We had Trans-Am racing, Australia had touring cars. We had Mustangs, Camaros, Challengers, Javelins and more…the Aussies had Mustangs and Camaros, Falcons, Holdens, Coopers, and in a big surprise in that kind of field, a Toyota Celica that’s playing with the big boys. V8 snarl, road course action, and the only other noise needed comes from two commentators who know what they are talking about. Ah, life was good back in the day. At least, it was ideal as far as racing goes. This rainy celebration of horsepower was one of the last events to be held at Warwick Farm Raceway. Built in 1954 and closed in 1973, the 2.25 mile circuit had the distinction of hosting the British Grand Prix for Formula One racing five times, the Australian Grand Prix four times, and the Australian Touring Car Championship from 1969 until the end.
Closed nearly fifty years, it takes a keen eye to make out the layout of Warwick Farm from a satellite mapping. You can see bits of the track though, including a section of asphalt at the northernmost part of the horse track that was present before the racing. But a lot of Warwick Farm Raceway is nothing more than a trace, an outline of what once was. At least the video footage shows just how radical this Sydney suburb could be…
Wow, a total who\’s who of the big names in Australia at the time..most, of course, also raced at Bathurst and other formats too. I used to drive taxi\’s years ago and once had the pleasure of Allan Moffatt and his wife and son James jump in my car after the Aust Grand Prix in Adelaide. James was quite young at the time and said ` what was your favourite out of all dads cars? \’ Now, I own an XB coupe and he raced many of them but my favourite out of all his cars was the Trans Am Mustang shown here…