250px | |
Location | Melbourne, Victoria, AUS |
Time Zone | GMT+10 |
Capacity | 45,000 |
Opened | 1962 |
Major Events | World Stock Car Championship Round of Australia (1988 - 2004, 2017 - present) Pacific Championship Melbourne GP (1984 - present) Calder Park 150 (1988 - present) Formula One Australian Grand Prix (1980 - 1984) Champ Car Hungry Jack's Australian Grand Prix (1998 - 2002) |
National Circuit (1985 - present) | |
Surface | Asphalt |
Distance | 1.417 km (2.280 mi) |
Turns | 9 |
Thunderdome (1985 - present) | |
Surface | Asphalt |
Distance | 1.119 mi (1.801 km) |
Turns | 4 |
Banking | Turns - 24° Front straight - 4° Back straight - 6° |
Combined Circuit (1985 - present) | |
Surface | Asphalt |
Distance | 4.216 km (2.620 mi) |
Turns | 15 |
Calder Park is a motor racing circuit in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. The facility includes a multi-configuration road course, a dragstrip and a high-speed banked oval (known as "The Thunderdome") that can be run both clockwise and counter-clockwise. The track currently hosts the Supercheap Auto 300 for the WSCC on the Thunderdome and the Melbourne Grand Prix for the Pacific Championship, one of the premier events in that series.
History[edit | edit source]
Calder Park Raceway was founded in the farming community of Diggers Rest; it began as a dirt track carved into a paddock by a group of motoring enthusiasts who wanted somewhere to race their modified Holdens. The inaugural meeting on the track was run by the Australian Motor Sports Club and took place on 14 January 1962. The track design was very similar to the existing Club Circuit, which is still in use today.
In the early 1970s, the circuit not only hosted road racing but was a mainstay on the drag racing tours. The infield would soon be modified to form part of a new Rallycross track. The 1.609 km (1.000 mi) circuit was increased in length in 1986 to 2.280 km (1.417 mi), though the short circuit still remains in use for motoring clubs.
Road Course[edit | edit source]
The Calder Park road course has two configurations: the 1.609-km (1.00 mile) club circuit and the 2.280-km (1.417 mile) national circuit.
The club circuit resembles the original layout of the course, and some variation of it has been in use since the track first opened. While it has was only run by two major racing series - Formula One held several non-points exhibition races on the track in the early 80's, and the Pacific Championship has run here since its inception in 1977 - it has seen significant use by enthusiast clubs and racing schools over the years and was briefly used as a karting circuit.
The national circuit, also commonly referred to as the Grand Prix circuit, broke ground in 1985 as part of multiple facilities upgrades planned by track ownership, including the all-new Thunderdome, which would open in 1987. The extension included a significant change to the main straight, which was lengthened from 700 meters to just under 1 km in length while the final turn was moved forward. This made it so that the road course and the start of the drag racing strip were separate after long time complaints from drivers and bike riders that the start of the main straight was notoriously slippery due to it also being the start of the drag strip, especially in the wet. Lengthening the straight also gave the drag strip a longer runoff and slow down area.
The road course has seen facilities upgrades in 1997 and 2006, along with a complete repave in 2009.
Thunderdome[edit | edit source]
The Thunderdome is a purpose-built 1.8 km (1.1 mi) quad-oval speedway located on the grounds of Calder Park Raceway. It was originally known as the Goodyear Thunderdome to reflect the naming rights sponsorship bought by the Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company.
With its "double dogleg" front stretch and the start/finish line located on a straight section rather than the apex of a curve, the Thunderdome is technically a quad-oval in shape, though since its opening it has generally been referred to as a tri-oval. The track, modelled on a scaled down version of the famous Charlotte Motor Speedway, has 24° banking on Turns 1, 2, 3 and 4 while the front stretch is banked at 4° and the back straight at 6°.
The Thunderdome was completed in 1987, but can trace its roots back over twenty years. Owners of Calder Park Raceway traveled to the United States and visited the Charlotte Motor Speedway and Daytona International Speedway numerous times to gauge stock car racing's rise in popularity. With the World Stock Car Championship getting more air time on Australian television largely thanks to the influence of WSCC driver Ryan Nemarluk, in 1981 track promoters struck a deal with Jack Crawford, the head of the WSCC, to bring stock car racing to Australia and plans were laid out for a high banked oval adjacent to the existing Calder Park Raceway.
Ground first broke for the track in 1983 and it took four years to complete. It was built at a cost of A$54 million. Due to the lack of such knowledge in Australia, during construction track officials were forced to bring in engineers from the USA who had experience in building high banked speedway ovals. The Thunderdome was officially opened by the Mayor of the Keilor City Council on 3 August 1987.