Just some general questions about sprint car racing in Australia - things I've wondered about through the years...

Are there a lot of cars and teams throughout Australia?

Any 360 or 305s, or all 410?  Any wingless?

Are parts/chassis/engines super expensive?  All American-made parts?

Love to make it there sometime to see in person.  Best wishes for a great season for you guys!

Hey larsonfan,

Sprint car racing in Australia is some of the best racing you can see...if you go to the right tracks. There are plenty of cars considering our sparse population, some 150+ 410's across the nation on most weekends. There is also a good number of 360's and some small pockets of 305's. There is a wingless division here that run a v6 motor and there are plenty of them...they just need a v8 though!!

Just about everything as far as parts are sourced from the USA but there are many great engine builders over here.

As I mentioned earlier you can get to see some great action over here. Most of our tracks are small bull rings but they can certainly provide exceptional racing. The two best are Premier Speedway in Warrnambool and Sydney Speedway as far as racing goes. Premier is a very fast high banked 1/4 mile and is home to the Grand Annual Classic which is run every January and attracts over 100 cars with around 20 of your country men attending. Sydney Speedway probably provides the best racing consistently, the track doesn't have an outside wall up close (similar to Chico or Bloomington) and was home to the Outlaws Downunder races.

You need to make it down here as you won’t be disappointed. I'm making my second trip over there next August for some of your racing.

Forgot to mention our best facility over here is the Motorplex in Perth. Probably similar to The Dirt track at Charlotte, a very nice facility but the racing lacks sometimes.

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Sprintcars...the ONLY REAL RACING!!!
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 Not they didn't try to get a 410 non wing deal going..

Wingless Sprints Australia Drivers Promo

Turn it up..http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sC2rYsrS44A&feature=related

Half the lies they tell about me aren't true. 

Hi there,

As mentioned above Australia holds some great Sprintcar racing action over our summer season - Oct to April.

The major tracks are - Western Australia - Perth Motorplex, Bunbury, Collie, Albany.

South Australia - Speedway City, Murray Bridge, Mt Gambier.

Victoria - Warrnambool, Avalon.

New South Wales - Sydney Speedway

Queensland - Archerfield

Tasmania - Latrobe

Northern Territory - Northline

Check out www.sprintcarworld.com.au

www.speedwaynet.com.au

www.motorplex.com.au

www.seg.net.au

www.worldseriessprintcars.com.au

Most of the track have their own web sites and Facebook pages.

We run 410 and 360 winged cars plus a wingless category (V6 motors)

Western Australia runs 410, 360, 320 and a Limited Sprintcar class - too many!!

Cheers

Check out sprintcarworld.com.au  There is also one for New Zealand, sprintcarworld.com.nz, Sammy Allard Schatz over this past weekend. Google Western Springs Raceay, New Zealand. There is also a wingless site I can post later.

Check out sprintcarworld.com.au  There is also one for New Zealand, sprintcarworld.com.nz, Sammy Allard Schatz over this past weekend. Google Western Springs Raceay, New Zealand. There is also a wingless site I can post later.

I always watch the F1 races every weekend and after watching the interview with still young Mark Weber after the race (finished 2nd and retired at near the top of his game which is the way to do it), can anyone tell me if he has ever been to a sprint car race in his home country.  The popularity of sprints in Australia per capita is much higher than in the U.S. so just wondering.  Also on the same point has MotoGP champion and still very very young but retired Casey Stoner ever been spotted at a sprint car race.  Weber though retired from F1 is heading to sports car racing, less stressful than an F1 season.

 Lawlessness and liberalism equals Hell.  NY City, 
Detroit, Seattle, Chicago, Minnepolis, etc. We saw it. 
Burning hundreds of buildings, a thousand assaults and 
dozens of murders. Getting worser and worser.

I had shut my computer off and was thinking about my question above and realized how stupid it was.  Of course world-wide stars like Webber and Stoner, known to race fans in every country in the world could not attend a sprint car race.  Almost any public appearance by either in Australia could cause mass chaos, people wanting to get close, to get pictures, etc.  Only way would be to be in the pits with a driver they know, then get out of the pits before the race is over and the fans get into the pits. 

 Lawlessness and liberalism equals Hell.  NY City, 
Detroit, Seattle, Chicago, Minnepolis, etc. We saw it. 
Burning hundreds of buildings, a thousand assaults and 
dozens of murders. Getting worser and worser.

I think you might be surprised, Australians, while impressed by Australian sports stars and their accomplishments are generally low key around sports stars like theses guys, would there be people wanting a photo? yes, but nothing like the crowds that Kasey and Tony get at a sprint show in the states. its not un common to see drivers from the V8 supercar ranks which is our top touring car class to show up in the pits at a local dirt oval track

waiting for sprintcar world series to start. Love listining to the audio. Though McFadden wins in AUS. like Schatz in the U.S.

Don't know about Stoner, but there is a video with Mick Doohan and a few other non-sprint car guys driving Shane Stewart's ride over there.

http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=xt9E5hZ3sFw&desktop_uri=%2Fwatch%3Fv%3Dxt9E5hZ3sFw

Found it. It's pretty good.

Are there any websites, etc. such as Dirtvision or DirtonDirt where Aussie sprintcar racing is streamed live for PPV? I would love to watch a few races when I get the chance.

If there is, I haven't found it.  All of the above are basically stats sites and shows the results in as real time as possible.  Race monitor has the Eureka Garages Series out of Victoria.  That's where I spent most of my time watching Californian Geoff Ensign wheel the v60 for Smith Brothers.  Also, the Sprint Car World Series races will be shown live on the ONE network in Australia.  That said, I have no idea how to stream an Australian TV network to my TV/Computer.  For Victoria racing, subtract 6 hours and add a day.  You'll be watching Friday nights racing at 6pm their time at midnight our time on Thursday.  - Ron

Around what year did the Aussies adopt the 410 as the standard engine? I know they used to use 377 cube engines and some guys started saying they could save money by buying used engines from the US and not having to take inches away from them....and were the 377s mostly aluminum back then or were they iron block engines?

Loose is when you hit the wall with the rear of the
car, tight is when you hit the wall with the front of
the car. Horsepower is how fast you hit the wall and
torque is how far you move the wall.

2002-03 or so when PCR started to run 410s even when the rest of the country was still running 372's.  

When I first went there in 93-94 there was a mixture of cast iron and aluminum engines. By 98/99 on my 2nd trip there they were mostly aluminum engines by then.

Sprintcars in Australia

The major tracks are - Western Australia - Perth Motorplex, Bunbury, Collie, Albany. Manjump, Kalgorlie

South Australia - Speedway City, Murray Bridge, Mt Gambier.

Victoria - Warrnambool, Avalon. Simpson, Horsham, Swan Hill, Rosedale, Mildura, - There is like 20 tracks that run sprintcars thats just to name a few

New South Wales - Sydney Speedway, Dubbo, Nowra, Gilgandra, Grafton, Lismore

Queensland - Archerfield, Toowomba, Marybrough, Kingaroy, Mackay

Tasmania - Latrobe - plus a couple of

Northern Territory - Northline.

410 -

WA - Average 20 to 25 cars a meeting

SA - Average 22 to 30 cars a meeting

VIC- Average between 35 and 45 cars a meeting - Record car counts in the past 2 season with 56 nomintated for a club series this weekend

NSW - Average 30 to 35 cars a meeting - Used to average 60 cars a night about 6 years ago at sydney speedway

Queensland - Average 25 to 30 cars a meeting

Tasmaina - Average 12 to 15 cars

North Territory - Average 12 to 15 cars over the winter months in Australia because they can't racing in Darwin in Summer.

360 -

WA - Average 15 to 20 cars a meeting

SA - Average 20 to 25 cars a meeting

VIC- Average between 20 to 30 cars a meeting - Record car counts in the past 2 season with 56 nomintated for a club series this weekend

NSW - Average 6 to 8 cars a meeting

Queensland - Average 6 to 8 cars a meeting

Tasmaina - No Division

North Territory - Average 4 to 8 cars over the winter months in Australia because they can't racing in Darwin in Summer.

305- Were attempted to start his year, however the licensing body wouldn't class them a SCCA divisions and that why we don't have them racing.

We have 350, 320 and Limited Sprintcars across WA, SA and VIC.

Wingless - 360 or 410 wingless would see alot of people killed in over time, we have a divsion called V6 wingless. There is over 500 registered cars in the country and there national title last year saw 130 car show interest for the meeting but only accepted a total 100.

Most exciting divison in Australia is Speedcars (Midgets) and Sedan cars. We have a massive amount of sedan classes and they put on some top racing.

We also have a divisions like Formula 500's which are you Micro600s and Junior Sedan which allow kids from 14 to 17 to race competitivaely on tracks.

Most parts and cars are still from the states however we have a chassis builder in Australia called John Cooley who makes the Cool Chassis that Brooke Tatnell has dominated in with the Krikke Motorsports team.

In sedans we have the Sweet Chassis in a divison called Super Sedan (Simplier to Late Models on Right hand drive)

Most cars brand new would match prices that your drivers would be paying

Website
http://sprintcarworld.com.au/
http://speedwaysedans.com/

http://www.speedcarproseries.com.au/

http://www.nationalsupersedanseries.com/

http://www.formula500.com.au/

One of the best races i've seen

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xBTMxY-nSe4

Did you see this from Mark Webber, in article he wrote before his retirement about his formative years in motorsport?

"In fact, my first intro to motor racing was a million miles removed from F1. The kind of racing I used to enjoy when I was very young was dirt bikes, and sprint cars and midget car racing on the local speedway at Tralee. I remember going on Friday and Saturday nights and sitting on dad's shoulders watching the likes of Steve Kinser who had come over from the States to race the Aussie stars like George Tatnell and Garry Rush."

We went to the pits after races at nationals the night Gordon  was there.  You would have thought people had never seen anybody famous.  I can understand him not going out in public after seeing that .