Castrol Lismore Speedway is built on magnificent history going back decades and one event that has become its signature trademark in the annals of time is the East Coast Grand National, which will be held at the iconic showground venue on April 20. Another chapter will be added to this incredible Lismore sedan race that was first run and won by David House in 1975.
The ECGN is what put Lismore Showground Speedway on the map, the race gave the venue a status symbol that attracted national recognition for a track that is now proudly one of the longest running circuits in Australian speedway history. The ECGN has gone along for the ride, it plays a big part of that journey, and is Lismore Speedway’s most notable export product.
The event over the years has attracted some of the biggest names in the annals of Australian speedway sedan racing. It has been taken out by the best of the best and in the modern era, Matt Pascoe, who won the 2023 ECGN, proudly took his place amongst a galaxy of victorious stars. On April 20, the Super Sedan division will go for gold in the 2024 ECGN.
When the Lismore Speedway community reminisce about the ECGN, the legendary deeds of the late, great Grenville Anderson are discussed, amongst the great winners, like Queensland’s Allan Butcher and NSW star John Leslight. In fact it was Butcher and Leslight who got into a scuffle on the infield following the running of the 1984 event. The East Coast Grand National is that kind of event: it brings out raw emotion, the stakes are high and it’s a race everybody wants to win.
When it comes to what winning the ECGN means to a driver, there’s no better example than 2010 when Tania Smith won and emulated the deeds of her racing hero, Grenville Anderson. It was more than a win, it was the outpouring of unbridled, tearful emotion as Tania, a registered nurse, cared for Grenville, who died in 2004, following the serious injuries he sustained in his 1990s crash at Brisbane’s Archerfield Speedway. It could have just been a run-of-the mill feature race victory for Tania, but it was Anderson’s signature race (ECGN) that Tania won – and that typifies what this event means with its illustrious history and the iconic names who have won this event.
We also remember Lismore’s Paul O’Neill, who recently passed away aged 64, as one of the most impressive winners of all time in this race. It was when he drove a Grand National Sedan for car owner John Chant. They were the days when Grand National sedans reigned supreme and took the sedan division into a new era.
Some of the best ECGNs belonged to the GNs. It could be said today’s Late Model sedans are the descendants of the wonderful Grand National sedan era carrying on a tradition much like the ECGN.
While in the early days, the race presented a different styled sedan category body silhouette to Grand National Sedans of the 1980s, nothing has changed as far as the importance of this race and what it means to win. Super Sedans ultimately replaced the Grand Nationals as the premier class for the category before being joined by Late Models in more recent history.
The 2024 East Coast Grand National on April 20, is expected to live up to some of the great races of the past when another winner is added to the Roll of Honour at Castrol Lismore Speedway – home of the ECGN.
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BY DENNIS NEWLYN