Liverpool Speedway was once a world-famous racing venue, attracting cars and drivers from around the world as well as tens of thousands of spectators.
The Place of Pace Liverpool Speedway 1967-1989 – which opened last week at Liverpool Regional Museum – is a five-month exhibition featuring memorabilia and flashbacks to when Liverpool was a speedway mecca.
The speedway was founded by a local family and became a huge drawcard for the city.
Three-time Liverpool Mayor and local businessman Frank Oliveri founded the speedway in 1967.
At the height of its success, it was co-owned by legendary Australian motorsport commentator Mike Raymond of Channel 7, who also wrote reports of the previous weekend’s racing for the local paper, the Liverpool Leader.
He had a brilliant turn of phrase that he employed regularly in his reports, from calling Liverpool Speedway “the place of pace’’, to where you went to see “the stars of the tar’’.
“It put Liverpool on the international stage, attracting competitors and of course tens of thousands of spectators,” says current Liverpool mayor Ned Mannoun.
In a major win for the Liverpool City Raceway management and promoters, the track was awarded the 1982 Speedway World Pairs Championship Final.
It would prove to be the only time in the 26 years of the World Pairs Championship (1968-1993) that it was ever held outside Europe.
One of the cars that raced at the speedway – a Compact Speedcar owned and raced by three-time Australian champion and Australian Speedway Hall of Fame inductee Ron Hutchinson – is on show at the new exhibition, as is memorabilia from the Oliveri family.
“We thank the Oliveri family for not only founding Liverpool Speedway and well and truly putting Liverpool on the international stage, but for keeping all this material and lending it so generously,” Mayor Mannoun said.
The exhibition features videos of the speedway in action, advertising material, a speedway car and a speedway bike, driver’s outfits and other items
Full details of the exhibition can be found at https://mylibrary.liverpool.nsw.gov.au/My-Library/liverpool-regional-museum
