Main Arena
The main arena of the showgrounds, which at its peak in the 1920s and 30s held 35,000 people but now can hold approximately 14,000, was known as the Speedway Royale during its heyday from 1926 until 1934, and is sometimes referred to as "The birthplace of Australian Speedway", even though speedway in Australia actually started in Maitland, New South Wales in 1923, three years before it started at Wayville. Speedway has been held on the egg-shaped track that is the main arena since approximately 1926. The track itself has a dirt and sand mixture over a concrete base and is 510m (557 yards) in length. When used it is one of the fastest speedway's in Australia with wide open corners and both the front and back straights being 100m in length.
While the arena only ever holds one or two speedway meetings per year, it has held may Australian championships including the Australian Solo Championship as well as hosting such events as the Speedway 500 series involving World Champion riders such as Denmarks Hans Nielsen, the late Simon Wigg from England and Australian riders such as Adelaide's own Ryan Sullivan, Shane Parker and Shane Bowes as well as 10 time Australian champion Leigh Adams (who won his 5th Australian championship at Wayville in 2002). Australia's leading Sprintcar series, the World Series Sprintcars has also raced many times on the showgrounds track.
The speedway at Wayville holds the record in Australian speedway for the longest wait between hosting an Australian championship. Before the 2002 Australian Solo Championship, Wayville had not hosted the title since 1932, a gap of an incredible 70 years, only just eclipsing the former record of 69 years between championships held by the Newcastle Showground which hosted the title in 1927 and then again in 1996.
The main arena was also the home ground of the West Adelaide Football Club in the South Australian National Football League from 1927 until it was taken over by the Australian Army after the 1939 season due to the outbreak of World War II. West Adelaide were forced to play their home games at the Adelaide Oval until their current home, Richmond Oval, was opened in 1958.
The arena's track was also the home of harness racing in Adelaide from 1934 until moving to the purpose built Globe Derby Park in 1973.
Read more about this topic: Adelaide Showgrounds
Famous quotes containing the words main and/or arena:
“The main question raised by the thriller is not what kind of world we live in, or what reality is like, but what it has done to us.”
—Ralph Harper (b. 1915)
“Children treat their friends differently than they treat the other people in their lives. A friendship is a place for experimenting with new ways of handling anger and aggression. It is an arena for practicing reciprocity, testing assertiveness, and searching for compromise in ways children would not try with parents or siblings.”
—Lawrence Kutner (20th century)