Terry Walker's Place

10 January 2012

The First Hill-Climb

Today the Speed Event Series - a programme of circuit sprints and hill-climbs - is a big feature of the Western Australian motor sport scene, attracting large fields.

Although hill-climbs were prominent in European motor sport scene from the very earliest days, the first official Western Australian speed hill-climb wasn't held until 1916. The venue was on Welshpool Rd, using a section now bypassed, and renamed Crystal Brook Road. The length chosen was 2 miles, starting perhaps a little before the "new" Welshpool Road sweeps to the left. The finish was at the top, past what is now the Crystal Brook Garage. The organisers and promoters were the RAC, then still a Car Club rather than a service organisation.

For the contemporary newspaper report, CLICK HERE

Introduction

This site is about Western Australian road racing history - and to a lesser extent other Australian road racing matters.

I have written two motor racing books - Around the Houses, a History of Motor Racing in Western Australia 1902-1979; and Fast Tracks, an Atlas of Australian Motor racing Circuits 1904-1994. I am busily writing a third, Around the Raceway, which is basically a sequel to Around the Houses, starting with the opening of Wanneroo Park (or Barbagallo Raceway as it later became) in 1969 and running through to 2009, the 40th Anniversary of the circuit. (I have also written another book, Murder on the Rabbit Proof Fence, which doesn't fit in with the theme of this site but there is a brief page on it as well.)

Around the Houses is out of print, but a CD-ROM edition exists and is available, and can be obtained through Pit Stop Bookshop on-line. Fast Tracks is now out of print. There is a bit of a blurb on Around the Raceway inside this site. I am contemplating the possiblity of putting Fast Tracks out as a Kindle e-book (.mobi format) and generic .epub.

A substantial part of the site consist of detailed results of Western Australian race meetings from 1901 to the present day. This is a work in progress, but the bulk of the job is now done: everything I already had or could find since is now uploaded. There are, inevitably, a lot of missing items, specially before 1969. Nevertheless, I figure that the results of about 90 percent of all the races run in WA are now on-line. The period covered is 1901-2010.

Under "Articles" you will find lists of winners of WA State Championships, winners of WA rounds of the Australian Touring Car Championship, and winners of the 300 km races, and associated data like Lap Records.

In the spirit of the site: The webmaster,.
back in the good old days, long hair,
sideburns, moustache and, yes, flares! 1975.