Australian Stock Car Auto Racing

Australian Stock Car Auto Racing

AUSCAR (Australian Stock Car Auto Racing) was an auto racing sanctioning body owned by Bob Jane, which ran American-style Superspeedway racing in Australia. The initial AUSCAR venue was the Calder Park Thunderdome Superspeedway, but over time the series expanded to include the Bob Jane owned 1/2 mile Speedway Super Bowl at the eastern end of Adelaide International Raceway (the only other paved oval circuit in Australia), the Surfers Paradise Street Circuit, and eventually several Australian road racing circuits including Calder Park's road course. Three categories of racing car were developed to run on the Australian circuits.

  • NASCAR: imported and locally developed versions of the American race cars
  • AUSCAR: down spec-ed cars, closer to production specification, initially just the Holden Commodore, but quickly expanded to include the Ford Falcon
  • Sportsman: lower specification again, cheaper to buy or build and older cars, and some former AUSCARs

Other categories, such as the HQ's, a category based around the Holden HQ Kingswood powered by the 3.3L Holden red motor, were also popular at the Calder Park Thunderdome. Another category was based on the American dirt track category known as Legends (unrelated to Aussie Racing Cars), since disappeared from circuit racing. And Formula Vee open wheelers raced briefly on the Thunderdome apron.

Read more about Australian Stock Car Auto Racing:  AUSCAR Category, Champions

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    “I marched in with the men afoot; a gallant show they made as they marched up High Street to the depot. Lucy and Mother Webb remained several hours until we left. I saw them watching me as I stood on the platform at the rear of the last car as long as they could see me. Their eyes swam. I kept my emotion under control enough not to melt into tears.”
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