Start your engines…ready for the first car road race in South Australia.
The first official car race was held in Victor Harbor as a part of the state’s centenary celebrations.
The 1937 Australian Grand Prix is a name which has been applied retrospectively to the 1936 South Australian Centenary Grand Prix, a motor race held on the Port Elliot-Victor Harbor Road circuit on Boxing Day, 26th December 1936. The first to be held outside of Victoria and the first road race for cars to be held in South Australia.
It was organized by the Sporting Car Club of SA and promoted by the Centenary Road races limited of Adelaide. The Centenary Grand Prix was the largest such race held in the 3-year gap, between the 1935 one held at Phillip Island and the 1938 race at Bathurst.
Different to today’s races, the course was 7.8 miles, (12.55 km) and was only used for this one occasion. The race had 27 starters and was held over 32 laps, 250 miles, which is 400kms, on a road that was partly bitumen, but mostly dirt.
The bitumen section was narrow, and the organisers wanted a white line put down the middle to give the drivers a point of reference. So,a Mr Le Messurier and Mr King were given the task, which they did by taking the mud guard off the back tyre of an Austin Gordon, they applied paint to the tyre and driving slowly used the wheel as a paint brush. How ingenious! When they had finished, they drove the car into Victor Harbor and straight through the swing doors of the lounge at the Hotel Victor and gently knocking furniture aside, pulled up at the bar and ordered a schooner of beer and a squash! Such was the carnival atmosphere leading up to the great race. I don’t think you would get away with that sort of behavior today, do you?
The race attracted the best cars from all over Australia and over 50,000 paying customers came to the event. Could you imagine all those people converging on Victor Harbor back in 1936? What a coup for the town and district.
Twenty-seven entrants, including at least one woman, registered to compete for the prestigious Advertiser Gold Trophy, with the prize money being a grand £200 (appox. $400). A bit different to the prize money on offer in today’s races.
It had a handicap start, the slowest beginning first and it was open to factory-built cars as well as catalogue cars and consideration was given to other models as well.
To open the day races were held for motor bikes. The main bike race was run over 56 miles and had amassed start of 12 competitors. There were different categories of bike racing for the Touring Trophies on offer, Sidecars and 3-wheelers just to mention a couple. All of which provided the spectators with a brilliant exhibition of skilled riding. The Senior Touring Trophy was won by a South Australian, Foster, on a Norton. There was reportedly a lot of near misses which added to the excitement to start the day.
Then the main car race began. The cars raced clockwise starting from Pit Lane a paddock opposite Nangawooka, headed down Brick Kiln Road, which is now known as Waterport Road and then turned right into Pt Elliot. Racing up the Port Elliot Road towards Victor Harbor, they then had to make a right turn on what was named Hell Bend Corner, which took them on to the Adelaide Road, next they had to carefully navigate the Nangawooka Hairpin to continue the rest of their laps. Amazingly there were no major crashes, but some cars did skid off the road and rebound off the barriers protecting the spectators, adding to the thrill of the race. Others had carburetor or distributor troubles which were able to be fixed in pit lane and some needed tyre changes, but sadly others had to withdraw due to plug problems.
At around 3.45pm with 20 cars left in the race the chequered flag fell finally to announce that the race had been won by the pre-race favourite, Les Murphy, driving a MGP type / MG 0.8L with a handicap of 40 minutes. He completed the race in 3 hours 57 minutes and 36 seconds. The fastest actual running time though was completed in 3 hours 20 minutes and 17 seconds. It was completed by Ossie Cranston driving a Ford V8 off a handicap of 5 minutes.
In the Lion’s Information Bay on the way into Victor Harbor there is a plaque that commemorates the Centenary Grand Prix and shows the circuit that the drivers took in the race.
If you would like to find out more and see the collection of photos we have of the event, come into the National Trust Museum at 1 Flinders Parade, Victor Harbor.
