Motorsport in Australia
Australia hosts a round of many major international series, including the Australian Grand Prix, a round of the FIA Formula One World Championship, Rally Australia, part of the FIA World Rally Championship, and the MotoGP Australian Motorcycle Grand Prix.
Other international series, such as the World Superbike Championship, Speedway Grand Prix and Champ Car have held events in Australia.
In 1993 it was announced that from 1996 the Grand Prix would move to Melbourne at the Albert Park Circuit, replacing Adelaide as the host city.
They are Alan Jones (1985–1986), David Brabham (1990, 1994), Mark Webber (2002–2013) Daniel Ricciardo (2012–2022, 2024-) and Oscar Piastri (2023–).
Australian Formula 3 has been the name applied to two distinctly different motor racing categories, separated by over twenty years.
Cameron McConville is the Category Director, with Karl Reindler as Driver Coach and Driving Standards Observer for the championship.
Consequently kart racing has a variety of administration bodies each holding their own national, state or local competitions.
Will Power was the most successful of the five drivers who have represented Team Australia to date, with a best result of second in the feature race at the series' inaugural round at Brands Hatch in 2005.
In 1987, former motor racer turned multi-million dollar tyre retailer Bob Jane opened the AU$54 million Calder Park Thunderdome in Melbourne, the first NASCAR style high banked oval track built outside of the United States.
Initially races were held only at the high speed, 1.801 km (1.119 mi) Calder Park track, but soon also used the ½ mile Speedway Super Bowl located at the Jane owned Adelaide International Raceway as well as various road racing circuits on Australia's east coast.
The NASCAR and AUSCAR series proved popular with crowds over the summer months with capacity attendances of up to 45,000 at Calder and 15,000 in Adelaide.
[1] The other round was an on-off 500 km race held on a combined road/oval course at the Calder Park Raceway in Melbourne.
Originally only for Ford Falcons and Holden Commodores, the New Generation Supercar regulations, introduced in 2013, opened up the series to more manufacturers.
[12] After the 2015 season, Erebus Motorsport discontinued their use of Mercedes-Benz E63 AMGs and elected to run Holden Commodores, ending Mercedes short spell in the category.
As of 2020[update], the only models left competing are Ford Mustang GTs and Holden ZB Commodores.
[13][14] Mark Webber was part of the team which won the 2015 FIA World Endurance Championship, alongside Germany's Timo Bernhard and New Zealander Brendon Hartley.
Four Australian drivers have won arguably the world most prestigious motor racing event, the 24 Hours of Le Mans held on the Circuit de la Sarthe in France each June.
A round of the world series has been in Australia since 1989 and is held at the Phillip Island Grand Prix Circuit in October.
This has helped in the past Mick Doohan, Troy Bayliss and Anthony Gobert launch international careers.
In 2010 a split in Superbike racing saw the creation of a rival series called Formula Xtreme, later known as the Australian FX-Superbike Championship.
The Alpine is heavily promoted via a free to air and cable television documentary that screens both in Australia and around the world after each running.
The event was first run in 1985 and has been held under the International Sporting Code of FIM and the General Competition Rules of Motorcycling Australia since 1999.
[17][18] The event is usually held around the end of August, in the Australian winter, and covers approximately 5500 kilometres, mostly through the Outback in just over a week.
In May 2018, the series signed a three-year rights agreement with Boost Mobile that placed Australian operations under Cayzer and Paul Morris Motorsport.
[21] Later that year, however, CAMS suspended the series for safety reasons, and SST lost the ensuing legal battle.
[22][23] CAMS ended the ban in 2019 and forged a new commercial rights deal with Gordon to place Australian SST races under the Boost Mobile Super Trucks name.
While Boost Mobile head Peter Adderton claimed the new Supercars ownership Race Australia Consolidated Enterprises saw little value in the trucks despite their popularity, Supercars CEO Shane Howard argued ATA Carnet import laws might have prevented the trucks from returning.
Van Praag (1936), Bluey Wilkinson (1938), Jack Young (1951 and 1952 – Speedway's first dual champion), Jason Crump (2004, 2006 and 2009) and Chris Holder (2012).
Australian riders have also been successful in the U/21 Speedway World Championship with wins for Steve Baker (1983), Leigh Adams (1992), Jason Crump (1995) and Darcy Ward (2009 and 2010).
The first ever World Series Sprintcars (WSS) meeting was held in Perth at the now defunct Claremont Speedway on 1 December 1987.
