Albany Speedway Club revs up to celebrate 60 years of racing history and growth with anniversary event

One of WA’s premier speedway clubs will honour six decades of motorsport with an action-packed anniversary celebration this weekend, culminating in a special 60-lap for 60 years race. Albany Speedway Club will mark its milestone birthday at the Atwell Park venue with a cocktail dinner on Friday night — during which the new clubroom displays will be unveiled, historic memorabilia displayed and a legacy tribute screened. Saturday will see the season opening with a twilight meeting starting at 2.30pm, headlined by the 60-lap race in which drivers will compete in pairs. Initial moves to establish a club began in 1962, with the first official race at the George Street track, then known as Albany Hot Rod Club, conducted on November 14, 1965. In 1972, the name was changed to Powerline Speedway due to the abundance of powerlines in the vicinity before it landed on its present name — Albany Speedway Club at Atwell Park — in 1979, undergoing significant expansion and improvements in the years since. Among those to know plenty about the track is speedway veteran Mike Kinnear, who has been racing at the venue on-and-off for about 46 years. “I’ve had a lot of breaks in between and I’ve retired more times than Johnny Farnham and made more comebacks but it’s good that the club’s lasted that long,” he said. “It’s got a lot more professional now compared to what it used to be. “Back in the old days, used to just wear your work overalls and work boots, and didn’t even have tear-offs — we just used to have these little clear goggles that you put three of them and pull off and if it didn’t last for three well, that’s bad luck.” He said the facilities themselves had undergone a huge change as well. “It’s a first-class facility, one of the best in the country and it’s come a very long way,” Kinnear said. “When we started we had a wooden fence that would break when you crash into it so, yeah, there’s massive changes. “The members over the years have done a fantastic job, a lot of work and effort is still going on.” ASC chairman Calon Ball said he had been involved in the club since he was “knee high”, continuing a family legacy started by his grandfather who also raced. “I think it’s a pretty huge testament to the history of the club and the people in the club that we’re now in our third and fourth generation of membership, where some of the founding members are still involved in the club,” he said. “And we’ve also got the new ones that are, you know, 60 years down the track, ready to take it on and continue forward,” he said. “There’s not a lot of places around like that, that I feel still have that sort of engagement.” Ball said as well as fostering a strong community atmosphere, the club had served as a breeding ground for national and State champions — including Katanning-born multiple State and national champion Kye Blight. “This (the 60th anniversary) is a different event because usually you come here and you’re trying to run as good as you can, but I think it’s more about the history of the sport and how cool it used to be and how far it’s come now,” Blight said. “I think you lose sight a little bit, because obviously racing so much, it’s good to step back and be like, A. we love this deal, and B., there’s so many people that set the groundwork for us to actually come out here and have some fun and I think it’s nice to repay their hard work with this event.”