Some of my fondest memories as a young boy growing up in Adelaide, are from when my parents would take the family on a Friday night to the Rowley Park speedway in what is now the inner suburb of Brompton.
The speedway ran continually for thirty years during the speedway seasons of normally October to April from its opening meeting in December 1949 until its last meeting in April 1979.
They were pretty wild nights and were my first contact with live motor racing up close. There was the usual sprint cars, sedan, and motorbike racing, and to this day I still can’t understand what would make a person hop on the sidecar of a speedway bike, but the highlight of each season was when the Demolition Derby was held.
Now if you’re not sure what a demolition derby is, the simple way to describe it is a field of cars of dubious construction assembly in the middle of the track, and when the green flag drops, they all go for it, with no rules applied and the last man standing or moving is the winner.
This Top Gear US story from nearly 10 years ago, gives a great insight into the ancient art of Demolition Derby’s……
Demolition Derby – Top Gear US
Now if you think the Demolition Deby concept was crazy, every now and then at Rowley Park they also had the ‘Figure 8” race, which is exactly as the name suggests, instead of racing in an oval format the track was a figure 8 and my recollection of these races were they ultimately ended up as a Demolition Derby anyhow.
So, imagine my joy when I came across this vision of a Rowley Park Figure 8 race on steroids, which apparently was held in Saigon. Apologies for the and vision quality, but I’m sure you’ll get the idea and am confident you’ll watch it to the end.