The W.A. Sporting Car Club is the longest established motor sport Club in the State and the senior Club promoting motor racing in Australia. The history of the Club can be traced back to 1927 and the WASCC has been involved in the administration of WA motor sport ever since.
As
far as we can tell, this Club has conducted virtually all motor racing and
associated competitions run in the State. Handed down as some of the folk lore
of the Club are stories of Hill Climbs being run up Mount Street in the heart of
Perth in the 1920s.
One of the first "circuits" used was a high speed track on a salt lake (Lake Perkolilli) near Kalgoorlie, where speeds in excess of 160kph were being reached even in the 1920s.
As interest in the sport grew, competitions - both race meetings and hillclimbs - began being staged on closed public roads. Generally races took place in country towns. Throughout the 1930s these events flourished, with probably the highlight of the year being the annual Albany Grand Prix. The only such event to be held in the Metropolitan area was the 1940 Patriotic Grand Prix run on the streets of Applecross, which was the last event run by the club before wartime priorities precluded further racing.
After
the end of WW2 in 1945 the WASCC rapidly re-organised and ran the Victory Grand
Prix on a makeshift circuit at the RAAF stand-by airbase at Caversham in Middle
Swan. Attended by 60,000 people on April 7th 1946 this was probably the first
race meeting run outside of Western Europe after war's end and certainly the
first racing run in Australia after peace was declared.
Until the 1960s the Club conducted races on street circuits in various country towns including Albany, Goomalling, Collie, Dunsborough, Bunbury, Northam and Narrogin as well as on various circuit combinations at Caversham. In 1956 the Club obtained a lease for Caversham, which was rapidly converted into a permanent track, using the sealed track connecting the aircraft parking bays as part of the circuit.
Racing on the country town circuits still carried on, but the bulk of the Club's activities were at Caversham. However, as the performance of cars increased, the road circuits became less viable for safety reasons. The final road circuit meeting was held at Geraldton in 1966.
The
Club had the honour of conducting the Australian Grand Prix at Caversham in
1962, in conjunction with the British Commonwealth Empire Games. A great deal of
money was spent on the circuit to bring it up to the required standard. Star
drivers such as Jack Brabham, Bruce McLaren and Bob Stillwell took part in the
fastest Grand Prix cars of the time. The meeting itself was a great success as
far as the organisation and racing were concerned. But the gate income was far
less than had been budgeted, and the Club ended the meeting heavily in debt to
local businessmen.
Faced with the choice of voluntary liquidation, or paying off the debt, the Club chose unanimously to follow the latter course. By the end of 1967 the debt had been paid in full.
Another challenge then arose when the Club was informed that the Commonwealth would resume the Caversham land for in 1968. This put the Club in a very difficult position, since they had to find land and build a circuit within the incredible short space of twelve months or less. Fortunately the Caversham area was to be handed over to the Department of the Army and the then Vice President, Max McCrackan had served with the Commander Western Command. Thus an assurance was given that the Club would be able to use the Caversham Circuit until the end of 1968 and salvage anything it could from the circuit following the close of the racing season.