Oran Park Raceway was a motor racing circuit at Narellan south west of Sydney, New South Wales, Australia which was operational from February 1962 until its closure in January 2010. The track was designed and started by George Murray and Jack Allen. Since its closure in 2010 it has been (re)developed into housing.
History
The circuit was established by the Singer Car Club, with its opening meeting held on the weekend of 17–18 February 1962.[1] The land for the circuit was provided by wealthy Camden grazier Dan Cleary, who also ran an earthmoving business, which provided the equipment used to help build the circuit.[2] A motorcycle race meeting was held on 17 February 1963, with reigning Grand Prix Champion Jim Redman being the star attraction.[3] Redman won nearly every class and set the lap record of 50.4 seconds, only 0.8 seconds slower than Frank Matich's outright time set in a 2.6-litre LotusSports Car.
The original lap distance of 1.690 km (1.050 mi) was later extended to 1.960 km (1.218 mi)[2] with a further extension in 1974,[4] creating an alternative "Grand Prix" circuit of 2.625 km (1.631 mi) in length.[2] The Grand Prix circuit featured a figure-eight shape with a bridge where the track crossed over itself. Despite the loop the racing direction was still regarded as being anticlockwise.
The complex also had a motocross track, a skidpan, a dirt track and four wheel drive course and a 1000-foot drag strip. Due to the nature of the land on which the circuit was built, most of the circuit was visible from the main grandstand or the grassed banks surrounding the track.
The land on which the racetrack was located was sold to the Government of New South Wales for a new housing development. This led to the eventual closure of the track and ended 48 years of motorsport heritage at the facility. The last motorcycle race meeting, the BelRay 6 Hour, was held on 21–22 November 2009. The final race meeting was scheduled for 23–24 January 2010 but was cancelled due to a lack of entries.[5] This meant that the Independent Race Series event on 16 January 2010[6] was in fact the last race meeting to be held at the circuit. The circuit continued to run open track days, where the public could drive road cars and motorbikes around the full circuit. The last day before the track closed for good was Monday 25 January 2010.
Australian Grand Prix
Oran Park twice hosted the Australian Grand Prix during its 42 years of operation, with both events held for Formula 5000 cars. The first Grand Prix held at Oran Park in 1974 was won by Max Stewart driving a Lola T330 Chevrolet. The last time the circuit hosted the event was in 1977 when Warwick Brown drove his Lola T430 Chevrolet to victory. Alan Jones had actually 'won' the 1977 race on the road and was some 40 seconds ahead of Walker when he crossed the line for what should have been the finish. However he was penalised 60 seconds for jumping the start and would eventually be classified in 4th place.
The first ever race in 1971 saw Moffat in his Ford Boss 302 Mustang and Bob Jane driving his 427 cui powered Chevrolet Camaro ZL-1 go into the round on 31 and 34 points respectively with Moffat needing to either win or score more 3 or more points than Jane to claim the title. With both drivers starting from the front row a capacity crowd saw a titanic struggle with Jane claiming the win from Moffat and securing his 3rd ATCC championship. In a bizarre happening during the race, a spectator driving a road registered Valiant drove through an open gate and onto the circuit. As there were Group E cars in the race, the officials seemed to miss the extra car and the race continued with the driver managing to complete a few laps before exiting the circuit.
A number of the international WSBK riders were critical of the Oran Park circuit, particularly of the fact that many of the concrete walls that lined the outside of the circuit (especially on the outside of turns 3, 4, 9 and 12) left little to no runoff room should a rider come off their bike.
NASCAR / AUSCAR
During the mid-1990s, the Australian NASCAR and AUSCAR series raced at Oran Park, utilising the 1.960 km (1.218 mi) South Circuit, with the track's lights upgraded to allow for night racing. The night races at Oran Park were a popular addition to the series, which other than one-off support races at the Bathurst 1000 the Gold Coast Indy 300, had previously run exclusively on the only paved oval tracks in Australia, the Bob Jane owned Calder Park Thunderdome in Melbourne and the Speedway Super Bowl at the Adelaide International Raceway.
Lap records
As a comparison, in November 1974, Warwick Brown set the outright lap record on the then new "Grand Prix Circuit" with a 1:05.2 lap in a Lola T332Formula 5000. Ten years later in August 1984, John Bowe set the outright lap record of 1:03.9 in a Ralt RT4 (1.6L) Formula Mondial. When the circuit closed in 2010, the outright lap record stood at 1:01.6718 by Tim Leahey in a Reynard 92D-Holden (3.8L) Formula Holden set in July 2000. Note that in mid-1984 the circuit was changed slightly with the addition of a straight run after turn 3 heading to what was turn 5 and eliminating what was turn 4. This made turn 3, and subsequently the new turn 4, slightly faster and gave the Grand Prix Circuit 12 corners instead of 13. The result was an overall improvement in lap times of approximately 0.5 to 1 second per lap. Motorbikes continued to use the pre-1984 sequence of turns until one year before the circuits closure.
The official race lap records at Oran Park Raceway are listed as:[7][8][9][10]
