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Sydney Speedway (formerly known as ''Parramatta Speedway'' and ''Parramatta City Raceway'' and currently known as ''Valvoline Raceway'') is a Dirt track racing venue located on the site of the Granville Showgrounds in Sydney, New South Wales ==History== Speedway racing had taken place at the Granville Showgrounds during the 1930s with races using the existing ½ mile Harness racing track. However, with speedway already established at the Sydney Showground Speedway and Sydney Sports Ground, as well as racing at the nearby Cumberland Oval, racing at Granville was short lived. The new long clay surfaced oval was the brainchild of former Sydney driver Sid Hopping who wanted to give Sydney a track purpose built for the new, faster breed of American style Sprintcars. Sydney's two other tracks at the time, the Showground and the Liverpool Speedway, did run sprintcars, though the Showground was deemed too narrow while Liverpool had changed from dirt to bitumen in 1974 which suited the sedans, but not no much the Super Modifieds (later to become sprintcars) and Speedcars. The clay track at the Granville Showgrounds was laid out and first practices took place in January 1977 to test out the track. Hopping and his partner Bert Wilder ran meetings on Friday nights so as not to compete with the Showground or Liverpool which raced on Saturday nights. From its opening, the new speedway became known as the premier sprintcar track in Australia, a title it still enjoys (as of 2015). With its wide open spaces (the track itself has no actual safety fence with the old trotting track forming a barrier between the track and the outside safety fence) and long straights, Parramatta City Raceway was home to some of the countries best drivers including multiple Australian Champions Garry Rush, George and Brooke Tatnell, Bob Tunks and Skip Jackson, as well as other top drivers including Bob "The Streak" Blacklaw, former motocross star Stephen Gall and John Walsh calling the speedway 'home'. Since its opening, the speedway has hosted the Australian Sprintcar Championship on five occasions (1978, 1992, 1997, 2002, 2008), as well as the Australian Speedcar Championship (1988, 1994, 2006) and the Australian Super Sedan Championship (2003). It also hosted rounds of David Tapp's Australian Speedway Masters Series for Solos (in a rare visit to the track) and in 2004 became the first speedway outside of North or Central America to host the famed World of Outlaws sprintcar series which featured some of America's best taking on the locals. The winner of the event was Outlaws 'King' and regular visitor to both Australia and Parramatta, Steve Kinser. Valvoline Raceway has also been the venue for the Australian Sprintcar Grand Prix since its inception in 1979 as well as hosting the Australian Speedcar Grand Prix in 1997, 1998, 2001 and 2011. Wayne Fisher set the very first one-lap record on December 9, 1977 with a time of 16.70 seconds. As of November 2015, the one lap record is held by American Cody Darrah with a time of 11.564 seconds set on January 7, 2011.〔(Valvoline Raceway history )〕〔(Parramatta Speedway @ speedwayandroadracehistory )〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア(Wikipedia)』 ■ウィキペディアで「Sydney Speedway」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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