GERALDTON (WA)
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1964 - GERALDTON HOT ROD CLUB
Back in 1964, a man who ran an auctioneering business thought it was about time Geraldton had a Hot Rod racing track, as it already had a motorcycle scramble track
A meeting of locals was conducted in July of 1964 with a decision being made on the locality of the race track just outside the town boundaries, many of the locals saw this as a way to give their street racing kids a controlled enviroment to race each other.
The man who started it all was the late Mr Jack Whitehouse, he became the clubs first President and in later years the clubs first Life Member.
Mr EG Nairn of Dongara the use of a 10 acre gravel pit on his property Howatharra but for some reason the offer was not accepted.
At a meeting on the 20th of September 1964 the Geraldton Hot Rod Club was formed, at the time Geraldton was the only know Hot Rod Track outside Perth,
The original track was built on a property owned by Penny Pirrottima, The Geraldton office of Mobil Oil Australia Ltd , met the costs of forming and grading the track, while volenteers like Bernard Clinch and Vic Baskerville loaned equipment, this track would be known as Moonyoonooka.
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1965 - TIME TRIALS BEGIN
On the 28th of Febuary 1965 the first time trials were held on the dirt track, the ruling of the day was all drivers must have at least 15 laps experience before being able to race, as it turned out the club had seven trial runs.
During these first years of racing many brands of cars were used from FJ Holdens, Ford Pilots, Ford Mercurey's, Chevrolet's, Dodge's, Jaguar's and Plymouth.
Many of the cars racing at the time did so without fenders and bonnets, the cooling systems in the cars were fitted with a 5 gallon drum as a radiator.
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1965 - JACK WHITEHOUSE
The first car on the Geraldton track was a shortened American Ford Pilot, Jack phurchased this car from a Forrestfield Racer in Bob Fleet, as well as Bill Bursill, Bob Oliver, Chris Clarkson, Joe Miragliotta, Ray Reynolds, Butch Hadley and Rod Baskerville
Local man Wally Bawden used to charge 10 pounds to make and fit a roll cage, like many Hot Rod towns of the day the Police would allow the race cars to be towed to the track on the end of a ridged bar or a tow rope,
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1965 - APRIL 11th
Geraldton held its first full scale meeting on the 11th of April 1965, racing would continue at the track up until 1966 when the owner would lease out the property for agriculture and the club would have to move, The last meeting was on the 15th of May in 1966, it was a championship event to be apart of the Sunshine Festival.
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1966 - THE NEW TRACK IS BORN
The new Geraldton site was purchased in 1966 from Mr Joe Marsden, the site was 20 acres, work commenced on the track with the aid of dynamite as the area was full of granite, part of the granite face was used as a natural saftey fence with part of the gravel pit used as a spectator veiwing platform.
On the 6th of November 1966 the New track was officialy opened, also on the day the Geraldton Motor Cycle Club would join in and hold some events.
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1968 - GERALDTON SPEEDWAY
1968 - Photo: Des King collection.
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1968 - AUSTRALASIAN ROAD & TRACK REPORTED
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The photo's above were not taken at Geraldton, they were used by the magazine to simply promote the event.
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1969 - BRIAN THOMAS
Geraldton City Speedway facebook photo feature
1969 - Brian Thomas back when it all began. Photo: Cherie Thomas.
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1970 - GERALDTON GUARDIAN NEWSPAPER REPORTED
15th October 1970
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Photo's David Rees collection.
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