Castrol Lismore Speedway once again has the honour this season of hosting one of the oldest Speedcar events in the world – the Australian Speedcar Grand Prix.
Set down for Saturday night, February 3, this race holds a very special place in the entire history of the sport. This year marks the seventy-first running of the Australian Speedcar GP – the latest name added to the very impressive Roll of Honour is Queensland’s Rusty Whittaker who took honours on this same weekend in 2023 at the Lismore Showground.
The AGP, first held in 1938 at the former Sydney Sports Ground, is more than a race for the ages, it carries incredible history with a tradition and heritage that gives this event membership to an exclusive Speedcar club as one of the four oldest Speedcar trophy races in the world.
This Grand Prix is rightly mentioned in the same conversation, standing proudly beside America’s world famous annual Californian hosted Thanksgiving Day Turkey Night Grand Prix (inaugurated in 1934), the former Nite Before the 500 race in Indianapolis Indiana (1946-2014) and the Victorian Speedcar Championship, which was first held during the 1934-35 season at Melbourne’s Olympic Park Speedway. The Australian Speedcar Grand Prix is more than a race . . . it’s a happening with another history page to be added in 2024.
Many pundits have described the Australian Speedcar Grand Prix, featuring its magnificent perpetual trophy and highly credentialed Roll of Honour, as the Melbourne Cup of speedway . . . a justifiable claim reserved only for those special events that are deeply etched in the annals of sporting history won by the biggest names!
In the ‘sixties era, Australian Speedcar legends, the late, great Jeff Freeman, Johnny Stewart and Len Brock, are recognised as three of the greatest AGP champions of all time (among so many great winners).
Freeman’s win on March 6, 1965 at the Sydney Showground Speedway, is still talked about to this very day by long time followers as arguably the greatest GP even run and won.
Watch this space for more reviews, featuring the great champions of past decades, the current stars, updates and a multitude of fascinating GP statistics in the countdown to the February 3, 2024 running of the Australian Speedcar Grand Prix – often also fittingly described as “The Great Race.”
By Dennis Newlyn.
Photo: Sydney’s Jeff Freeman won the 1965 Australian Speedcar GP on March 6 at the Sydney Showground. That race – and his sensational last gasp victory over American legend Bob Tattersall – is recognised as arguably the greatest GP ever held. Photo: Des Lawrence (from Newlyn archives).