BUNBURY (WA)
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BUNBURY SPEEDWAY 1973
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1973 - BUNBURY SPEEDWAY 6th Meeting 6th January 1973 |
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27th October 1973 - Eddy Gobby wit his mate Rick Spencer doing a bit of work on the Speedway car. Photographer: unknown.
1973 - Eddy Gobby in the FC Holden leading Paul Fenn in the EK Holden on the outside. Photo: Speedway and Road Race History collection.
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1973 - DREW LEONARD B Production
6th January 1973 - A spinning George Timms from the Wattle Grove club is passed by Bunbury driver Drew Leonard in the number 70 EK Holden. Photo: Speedway and Road Race History collection.
(use controls to pause - forward or reverse 35 images)
(Program research: Mark Heeler)
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1973 - BUNBURY SPEEDWAY 7th Meeting 13th January 1973 |
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1973 - IVAN MAUGER Solo's
13th January 1973 - Our very own man with the world stage vision and Bunbury Speedway manager Tom Dillon welcomes Ivan Mauger to this brand new complex.
13th January 1973 - Current World Champion Ivan Mauger in action at Bunbury Speedway.
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1973 - SOUTH WESTERN TIMES NEWSPAPER REPORTED
January 1973
1973 - Then Bunbury Speedway manager Tom Dillon and his wife Beverly struck up a life long friendship with the Mauger's, Ivan and Rae, when they lived with the Dillons on this trip to Bunbury.
1973 - Tom was an active member of the Indian Harley Club at the time and owned this beautiful Harley that Ivan loved to ride, so much so he wanted to by it off Tom. Photo's: Beverley Dillon.
(use controls to pause - forward or reverse 36 images)
(Program research: Mark Heeler)
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1973 - BUNBURY SPEEDWAY 8th Meeting 27th January 1973 |
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1973 - GENE WELCH Open Production
27th January 1973 - Bunbury Speedway manager Tom Dillon welcomes USA Sedan Car Champion Gene Welch, One of the constructors of Bunbury Speedway Joe Catalano, Bert Harkins Solo Champion from Scotland, Malcom Simmons Solo Champion from England and a very young Shane Dillon.
27th January 1973 - Bunbury Speedway manager Tom Dillon introduces Gene Welch to our very own American, Dan Kalpakoff who assisted the club in building the track gates during the construction of Bunbury Speedway. Photographer: unknown.
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1973 - VIC TRIMBLE Open Production
27th January 1973 - They named him the giant killer, Here Vic is being monstered by the big Camaro at Bunbury Speedway. Vic drove the wheels off his Mini to take the checker ahead of the USA star.
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27th January 1973 - Mike the Bike Warren interviews Bert Harkins from Scotland at the Bunbury Shopping Plaza on the Saturday morning prior to speedway meeting at Bunbury that night. Photographer: unknown.
27th January 1973 - While helping out at Bunbury Speedway on the night, Claremont Speedway commentater Con Migro asks Bert Harkins the great Scottish Solo rider what is worn under his kilt. The answer was priceless, nothing is worn under my kilt , everything is in perfect working order, Don Creedy then editor of the South West Times newspaper, like Tom Dillon is in a fit of laughter, Don was a great supporter of the Bunbury Speedway.
(use controls to pause - forward or reverse 36 images)
(Program Research: Mark Heeler)
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1973 - BUNBURY SPEEDWAY 9th Meeting 24th February 1973 |
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(Program Research: Mark Heeler)
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1973 - BUNBURY SPEEDWAY. The French Hell Drivers. 2nd March 1973. |
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(Program Research: Mark Heeler)
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1973 - BUNBURY SPEEDWAY 10th Meeting SUPERMODIFIED FEATURE 10th March 1973 |
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Memories of Bunbury facebook feature
Tom Dillon recalls: I was a great admirer of Ray Geneve, because i knew he was the manufacturer of his race cars, which were always presented in an impeccable state !!
Ray always raced at Bunbury in our first season and his unforgettable duels with Alf Barbagallo brought fans back through the gates time and time again.
On the night in the pic above, Ray had won the Supermodified feature race and i was delighted to present him with the trophy, and to congratulate him personally. The good old days when most competitors ran on a domestic budget, today its almost prohibitive.
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(use controls to pause - forward or reverse 32 images)
(Program Research: Mark Heeler)
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1973 - RAY BOTTOMLEY Solo's
Ray was a local boy that took up solo racing at an early age and competed at Bunbury Speedway in the early seventies, more to follow
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1973 - BUNBURY SPEEDWAY 11th Meeting 24th March 1973 |
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(use controls to pause - forward or reverse 32 images)
(Program research: Mark Heeler)
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1973 - BUNBURY SPEEDWAY 12th Meeting 7th April 1973 |
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1973 - ALLAN MORTIMOR Junior Rod's
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1973 - IVAN BURKE Stock Production
1973 - The action was always thick and fast at Bunbury in the Stock Production class. Photo: Ivan Burke collection.
1973 - The camera catches Ivan spinning the EJ Holden while Vince Cialla drives on bye. Photo: Ivan Burke collection.
1973 - Ivan had gained the attension of local spraypainter Ray Truman with this trick paint job. Photographer: Peter Roebuck.
(use controls to pause - forward or reverse 32 images)
(Program research: Mark Heeler)
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1973 - BUNBURY SPEEDWAY 21st April 1973The Bunbury Car Club wrapped up there final meeting for the 1972 1973 speedway season on Saturday night in front of a large crowd.
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Vic Trimble with the mighty mini. Photo: unknown.
Perth's Barry Blake took out the final in the Torana. Photos unknown. |
(use controls to pause - forward or reverse 32 images)
(Program research: Mark Heeler)
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1973 - SOUTH WESTERN TIMES NEWSPAPER REPORTED
5th July 1973
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1973 - BUNBURY SPEEDWAY SOUTH WESTERN TIMES NEWSPAPER REPORTED.There is always a story behind a story and that is the clear case here, The Times writes this in a manner that the speedway did not make a profit for the 1972 1973 season of racing, In fact quite the opposite, There are differing interpretation's as to how the Bunbury Car Club ended up in this situation, After extensive research this is how i believe it came about.
Prior to Bunbury Speedway the Bunbury Car Club ran Hot Rod meeting's on land behind the Blicks Caravan Park on the Collie River at Eaton. It was a Sunday affair, and a family picnic day theme. It all came to an end in 1972 when the land owner sold the property to developers.
The club was fairly large at the time with a lot of members, some wanted to build another dirt bank wall Hot Rod track, and some wanted to build a night time timber wall fully enclosed speedway like Collie
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10th September 1973 |
Speedway, that had been built in 1971. Other's had visions of building a night time speedway that would rival Claremont and attract world champions to race here in country Western Australia. The latter group won out.
The speedway construction was completed in November of 1972 and the 1972 1973 kicked off. Now enter the debit problem, The speedway's cost to build over ran by about the $72,000 that newspaper was stating. The speedway meeting's did in fact meet all there costs. That included the nights that featured the racers from overseas such as Ivan Maugher, Bert Harkins, Malcom Simmons and Gene Welch just to mention a few. The Bunbury Speedway had smashed attendance records to sporting events in country WA, and it was all under the Management of Tom Dillon, he was the man who put sleepy ol Bunbury on the map.
But anyway the club had the debt and it was getting to be way overdue, some of the club members were beside themselves and pointing fingers, and some working actively to solve the problem.
Such was the impression that Tom Dillon had made on the speedway promotion world that he was offered the job at Rowley Park Speedway in Adelaide, an offer he accepted.
The plan was Tom would return to Bunbury for the 1973 1974 season and take up where he left off, but clubs being clubs and being run by direction from the floor, the committee was made to advertise the managers position, just in case a more suitable person may apply, only problem with that was someone forgot to tell Tom. At that point a friend of Tom contacted him and said dont rush home they have advertised your job.
In 1973 there were no Speedway Managers looking for a job so when it looked like Bunbury Speedway was in big trouble a champion sedan car driver with no experience at all stepped up and took the job on. That man be Allan Blake a home town Bunbury boy. Allans story would be one of success and Tom would continue at Rowley Park successfully as well.
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1973 - SOUTH WESTERN TIMES NEWSPAPER REPORTED
3rd October 1973
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1973 - SOUTH WESTERN TIMES NEWSPAPER REPORTED
3rd October 1973
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1973 - SOUTH WESTERN TIMES NEWSPAPER REPORTED
$100 trophy for "big bangers"Production Cars will be featured at the opening of Bunbury Speedway's 1973-1974 season on Saturday and sparks are expected to fly when the big bangers compete for the 15 lap Giaci Bros $100 trophy.
The local challenge will be strong against Perth's leading drivers, Richard Hartzer in his Falcon GTHO, burst the packed field apart with his forceful power-sliding at the opening of Claremont Speedway last Friday - and got 3 stiff fines to boot.
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