AUSTRALIA’S best dirt track motorcycle riders will converge at the Hunter for the 2016 Australian Senior Dirt Track Championships at Barleigh Ranch Raceway, August 13-14.
The event will hosted at Barleigh Ranch for the second time in 10 years, and the third in over three decades.
Fans are expected to get a long overdue look at all of the nation’s best, gathered in the one place on the same weekend.
Riders from around the country will chase championship honours in two-, three- and four-wheeled competition.
While many of the participants in the championship meeting concentrate on dirt track racing, a title showdown often attracts riders from other disciplines of the sport.
Dirt track racing, formerly called short circuit racing, has a great history around the Hunter region with some of the most successful riders, most iconic tracks and most famous clubs in the history of this discipline of racing having come from this area.
Legends of the sport like Herb Jefferson, Greg Primmer, Keith Davies and Chris Watson all came from clubs in the Hunter region, and significantly two of them will be involved in the staging of this title meeting.
Davies is still involved being President of the host club, the Hunter Motor Cycle Club among his administrative involvement at national, state and club level.
Watson still ranks as the most successful rider in the history of dirt track racing in this country and through his successful motorcycle dealerships he has joined with Yamaha as naming rights sponsor for the championships to continue his support of the sport that he graced so prominently for over two decades.
Former venues like Hillview at Muswellbrook, Heddon Greta, Salty Creek and Cameron Park are today but a memory, but the Barleigh Ranch track has survived over more than three decades even though it has seen a change in who controls it.
Barleigh Ranch was originally operated by the Raymond Terrace Motor Cycle Club, which later joined with the Wallsend, Mayfield and the Newcastle Speedway Riders to form the Hunter Motor Cycle Club which operates to this day.
Dirt track racing remains a great spectacle for fans who can see the entire track, and when an Australian Championship is on the line fast, exciting action is guaranteed.
Historically dirt track racing has proved a great nursery for many of Australia’s best motorcycle exports over the past two decades.
Names like Casey Stoner, Troy Bayliss, Chris Holder, Darcy Ward and Jack Miller – they all started in dirt track and all acknowledge the enormous benefit their careers took from their early days on the dirt tracks.
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