A Melbourne complex built around a high-banked NASCAR-style oval, a road circuit and a drag strip, with a history that runs from dirt-track racing to Formula One.
Calder Park Raceway is a Melbourne motorsport complex with a road circuit, a drag strip and the Thunderdome oval, which opened in 1987. It hosted NASCAR races in the late 1980s and the Australian Grand Prix from 1980 to 1984.
Calder Park Raceway is a motor racing complex in Melbourne, Victoria, with three distinct parts: a drag strip, a road circuit with several configurations, and the Thunderdome, a high-banked oval. The oval was built for stock car racing in the 1980s and has not hosted a competitive event since 1999.
How did Calder Park begin?
Calder Park Raceway grew out of a dirt track in the farming community of Diggers Rest. Local enthusiasts carved it into a paddock so they could race their FJ Holdens, and one of them, Patrick Hawthorn, owned a petrol station in Clayton that gave him a reason to be involved.
The opening meeting, on bitumen, was organised by the Australian Motor Sports Club on 14 January 1962. Its layout closely resembled the existing Club Circuit, which is still used today, and the entry included Bob Jane in an Autoland Jaguar 3.8, Norm Beechey in a Holden, John Wood and Peter Manton in a Mini Cooper.
In the early 1970s the track passed to Bob Jane, a Melbourne tyre retailer and motor racer, who took it in a more ambitious direction. The infield became part of a rallycross track, and drag racing ran alongside the road course from the start.
A Melbourne complex that tried to bring NASCAR to Australia, hosted the Australian Grand Prix and still keeps a banked oval waiting.
How did the road circuit change?
The original road course was 1.609 km (1.000 mi) long. In 1986 it was lengthened to 2.280 km (1.417 mi), although the short circuit still exists as a separate configuration.
The main straight grew from 700 m (770 yd) to nearly 1,000 m (1,100 yd). The final turn, long known as Gloweave Corner, was moved forward by about 75 m (82 yd). This separated the road course from the start of the drag strip, which had been a problem because the start of the straight was slippery in the wet, particularly where drag racing began.
The longer straight also gave the drag strip a larger run-off and slow-down area. Such changes mattered to drivers and motorcycle riders who had complained for years about the surface.
The facility also changed its name twice in public life. In 1982 it was renamed the Melbourne International Raceway, and during the 1985 round of the Australian Touring Car Championship, the broadcaster Channel 7 called it the Keilor International Raceway.
What is the Thunderdome?
The Thunderdome is a purpose-built quad-oval speedway of 1.801 km (1.119 mi) on the grounds of Calder Park. It was originally called the Goodyear Thunderdome after the tyre company's naming-rights deal, and it is usually described as a tri-oval because of its twin-bend front stretch and a start-finish line set on a straight section.
The track was modelled on a scaled-down version of Charlotte Motor Speedway. Its turns 1 to 4 are banked at 24 degrees, the front stretch at 4 degrees and the back straight at 6 degrees. Jane had visited the United States many times to see how stock car racing was growing there.
That research led him to a 1981 agreement with NASCAR's leader, Bill France Jr., to introduce stock car racing Down Under. Construction began in 1983 and took four years, at a cost of A$54 million. Jane personally contributed more than $20 million, and because local expertise on high-banked ovals was scarce he brought in engineers from the United States.
The Thunderdome was opened by the Mayor of Keilor City Council on 3 August 1987. Two weeks later the first race ran on it, although that event used both the Thunderdome and the existing National Circuit.
When did NASCAR first race at Calder?
The first race on the Thunderdome was a 300 km Group A touring car event, taken by John Bowe and Terry Shiel driving a turbocharged Nissan Skyline DR30 RS. It is still the sole Japanese car victory there.
The first race to use only the Thunderdome was the AUSCAR 200, held a week before the Goodyear NASCAR 500. Terri Sawyer, an 18-year-old driver, won the 110-lap race in a Holden VK Commodore, and the top five were all Commodores. Greg East's pole time of 33.2 seconds equated to 195.28 km/h (121.34 mph) on average.
The Goodyear NASCAR 500, on 28 February 1988, was the first event to run solely on the oval. Its distance was 500 km (310 mi), roughly the length of a Busch Series race rather than a 500-mile American event, and it was broadcast by the Seven Network and ESPN.
| Date | Event | Notable result |
|---|---|---|
| 14 January 1962 | Inaugural meeting on bitumen | Run by the Australian Motor Sports Club |
| 3 August 1987 | Thunderdome opened | Opened by the Mayor of Keilor City Council |
| 28 February 1988 | Goodyear NASCAR 500 | Bonnett won in a Pontiac Grand Prix |
| December 1988 | Christmas 500 | Morgan Shepherd won by four seconds |
| 1999 | Last Thunderdome events | Entries collapsed across AUSCAR and NASCAR |
Who took part in the 1988 NASCAR race?
The Goodyear NASCAR 500 drew some of Australia's leading touring car and speedway drivers, along with imports from the Winston Cup. Bobby Allison, fresh from a third Daytona 500 win two weeks earlier, was among them. Neil Bonnett, Kyle Petty and Dave Marcis came too, along with Harry Gant and Michael Waltrip.
Richard Petty set an unofficial lap record in a test session before the race. His 28.2-second lap at an average of 142.85 mph was about six-tenths of a second faster than Bonnett's pole time. Bonnett took the flag in a Pontiac Grand Prix, with Allison second in a Buick LeSabre and Marcis third in a Chevrolet Monte Carlo.
A heavy crash on lap 80 took out six cars, including the Australians Dick Johnson and Allan Grice. Grice broke a collar bone after hitting Johnson's car at high speed, and he had been unable to slow because his brakes had failed, a problem he had described to the television audience only laps earlier.
The race was the first NASCAR event held outside North America, and the crowds encouraged a return, with several of the same drivers back for the Christmas 500 in December 1988. Johnny Rutherford joined the lineup, and Morgan Shepherd won by four seconds from Sterling Marlin.
What was the AUSCAR series?
The Australian Stock Car Auto Racing series used right-hand drive cars built on Falcon and Commodore bodies. Engines were capped at 5.0 litres, which let teams run Holden's V8 or Ford's 302, and early XF Falcon runners used the 351 Cleveland.
Unlike NASCAR, AUSCAR cars raced clockwise on ovals, including the Thunderdome and the half-mile Speedway Super Bowl at Adelaide International Raceway. Brad Jones was the series' most successful driver, winning five straight championships from 1989/90 to 1993/94.
Jones then switched to NASCAR and claimed the Superspeedway Series at his first attempt, in 1994/95. The Thunderdome's final events came in 1999, when entries collapsed for both AUSCAR and NASCAR. By 2023 reports described the oval as still drivable, though no competition took place on it.
Did Formula One race at Calder Park?
Between 1980 and 1984 the Australian Grand Prix was staged at Calder, and then it went to Adelaide's street course on the Formula One calendar. The 1980 event accepted Formula One, Formula 5000 and Formula Pacific cars, and from 1981 to 1984 it was limited to Formula Pacific and Formula Mondial machines.
Alan Jones won the 1980 race in the Williams FW07B that he later drove to the Formula One world championship. Roberto Moreno then dominated the event, winning in 1981, 1983 and 1984, and finishing third behind Alain Prost and Jacques Laffite in 1982.
Calder owner Bob Jane persuaded many Formula One drivers to race at the Grand Prix, including Niki Lauda, Nelson Piquet and Keke Rosberg, alongside Australian internationals such as Geoff Brabham and Larry Perkins. Prost and Moreno both won in Ralt RT4s powered by 1.6-litre Ford engines.
What other racing has used the site?
Calder staged a World Touring Car Championship round on 11 October 1987. It combined the road course with the oval, and the victory went to Steve Soper and Pierre Dieudonne in an Eggenberger-run Ford Sierra RS500.
The site was also the first in Australia to host Superbike and truck racing. The superbikes were kept off the 24-degree banked turns for safety, and their 1987 round used the flat apron instead, with cones marking the edge of the 4-degree front straight.
Between 1969 and 2001 Calder staged 25 Australian Touring Car Championship rounds, and Allan Moffat took the most wins there with five. For many years the drag strip also hosted the national drag racing championship, and legal off-street drag racing still runs on Friday nights when the weather allows.
The first Drift Nationals, held in March 2004, drew more than 8,000 spectators. The Australian National Drag Racing Association's national events stayed away for twelve years and returned in 2013 after a dispute between the governing body and the owner, but in 2021 it announced an annual series with Calder as one of five venues.
What happened to the road circuit after the oval?
For close to 15 years the road course sat idle through the 2000s and 2010s. By 2023 it belonged to Bob Jane's son Rodney, and repairs made it fit for club and state events under Motorsport Australia to restart.
More upgrades are on the list for the road course. Rodney Jane has also spoken of reviving oval racing at the Thunderdome someday.
The site's entertainment history includes a concert by Guns N' Roses on 1 February 1993. The day was very hot, and the concert was marred by a ban on bringing food, drink and sunscreen into the venue, which affected a diabetic teenager whose medication was confiscated.
Shuttle buses left soon after the band's final song, leaving many concertgoers stranded, and reports say some walked back to Melbourne. Ombudsman Victoria published findings in May 1993, and the concert remains the last ever staged at Calder Park.
The site has seen several eras of racing, from the 1962 opening meeting to the 1987 Thunderdome, and the road course and drag strip have continued to host smaller events throughout.
