Bayliss (Junior). A 50cc TT was also held – for the first and only time in the Australian TT’s history – won by local Otto Mueller on a Kreidler.
A spanner in the works
Then in 1970 came a bombshell from Queensland entrepreneur Keith Williams, who acquired a virgin site at Virginia, 26 kilometres north of Adelaide. Work started soon after on the construction of what became Adelaide International Raceway, which held its first meeting on 9th January, 1972. However Williams argued that Adelaide could not viably sustain two tracks, and purchased Mallala in 1971. Williams immediately obtained a court order or covenant which prevented any motor racing taking place on the circuit; effectively handing his new circuit at Virginia a monopoly in the state. Although car racing ceased, Mallala did remain for motorcycle racing until the end of 1972, and was used frequently as a testing venue by Chrysler Australia and the Adelaide-based Elfin sports car company.
Having effectively ring-barked Mallala as a race circuit, Williams then on-sold the venue for the purposes of farming, but it lay dormant until 1977, when Adelaide Chrysler dealer and amateur racing driver Clem Smith managed to buy it. Overturning the covenant involved a lengthy and expensive court process, but Smith would not be deterred, and he was able to re-open the racing track in 1980, initially for motorcycles and car sprint laps. It was licenced for car racing by CAMS in 1982. A series of improvements brought the track up to a condition for it to receive a licence to conduct national events and rounds of the Australian Touring Car and Formula 2/Pacific championships.
Lee Kernich recalls the re-opening of the track for motorcycle racing. “I rode at the first meeting after the circuit reopened, in November 1980. It had been freshly resurfaced with the cheap “spray and seal” method, which meant they had sprayed a layer of bituminous binder, and then covered it with a layer of “aggregate” – in effect sharp little crushed stones. It was a horrible surface; slippery and treacherous beyond a narrow racing line, blasting the bikes, and needing special attention to keep the stones out of air intakes. ‚
Hero of the meeting was up-andcoming Andrew (Ajay) Johnson, on the black Syndicate Kawasaki prepared by Graham ‘Gyro’ Carless, who rode the main “straight” (actually a long righthander) in a series of lurid slides. I recall Greg Pretty won Production races on an XJ650 Yamaha.”
Into the future
Motorcycles have continued racing virtually uninterrupted at Mallala for the past 40 years, hosting everything from rounds of the Australian Road Racing Championship to historic meetings, including, in 2015, the Australian Historic Road Racing Championships. There was a temporary halt to motorcycle racing in 2002 following the death of 19-year-old Liam Magee after he crashed during qualifying for the Australian Superbike Championship. Magee crashed on the fast Dunlop Bend (Turn 4) on the western side of the track and slid into barriers on the outfield. South Australian Police refused to allow motorcycle racing pending an enquiry, although practice days continued. Following recommendations by Motorcycling Australia, 200 metres of Airfence was permanently installed at the area and racing was permitted to resume from October 5, 2002.
In February 2017, Clem Smith passed away, aged 90, and once again the future of the track seemed rocky. Elsewhere in the state at Tailem Bend, the giant Peregrine Corporation, which owns and operates the chain of On The Run services stations in South Australia,
purchased the former Mitsubishi Motors Australia test track site and announced plans for what is now The Bend Motorsport Park. After Smith’s passing, Peregrine also purchased Mallala, with the stated aim of keeping the facility going as a grass-roots racing facility. Peregrine Managing Director Dr. Sam Shahin said he always had a soft spot for the down-to-earth track, “Where they still have Solvol in the wash basins”. Since the Peregrine takeover, portions of the track have been resurfaced. “Mallala is here to stay”, he said in early 2020.
Circuits come and circuits go, but few come back from the dead the way Mallala has on several occasions. Thanks to the motorsport-loving Shahin family, Mallala’s future appears to be assured, sixty years after its hurried inception. Without this track in its red soil setting, the motor racing scene in South
Australia would have been vastly different.