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1/24th Commercial Tracks In Sydney & Beyond


bov

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Sorry the track at jam studios is not the Budgewoi track the track at budgewoi was a top track to race on don't know were it went to

 

Well,..as you say you Don't know where it went to,...BUT,..as far as I am aware, it IS in fact the Old Budgewoi track!

 

I don't happen to have all the details in front of me, but the track went to atleast one venue in Victoria and spent a few years in the southern state, but is Now at JAM Studios.

 

Here is a link to the ASCRA forum, with a picture of the track; JAM Studios track

 

Perhaps unfortunately, I cannot agree with you that it was a 'Top' track,..it was OK, but was arguably already a bit tired and a bit Bumpy even when at Budgewoi, Let alone the awful Join and Turn and abrupt level change at the swithback going uphill, (Clearly seen in the above pictures) and it would seem that from contemporary reports, it has suffered somewhat over the years and is now (unfortunately for the new owners), even More bumpy than before.

 

I will try and find the details of where and when it has been over the ensuing years.

 

EDIT;

Just to confirm this fact, I happened to speak with 'Stumpy' (The Budgewoi track owner) about this on Saturday night and he confirmed it is his old track at JAM Studios.

Edited by stoo23
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.....i remember the one in liverpool,cnr moore and george st i think,that was back in the 60's when i was a toddler....

The track at Liverpool was Checkered Flag, and moved to Hoxton Park, but unfortunately closed around 2004.

 

The main track was sold and set up in a family industrial complex for private use, but didn't last long and I'm not completely sure where it went. I have a feeling that it may have gone to Peter's collection at MR in Melbourne.

:unsure:

Steve K.

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.....i remember the one in liverpool,cnr moore and george st i think,that was back in the 60's when i was a toddler....

The track at Liverpool was Checkered Flag, and moved to Hoxton Park, but unfortunately closed around 2004.

 

The main track was sold and set up in a family industrial complex for private use, but didn't last long and I'm not completely sure where it went. I have a feeling that it may have gone to Peter's collection at MR in Melbourne.

:unsure:

Slotbaker,i think you are thinking of a different track,the checkered flag track that moved to hoxton park(lurnea) was in a different street in liverpool,the one i'm talking about was only quite small.Still if i'm wrong i will gladly stand corrected.cheers colin.

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Slotbaker,i think you are thinking of a different track..

Quite likely.

My re-interest in slot cars was triggered around 2000 when I happened accross a track near Mitre 10. I went in to check it out and I think there was 2 tracks, but I wouldn't call them small, so I'd say you are correct.

I went back quite a while later but it was gone, then found out that it had moved to Hoxton Park (Lurnea) untill it closed.

:(

Steve K.

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Wow. Ive just spent the morning going over these post.

Ron Griffin sent me the youtube video doing the rounds of G&D Parra in the 80s.

I re started way back at GT Raceways & went to become a regular at Parra (yes I remember Tinker Bell).

 

For a bit of trivia the Computer Lap counting, batteries & charging system all went to Luddenham (SSME), yes the rest sadly cut up.

 

Laurie

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For a bit of trivia the Computer Lap counting, batteries & charging system all went to Luddenham (SSME)

Yep, and we are still using the computer and Johnson program.

The batteries and p/s have been replaced with variable power supply.

 

And welcome to Auslot.

:)

Edited by slotbaker

Steve K.

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For a bit of trivia the Computer Lap counting, batteries & charging system all went to Luddenham (SSME)

Yep, and we are still using the computer and Johnson program.

The batteries and p/s have been replaced with variable power supply.

 

And welcome to Auslot.

:)

 

 

Thanks

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  • 2 weeks later...

Well , what do you say about a 'thread' like this . I've spent the last hour going

right through it and even found 'myself' being quoted as a 'source' for some of the

information , well before I jumped ( got pushed) into being on the www.

 

I remember a lot of what has been said and even have at this late stage something to

offer that hopefully will trigger some fond memories for you old slot heads . Stoo I

am hearing you say "groan" , but wait , there is more .

 

In respect to American Raceways at Crows Nest , it was a 'classy' set up . Had a little

'lounge' area just away from the counter with black and white chequered tiling , where

you could sit in comfy arm chairs and enjoy a cup of coffee and watch the track action .

The centres owner was Jack Grenenger and he was helped by his sons . I caught up with

Jack at his then house at Cromer in about 1991 . After a lifetime of helping out the

Camels cigarette company , he was on oxygen at night but during the day , took his

Harley for long rides . He was in his early eighties then and still had some of the

residue from his track . So a couple of weeks and visits later , I bought him out of

'All' his left over slot stuff . He kept a few cars and trophies , I got the rest ,

well enough for it to take two bulging Holden WB ute loads . Lots of goodies in there !

I remember Crows Nest well because it was the first time that I got to see a "proper"

1/24 Scale Drag Strip . Also , I met Ian Bannister there back in about 1967 , and I

always remember wondering how he could see through his 'Coke Bottle' glasses . Ian is

generally acknowledged as being Australia's best slot car racer around 1967 to 1970 .

 

Some of you have talked of Jimmy Westwell who ran Yagoona Straightaways and have fond

memories of him and his track . I only went to Yagoona once in its heyday . But I did

catch up with him personally in about 1990 at his house at Sefton . He was a lovely old

guy who talked a lot about his second career as a slot car centre owner . His first

career was as a Speedway Motorcycle Rider back in England before he emmigrated . But I

got the impression that he was more proud of his slotcar trophies than any from speedway.

Jim gave me an engraved trophy disc from a Hot Rod race held at his track in 1970 .Myself

and a mate checked out his garage and he had a whole lot of early 1/32 slot stuff stored

from the Yagoona Track as well as a routed four lane track with electro - mechanical timer.

The track was on its side against the wall and was complete but needed some more routing

to finish it off . It had not been painted so I guess you would say it was in the raw .

The two of us already had four tracks between us so we didn't want his track . He said

that was OK as someone else had expressed an interest in it . But we did 'buy' out all of

his old mostly 1/32 sixties era stock . It took my ute and another sedan with trailer

to drag everything back to our storage . Then of course we had to split it , so that was

a fun time . I'll have 'this' , you have 'that' , now what's next 'cause I want 'those' !

 

I caught up with a place at West Ryde in the early nineties called 'Greenacre Trading' .

They had been around in the 'boom' times of the Sixties and the shop was downstairs , a

Hobby Shop specialising in R/C and specialist model kits , while , upstairs was their

'wholesale' and storage area . I talked with a guy who I suppose was the owner because

he let me go upstairs . I didn't know what to expect , but of course , by then , most

of the "good stuff" had gone . Turns out 'storage' was the repository of olde left over

junk that was well past its sell by date . Hmmmmm ! . I looked around the nine foot high

steel storing shelves getting covered in a fine layer of dust . The 'owner' came up after

five or ten minutes to see how I was going . I had started to put some miscellaneous left

over 1/32 slot car parts in a cardboard box that I found empty . You know the type , tyre

and wheel combos with rock hard foam , gear ratio sets in packets that were too high or

low , some old clear bodies that were covered in dust , some obsolete Mabuchi 13UO's . So

he says how am I going and I said I didn't think too good yet , could I stay up here for

another twenty minutes . He looks at the dregs of what was in my box , takes pity , and

says yeah but hurry up !! Boy did I hurry , I was 'ripping and tearing' . Got some olde

model kits that were 1/32 to convert into slots , some old loose axles , a glass jar with

Cox gears in it , and then , Paydirt , some 1/32 cars in packages . Got about a dozen

mint Riggen 1/32 RTR's , three AJ's Winnwagons ( 1/32 can - am's ), and half a dozen

old scalextrics from the early Seventies . There were also about fifteen Revell 1/24

Dune Buggy slot cars individually wrapped in tissue paper from the factory . Tragedy ,

the owner came back up , said time to pack it in , I showed him what I got , and he said

leave a dozen of the Revells as he had a buyer for them . He just shuffled me off down

stairs , wanted exactly $100 for the box , I paid and walked out . I knew that I had got

all that I could get and that there was no use going back , so I never did !

 

I could go on with some old slot stories , but by now you are either bored as bat s#!t

or have had enough , so I'll leave more yarns for another day awaiting your responses !!

 

CRUISER .

Edited by cruiser
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  • 1 month later...

ulladulla track was removed in 2003 ........

 

wayne b had the blue king at fairfield then peter s ..... last time i seen it was in the old west pack building near to were the big rounder about on the cresent in fairfield that would have been the mid 90's

 

parra hmmmmmmmmm went in there once near fell through the holes in the floor never went back ...... had a few runs at cheqerd flag at both shops also narellan and ingleburn tracks

 

in my earlie teens i got taken to a few different track like the entrance one down near wollongong

 

started raceing when wayne owned it also when peter had it actully bumped into peter and his son last week at waitara and wayne and cody .....

 

just got back into it after a long break

 

MJ

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  • 2 months later...

Hi guys,

 

I remember about 15 years or more ago there was a track at long jetty on the central coast on The Entrance Rd. I cant remember much about it but what I remember it was a pretty large track. At the back of the slot car track there was a surf board maker. I think now there is a hot rod shop in the building where the track was. Does anyone remember it.

cheers

Greg

Yes i remember that track it was very fast and i remember quite often cars coming of at the end off the main straight and going out the door of the shop into the street. lol

Midwestern Model Raceway.

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  • 7 months later...

The track I remember was a commercial track, with 8 lanes. From memory it was painted bluish grey. I wouldn't call it a small track. I can't for the life of me remember where it was located in Blacktown, circa 1965?

 

I believe the track you are referring to was upstairs in a building on the north west side of the station that was later to become a brothel above Kawasaki West , Building is now long gone as the whole area has been redeveloped .

Edited by Mr Ford

The older I get the faster I was .

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  • 2 weeks later...

Hi Guys

Just a few Photos of the early days for me

Brunswick VIC 1980 Australian Titles

IMAG0006-1.jpg

IMAG0005-2.jpg

IMAG0003-2.jpg

IMAG0001-2.jpg

The photos where scan and are over 30 years old so sorry for the look but can't help that..

Steve

ANYTHING THAT HAPPENS BEFORE OR AFTER

IS JUST WAITING RACING IS LIFE STEVE MCQUEEN

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More photos of old tracks

Hope you guys like them if you even look at them.....

IMAG0057-1.jpg

 

IMAG0057-2.jpg

 

IMAG0056-2.jpg

 

All above photos of the track are at seven hills...Owned by Dave Miles

After the move from the railway station shop

Steve

ANYTHING THAT HAPPENS BEFORE OR AFTER

IS JUST WAITING RACING IS LIFE STEVE MCQUEEN

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The next lot of photos of old tracks..

Hope you like them

IMAG0047-1.jpg

 

IMAG0048-1.jpg

 

IMAG0067-1.jpg

 

IMAG0068-1.jpg

 

IMAG0067-2.jpg

 

IMAG0045-2.jpg

 

All the photos of the above track are at Luddenham track at the womp womp race

Slotbaker you might like the photos as you still have the track running as far as I know...

Steve

ANYTHING THAT HAPPENS BEFORE OR AFTER

IS JUST WAITING RACING IS LIFE STEVE MCQUEEN

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OK Next track this will open alot of talk about this track....

Alot of people have said it was gone and until a little while ago it was in Campbelltown @ Jam Studio

So have a look at the photos and judge for yourself

First floor on the central coast in the late 1980's

Want to here what you think about the photos

IMAG0078-1.jpg

 

IMAG0079-1.jpg

 

IMAG0079-2.jpg

 

IMAG0078-2.jpg

 

IMAG0012-2.jpg

 

OK Lets see what happeneds now....

Steve

ANYTHING THAT HAPPENS BEFORE OR AFTER

IS JUST WAITING RACING IS LIFE STEVE MCQUEEN

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Next tracl G&D @ Parramatta

Hope you guys like the photos....

 

IMAG0035-2.jpg

Slot cars of the day

IMAG0040-2.jpg

My cars at the time

IMAG0043-2.jpg

Track Photos

IMAG0044-2.jpg

IMAG0041-2.jpg

IMAG0042-2.jpg

 

Thats all for parramatta hope you like them

Steve

ANYTHING THAT HAPPENS BEFORE OR AFTER

IS JUST WAITING RACING IS LIFE STEVE MCQUEEN

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Well done Steve, great photo's. :)

 

The Luddenham track began life at Woy Woy when an enterprising young carpenter built 2 tracks about 1967 and ran a commercial centre for about 3~4 years, then sold the small track to SSME, and gave the larger track to Boys Town @ Engadine. I contacted them and one old guy remembered the track, but it got too run down during the 80's and was broken up and dispatched to Menai tip.

 

We've got a still photo of that race at Luddenham.

 

G&D, another one I missed out on racing on. I was driving through Parra one day and happened to see a slot car sign, found a parking spot and checked it out.

When I walked in, there was a guy standing at the driver's station, and I could hear something whizzing around, but couldn't see it. My first encounter with a wing car. It took me about 2~3 minutes to home in on it. Another guy walked in fiddled with his car, plugged controller in, went around the track and put something on the track at the corners, then there were 2 whizzing around. I watched their trigger fingers, and they didn't seem to do much. BLOODY fast, but not to my liking.

 

Wish I got back into slot cars earlier than I did. :(

 

Can you put any names to the faces in any of the pics?

:huh:

Steve K.

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Steve,

 

Thanks very much for the photos - certainly evoke some memories, particularly G & D..... Even though those photos were taken about 7 years after I last raced there, doesn't seem that much had changed over those years....

 

It sure was a great track.....

 

As I said earlier on in this thread, I helped Dave Miles move a track into his first shop above some shops - I can't remember if this is the same track shown above (it was a looooong time ago.....)

Cheers,

 

Tony.

 

There's only two questions:

 

1. What direction do you go

2. What's the Lap Record?

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OK Next track for you Guys

The first Campbelltown track owned by Don Haines

Before it was moved up the road closer to the station (leumeah)

IMAG0049-1.jpg

 

IMAG0050-1.jpg

 

IMAG0051-1.jpg

 

IMAG0053-1.jpg

 

IMAG0059-1.jpg

 

Some people you might know

IMAG0062-1.jpg

 

IMAG0073-1.jpg

 

IMAG0073-2.jpg

Steve

ANYTHING THAT HAPPENS BEFORE OR AFTER

IS JUST WAITING RACING IS LIFE STEVE MCQUEEN

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Well done Steve, great photo's. :)

 

The Luddenham track began life at Woy Woy when an enterprising young carpenter built 2 tracks about 1967 and ran a commercial centre for about 3~4 years, then sold the small track to SSME, and gave the larger track to Boys Town @ Engadine. I contacted them and one old guy remembered the track, but it got too run down during the 80's and was broken up and dispatched to Menai tip.

 

We've got a still photo of that race at Luddenham.

 

G&D, another one I missed out on racing on. I was driving through Parra one day and happened to see a slot car sign, found a parking spot and checked it out.

When I walked in, there was a guy standing at the driver's station, and I could hear something whizzing around, but couldn't see it. My first encounter with a wing car. It took me about 2~3 minutes to home in on it. Another guy walked in fiddled with his car, plugged controller in, went around the track and put something on the track at the corners, then there were 2 whizzing around. I watched their trigger fingers, and they didn't seem to do much. BLOODY fast, but not to my liking.

 

Wish I got back into slot cars earlier than I did. :(

 

Can you put any names to the faces in any of the pics?

:huh:

Erick Whitmore is the guy with his back to the camera in the luddenham photos the other ones are in the black shirt is Ian Mckelive (I think that is how you spell it ) the other guy in the Campbelltown towing shirt is ME..

The later photos of Campbelltown with the three of us left is ME Middle Ian and thrid is Lenny Cave some sort of race car driver I think

The first photo posted on the 11th of march..

The guys are Charlie Richards..Keith Phillips..Greg Eskine and myself...Damm that was a long time ago..

Wanye Bramble was also at the track as well as a few other guys as we went down as group from Sydney to race .....

That worked out ok as I finished thrid in the AM group 20 wing car race and thrid in the pro race group 20 wing car...

It would not have happened with out the help of Wayne Bramble...as it was a car he had owned before.....

Steve

ANYTHING THAT HAPPENS BEFORE OR AFTER

IS JUST WAITING RACING IS LIFE STEVE MCQUEEN

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More photos of old tracks

Hope you guys like them if you even look at them.....

IMAG0057-1.jpg

 

IMAG0057-2.jpg

 

IMAG0056-2.jpg

 

All above photos of the track are at seven hills...Owned by Dave Miles

After the move from the railway station shop

 

By the dates on the photos that was when I raced there , in fact I could even be behind the counter serving in the third photo . My wife even has a couple of trophies from the Christmas WAGS races . Thanks for the photos , fond memories rekindled . P.M. me please Steve .

 

Cheers Kenny

 

P.S. That looks like Wayne Baxter sitting on the edge of the track at the drivers stations , gee Dave used to love that . Anyone remember Johnny Wragg , Wayne Crandle , Charles Jifkins , Lenny Hulbert ,Tom and Karen ( can't remember their surname ) and numerous others I will no doubt remember after closing this post .

Edited by Mr Ford

The older I get the faster I was .

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