48 :OLD BIKE AUSTRALASIA
Brisbane Exhibition Grounds Speedway
A face full of dirt
and a heart load of memories
‘EKKA’ SPEEDWAY
I wasn’teven school-age when dad would hoist me
on his shoulders and off we’d go for a night of thrills
and sensations that would dazzle a small boy and
forever stamp its imprint into his DNA. I quite literally
grew up with the howl of the JAP and Offenhauser in
my ears and the intoxicating scent of Castrol R and
methanol in my nostrils, so that even now, that
sound and that smell transports me straight back to
Saturday night at the Ekka Speedway. Considering the
proximity of the Ekka to the Royal Brisbane Hospital,
it was remarkable that something as ear-shattering
as Speedway was even permitted, but I suppose that
was an age when we were far less prone to the
dubious art of complaint and litigation.
The oval track was surfaced in decomposed graniteIf anyone is to blame for a lifelong addiction to the song of race
engines at full cry and the tang of racing fuel, I lay it squarely on
the shoulders of my father. We lived in the inner-city suburb of Spring
Hill, within walking distance of the Brisbane Exhibition Grounds – the
‘Ekka’- the Saturday night venue for Speedway as promoted by the
venerable Frank Arthur under the banner of Empire Speedways.which the broadsiding bikes and cars sprayed and
flung in great clods at spectators who chose to sit up
close to the action. Regular watering of the track
throughout the programme added a certain glutinous
quality to the flung granite and as it happened, this
provided the ingredient for a source of illicit
souvenirs. In an era before the visors and pull-offs of
today, riders and drivers alike wore multiple pairs of
light, anti-gas goggles left over as war surplus. As a
set of goggles became plastered, they would be
peeled off to expose a fresh set beneath. By night’s
end there were clagged-up goggles aplenty and I
would keep an eagle eye out for any in close proxim-
ity to the fence where we were sitting. When the last
race ended, and the track closed, disregarding the➢StoryGary Edgar
An England versus
Australia test heat gets
under way in front of a
packed grandstand.
Stock car action; ‘Penelope’
mounts a trackside oil drum.