Slice of old Grand Prix race track for sale in the South Australian scrub
Australian motor racing fanatics take note: a slice of racing history is up for grabs with a price tag that’s less than most luxury cars.
A 32-hectare block of land containing a portion of the race track that hosted the 1955 Australian Grand Prix – where Australian Formula One driver Sir Jack Brabham won the event for the first time – has hit the market with price expectations of between $80,000 and $100,000.
Sir John “Jack” Brabham, who died in 2014, went on to become the Formula One world champion in 1959, 1960, and 1966, later founding the Brabham racing team.
The Port Wakefield Circuit was only the second purpose-built motor racing facility in Australia, and was constructed in 1953 after the South Australian government banned motor racing on public roads (the ban was later lifted in 1985).
The property, at lot S2134 Olson Road, played host to its last race in 1961 before the block was subdivided.
However, an outline of the track is still visible from the air and evidence of the land’s former use can be found among the scrub.
It has most recently served as as a hobby farm for an elderly couple, who were based in Adelaide, one-and-a-half hours away by car.
“The lady who owns it is 95 years old. She recently moved into a nursing home. She bought it with her husband as a hobby block in 1974 to run a few stock on it,” said listing agent Nigel Christie, of Harcourts.
The couple had no connection to the property’s racing history, he said.
But Deane Hill was one of the spectators in the crowd when Brabham came first across the line in 1955.
“It was a great race,” said Mr Hill, who was seven at the time and remembers Brabham wasn’t the favourite to win that day.
“Jack Brabham always said ‘win the race at the slowest pace’.”
With an uncle active in the racing industry, Mr Hill made many visits to the track for weekend racing meets and has since been back to see what remains of the track. He later went on to become a motor racing driver himself and now restores classic cars.
Although the track was covered in bitumen, it was incredibly narrow, Mr Hill said.
“It certainly wouldn’t pass today as a circuit.
“We’d all like the track to be restored but the cost and rules make that near to impossible.”
He said the nail in the coffin for the track was its distance from major population centres and lack of facilities.
“It never really made a lot of money, because of the distance from Adelaide. It was a well-run country track, but you had to camp because there were no hotels or motels in those days.”
Mr Christie said the property – which doesn’t have any structures on it but does have water connected – would be suitable as a weekender, and that there was “certainly potential” to construct a dwelling.
“It could be a lifestyle block, for someone who wanted a hobby farm or a place for the kids to ride horses or a motorbike,” he said.
The property is being auctioned through the online property purchasing website Openn Platform, a method of sale fitting for such a unique property, Mr Christie said.
At the time of publication bidding was at $15,000, with the auction closing on August 9.
