Amaroo Park

Amaroo Park at a glance

Location

Annangrove, New South Wales

Type

historic circuit (defunct)

Length

1.93 km (1.199 mi)

Turns

10

Surface

asphalt

Opened

1963

Address

Annangrove Road

Track map and layout

Amaroo Park was a tight, hilly 1.93 km circuit built into a natural amphitheatre of farmland in Sydney's northwest, and its ten corners packed a huge amount of elevation change and camber into a short lap. Cars and bikes climbed away from the start/finish straight, crested the rise known as Bitupave Hill, then dropped through the fast Dunlop Loop before Honda Corner and a run down to the notoriously tricky, off-camber Stop Corner, one of the most demanding low-speed corners on the Australian calendar. The circuit's compact, undulating layout made it a favourite with spectators, who could see much of the lap from the natural hillside banks, and with drivers, who rated Dunlop Loop, Honda and Stop Corner as the best overtaking spots on the track despite its short length.

Named corners and sections

• Bitupave Hill. The uphill crest early in the lap, one of the circuit's defining elevation changes.
• Dunlop Loop. A fast, sweeping section regarded as one of the best passing spots on the circuit.
• Honda Corner. A tightening corner named for a major sponsor, another key overtaking point.
• Stop Corner. A tight, off-camber final corner considered the toughest on the lap.

Configurations

Events and race weekends

Amaroo Park's last meeting, the "Goodbye Amaroo" open event, was held on 23 August 1998, and no racing has taken place there since; the site was sold and redeveloped for housing within a few years of closing. During its active decades the circuit hosted rounds of the Australian Touring Car Championship (1974-1978 and 1985-1994), the Australian Drivers' Championship, the long-running AMSCAR sports sedan series (1971-1993), the Australian Super Touring Championship (1996-1997) and the Castrol 6 Hour production-car enduro from 1970 to 1987.

Getting there and parking

The former circuit sits on Annangrove Road at Annangrove, in Sydney's semi-rural northwest, close to Dural and about 40 km from the Sydney CBD. There is no venue to travel to and no visitor programme; the site is now large residential blocks, though the old raceway entrance and clubhouse building are still visible from the road. Sydney (Kingsford Smith) Airport is the nearest airport with scheduled flights.

• Sydney (Kingsford Smith) Airport (SYD) · about 60 min drive

Parking

Not applicable: the site is private residential land with no public racing facility to park for.

The large Amaroo Park sign and the former Amaroo Country Sporting Club building still stand near the old entrance on Annangrove Road; the clubhouse now operates as a roadside Indian restaurant.

Hotels and camping near Amaroo Park

There is no event to plan a stay around, so Amaroo Park does not need circuit-specific accommodation advice. Anyone visiting the area would look at Dural, Castle Hill or Rouse Hill, all a short drive away and with the closest range of motels and larger hotels; the immediate Annangrove area is semi-rural acreage housing with no accommodation of its own.

Where to look

Castle Hill and Rouse Hill have the nearest concentration of hotels and motels; Dural is the closest township but has limited accommodation.

Track days, driving experiences and lap records

Amaroo Park has not hosted any racing or public driving activity since its August 1998 closure, and the site is now entirely residential land, so there is no track-day or driving-experience programme of any kind.

Lap records

Spectator guide

There is nowhere to spectate; the natural hillside banks that once let crowds watch most of a lap for free, and the grandstands built up around them, were removed when the circuit was demolished for housing in the years after 1998.

Seating

None remain; the circuit relied heavily on natural grass embankments rather than large grandstands.

History of Amaroo Park

A private dream becomes a national venue

Amaroo Park (the name is an Aboriginal word meaning "beautiful place") began as industrialist Oscar Glaser's vision for a broader motorsport and leisure complex at Annangrove, in what was then semi-rural land northwest of Sydney. The circuit opened on 16 November 1963, but poor facilities and thin crowds forced it to close within a few years, in mid-1968. The Australian Racing Drivers Club took over management and reopened the venue on 31 May 1970, and under the ARDC's stewardship Amaroo Park grew steadily into one of Sydney's two major permanent circuits alongside Oran Park.

Decades of touring cars and Castrol 6-Hours

Through the 1970s, 80s and 90s, Amaroo Park's tight, undulating 1.93 km layout hosted fifteen rounds of the Australian Touring Car Championship between 1974 and 1994, along with the Australian Drivers' Championship, the popular AMSCAR sports sedan series and, from 1970 to 1987, the Castrol 6 Hour production-car endurance race, one of the biggest fixtures on the Australian motorsport calendar. A chicane was added in 1984 to slow motorcycles after a fatal accident, and the circuit briefly hosted the Australian Super Touring Championship in 1996-97.

Squeezed out by Sydney's growth

By the 1990s Amaroo Park was competing for major events against the purpose-built, government-backed Eastern Creek Raceway (now Sydney Motorsport Park), and encroaching suburban development around Annangrove brought growing noise complaints. When the Australian Racing Drivers Club ran into financial trouble promoting the Bathurst 1000 in the late 1990s, it sold Amaroo Park for around A$4 million to recover some of the loss. The final "Goodbye Amaroo" meeting was held on 23 August 1998, and the circuit was soon bulldozed for large residential housing lots. Today little remains beyond the original entrance signage and the former clubhouse, which now trades as an Indian restaurant beside Annangrove Road.

Frequently asked questions

Other tracks nearby

• Sydney Motorsport Park · 18 km · road course
• Sydney Olympic Park Street Circuit · 25 km · historic circuit (defunct)
• Oran Park Raceway · 44 km · historic circuit (defunct)
• Catalina Park · 59 km · historic circuit (defunct)
• Newcastle East Street Circuit · 113 km · historic circuit (defunct)
• Mount Panorama Circuit, Bathurst · 130 km · street circuit