CRICKET OVAL BECOMES A SPEEDWAY

By Stefan Bartholomaeus (Speedcafe)

A cricket oval in the Adelaide Parklands is almost ready to host Sprintcar action following a rapid track build in the lead-up to the VAILO Adelaide 500.

Speedway is the big new addition to the ever-evolving Adelaide event this year, with Sprintcar races on the Thursday and Friday nights complementing Supercars and regular support action.

The South Australian Motor Sport Board brought together a brains trust involving Speedway Australia, Sprintcars SA and the Perth Motorplex to turn the radical idea into a reality.

Renowned speedway track builder and creator Alan Barlee was appointed for the project, which has come to life over four nights this week ahead of the November 14-15 shows.

That’s involved laying 550 tons of sand (to protect the cricket oval) and 6000 tons of clay for the racing surface, all trucked in by night to minimise impact on local traffic and parkland users.

The speedway is located on the main oval in the middle of the 3.2km street circuit, between Bartels Road and Wakefield Road, with a secondary oval to be used as a paddock area.

“It’s a day ahead of schedule,” Sprintcars SA President Adam Currie told Speedcafe of the NAPA Speedway, which will host 40 of the 950bhp machines.

“It’s all been done in a short time frame to minimise impact on the local residents. We waited for cricket to finish on the Saturday afternoon and then they were into it.

“All the surface is now in and Alan’s going to bring another couple of truck loads in tonight to tickle up a few areas and the fence builders should be finished by tomorrow.

“Then we’ll start curating the track on Saturday morning. Usually, you work a track two or three days before a race event, so we’re not even at a push with that.”

The clay, brought in from around Adelaide by a fleet of 20 trucks on rotation, was especially chosen from over 15 samples tested in a laboratory for specific qualities desired to produce good racing.

Although just 342-metres in length and without significant banking, the track is a substantial 17 metres wide.

“We’d like to think it will race very well,” says Currie.

“There was a misconception that when we’re doing a pop-up speedway and sticking it into the middle of the Adelaide 500 track, it’s going to be a race around a clothesline. That’s actually not the case.

“We’re only looking at the track being 10 metres shorter than Murray Bridge, it’s not that much smaller than a normal speedway. And it’s a wide racing surface.

“Because it’s a pop-up speedway, we weren’t able to get the banking in that some tracks have, but that is counteracted by the shape of the track.

“It’s going to be a very flowing track, very wide, and it’s going to allow it to be two or three lanes. You’re going to see cars racing in the gutter and racing against the fence and be the same speed.”

Track curation, says Currie, is the key to good racing. That’s why Perth Motorplex curator Michael Rimmer has been drafted in to handle the racing surface.

Currie affirms the event is a big deal for the speedway community, seeing the Adelaide 500 – which draws over 250,000 people – as the perfect way to show-off motorsport’s best-kept secret.

“It’s absolutely huge,” he said. “We know we’ve got a better product than some of the other motorsports out there that are more popular.

“To put this sport on this stage in front of motorsport fans that aren’t necessarily speedway fans, I think it’s going to change a lot of people’s minds.”

The NAPA Speedway has a capacity of approximately 8000 spectators, accessible to general admission and grandstand event ticket holders on a first-come, first-served basis.

It will take Barlee and his team just days to remove the speedway track and turn it back into a cricket oval once the event is complete.