Ghosts in the Bull Pens: A Speedway Racing at the Sydney Showground Royale

by: Tony Loxley, Dennis Newlyn

Ghosts in the Bull Pens: A Speedway Racing at the Sydney Showground Royale - purchase the book from the Automoto Bookshop website (click here).

Forewords by Bryan Cunneen, Jim Airey, Doug Robson and Steve Raymond (OAM)
Over 350images covering the years from the '20s to 1996.
Due for Christmas 2011 ! ! !

Book Description

The Sydney Showground Speedway had a mystique about it that no other race track in Australia was able to reciprocate. From its early beginnings in the '20s to its final race meeting on 27 April, 1996, this hallowed and daunting race venue captured the imagination of competitors and race fans around the world — simply put, there was nothing like it — anywhere.
Today however, the majestic and monolithic Clock Tower still oversees this historic venue, now home to Rupert Murdoch's Fox Studios, yet despite the fact that much of the original venue is now hidden behind industrial and office facades, and the once lethal, narrow racing oval now removed to make way for a footpath, the aura of this amazing venue still echoes with the roar of racing engines, and the smells of burnt methanol, cooking hamburgers, chips in the fryer. Pluto pups, and of course, the murmurs and cheers of the massive crowds who freauented the track throughout each summer racing season for six, wonderful decades.
Gone too is the annual two week extravaganza of the Royal Easter Show, but if the imagination is allowed to run free, the specter of the Bull Pens turn, the race track's most lethal corner, is still present; so too, perhaps, the ghosts of the 29 riders and drivers who were lost racing at this imposing speedway.

About the Authors

Historian Dennis Newlyn, who covered the halcyon days of the '60s and '70s as a journalist for the periodicals and newspapers of the day, and who was a leading magazine publisher at the time, and publisher Tony Loxley, who attended on many occasions as a spectator and later photographer, have put together a treasure trove of images and memories of this much lamented venue that allows the reader to drift back into the past, and relive those glory days of racing at the Sydney Showground Royale that continues to mean so much to so many.

Liverpool City Raceway: The Place of Pace 1967 - 1989 (signed by the author)

Liverpool City Raceway: The Place of Pace 1967 - 1989- buy the book from the Automoto Bookshop



This edition is limited to 1000 copies individually numbered and signed by Tony Loxley.
Book Description

The colour, the excitement and the magnificent contribution Liverpool City Raceway made to Australian speedway history has been captured in a new book soon to be released by author Tony Loxley.

Titled Liverpool City Raceway: the Place of Pace 1967-1989, this book covers the incredible era of the venue in 352 gloss pages of words and superb photos.

"Originally I only wanted to do 220 pages, but soon found that the quality of images and fantastic interest from former competitors ensured that more pages needed to be added ... and more, and more," Loxley explained.
"There was something unique about Liverpool that no other track was able to duplicate ... and I've been to most of them.
"No racetrack matched Liverpool in relation to the publicity it gained throughout its lifetime. It may have run for only 22 years, but it had an impact around the world like no other... and it was a quarter-mile track in the outskirts of Sydney.
"Who would have thought this track in a place called Green Valley could have pulled such enormous crowds week in, week out right up until it closed its gates in 1989?
"The Sydney Showground Royale was the most cherished of Australia's speedway venues, but in all honesty, Liverpool was right behind it. The fact that it went from a flat dirt track, to a high-banked pavement surface, and then back to a high-banked clay surface -and stayed successful, will never be repeated again."
"Mike Raymond's words are just brilliant ... he has told the Liverpool story just like it was.
"The Place of Pace - in my opinion - is the finest work ever put together on Australian speedway racing, and is certainly my favourite book thus far. The track had an enormous impact on my life, and was the source of some of my most cherished childhood and teenage memories," Loxley concluded.

- Total images within publication: over 900 - all scanned from the original David Cumming negatives in High Resolution

- Written contributions from:

USA — AJ Foyt, Johnny Rutherford, Mel Kenyon, Johnny and Billy Anderson, John Cooper (former CEO International Speedway Corp.), Dee Tattersall, Ron "Sleepy" Tripp, Ed Wilbur, Gene Welch, Pam Bennett, Bobby Schwartz, Dennis Sigalos, Chuck Jones, Steve and Randy Kinser and George Snider.

UK — Peter Collins (MBE), Bill Landels, Bert Harkins, Howard Cole and Nigel Boocock.

AUST — Jim Airey, Greg Kentwell, Trevor Harding, John Langfield, Ricky Day, Dave Mills, Phil Herne, Bert Kingston, Phil Crump, Craig Boyce, Paul Ash, Barry Pinchbeck, Barry Graham, Howard Revell, Kevin Park, Michael Meyer, Brooke Tatnell, Steve Brazier, Gordon Smee, Peter Crick, Jack Porritt, Bob Blacklaw, Geoff Grocott, Doug Robson, Tony Bennetts, Bruce Maxwell, officials Tom and Betty Stewart, Ray Millerd, Clive Pollett, Wally Kermond, Dick Briton, Bob Tunks, Doug McQuinn, Gordon Rundle, Garry Pollock, Ron Hutchinson, Allen Skene, Owen Bateman, John Harvey, Allan Moffatt, Bobby Baker, Graham Young, David House, Dave Wignall, Peter Taunton, Frank Van Sebille, Brian Callaghan, Doug Tyerman, Phil McCurtayne, Bob Levy, Bill Wigzell, Garry Treloar, Gary McLenahan, Carl Askew, Peter McKay, Steve Raymond (OAM), Phil Christensen, Dennis Newlyn, Peter White, Bob Christie, Sid Hopping, Walter Giles and Jim Winterbottom.

NZ — Ivan Mauger (OBE, MBE) and Mitch Shirra. Sweden — Ove Fundin. Denmark — Ole Olsen. 

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