SYDNEY (NSW)
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1925 - OLYMPIA MOTOR SPEEDWAYThe 1 mile banked concrete bowl that was known also as the Maroubra Speedway was built in 1925 and opened on the 5th of December 1925, It had the reputation as Australia's most notorious "Killer Track", Situated South of Sydney in a natural hollow in the Maroubra sandhills, this was an ideal area for the track as the natural landscape lent itself to a huge saving on the cost of earthworks, and the large population of Sydney was just down the road, once the track was completed claims of up to 70,000 spectators would attend race meeting. The track was that steep through the turns that it was quite impossible to walk up the track face, Snakes were a major problem as they would come out
during the heat of the day to soak up the suns rays on the race track "would have been a bit of a worry with no protection from another cars wheels flicking up a Dugite into the open cockpit"
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Five competitors would loose their lives in just two years during the 1929's, In 1927 the great Phil Garlick driving his super-charged Alvis, blew a tyre and rode over the top edge of the race track, hitting a light pole and died instantly.
Plagued with problems the venue closed in 1927, Long gone were those two only years of large crowds looking
on in amazement at the motorcycle racers reaching speeds of up to 100mph side by side on the big banked oval.
It has been claimed that the spectator capacity was set at 70.000 people.
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Hope Bartlett in a Bugatti roaring round the bank past Peter White's Fronty Ford in December of 1926.
(re-search Graham Edney)
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1926 - OLYMPIA MOTOR SPEEDWAY
Aussie Speedway Memories facebook photo feature
1926 - Photo: unknown
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1926 - MARIE JENKINS
Old Motor Racing Photographs - Australia facebook feature
1926 - Marie Jenkins sitting in her Bugatti Brescia that she took out her first big win at Maroubra. Photo: Fairfax.
Melbourne's Marie Jenkins raced at Maroubra's opening meeting in 1925, but sprung to promernence in 1926 when she won the Maroubra 5 mile handi-cap race, up against the like's of Phil Garlick, Alvis and Hope Bartlett.
Prior to her big win in 1926, Marie had rolled her race-car over at her first race meeting at the Aspendale Motordrome in 1925.
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Aussie Speedway Memories facebook photo feature
1930 - Photo: Tom Smith
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1930 circa - MAROUBRA SPEEDWAY. Flyover.
SYDNEY SPORTSGROUND SPEEDWAY facebook Photo feature.
1930 circa - MAROUBRA SPEEDWAY. - Photographer: Theo Purcell. from the Neville Scullion collection.
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1947 - OLYMPIA MOTOR SPEEDWAY
The track would later close, The concrete structure was falling apart and had become even more dangerous The venue sat vacant right up until 1947, when the land was resumed for housing. The infield area of the race track has been retained and turned into a park, That park being named Coral Sea Park.
Streets in the housing development have been named after Alied Ships used in the Battle of the Coral Sea.