Rowley Park Speedway
at Brompton named Rowley Park[6] which was located only 5 km from the city and the original plan was for the land to be the home of soccer in South Australia.It was purchased by, and named after Ted Rowley, an English-born dentist who moved to Adelaide from Kalgoorlie in 1908 where he had forged a reputation as being Western Australia's best goalkeeper.Rowley Park also had a tendency to flood during winter as the bottom of "The Brick Pit" was below the level of the water table, which made playing soccer virtually impossible.In 1951 Watson sold the lease to former Sydney solo rider and speedcar driver of the 1930s, Alf Shields, who had moved his family to Adelaide.In 1953 the track surface was changed from shell grit and brick pipe clay to dolomite, which was ideal for both cars and bikes at the time.Unlike other American drivers or overseas solo riders who had raced in Australia until that point, whose fees had been paid for by various promoters ensuring they would appear at tracks around the country, Bonython was forced to pay Tattersall himself when others showed a lack of interest.At Rowley Park Craven would be regularly matched against the 1951 and 1952 World Champion, Adelaide's own Jack Young and would become a crowd favourite at the speedway.To supplement his income while living in Adelaide so he would be able to support his young family, Bonython also found Mauger work as a Truck driver.During his short time in Australia (he was killed in a crash in 1966 at the Santa Fe Speedway in Chicago), Davies compiled a remarkable record, especially at Rowley Park.Keen to further his interests in the art world, Bonython moved his family to Sydney and bought an art gallery and sold the lease on Rowley Park to a consortium of local former race drivers – Kevin Fischer, Cec Eichler, Rex Sendy and Ray Skipper, thus ending a successful 20 years as Rowley Park's promoter.After Bonython sold the lease he made a number of appearances at the speedway until it closed with people continually asking him to come back, though he was never tempted knowing that times had changed.He was also involved in some of the more spectacular crashes seen at the speedway, though luckily he didn't suffer any serious injuries at the wheel in an era when driver safety wasn't a major concern and major injuries or even death was accepted as just part of the sport (during the 1960s, an average of 1.9 drivers and riders lost their lives in Australian speedway each season).Rowley Park Speedway's long-time Clerk of Course was Glen Dix, who would later become internationally famous as the man who waved the checkered flag at the Australian Grand Prix during its years in Adelaide (1985–1995).Due to the growing number of complaints from residents about noise and the on-street parking, with some of the residents having friends on the Adelaide City Council who began placing restrictions on the speedway such as parking, noise and time constraints, as well as the track becoming too small for the faster cars appearing on the scene (primarily the Sprintcars which had evolved from the old Modified Rods), the speedway was closed after the 23rd meeting of the 1978–79 season, which was held on 6 April 1979.At Rowley Park's final meeting, the feature race winners were: Graham Mason (Stock Rods), Bill Wigzell (Sprintcar), George Tatnell (Speedcar), Tony Orlando (Saloon Cars), Leigh Wingard (Sidecar stars) and Lou Sansom (Solos).With cream covering his face, race suit and his special helmet complete with drawings of naked ladies, Bonython laughed and said "I didn't know Tatnell was there.These include: Additionally, Rowley Park hosted the Australasian Final as part of the qualification for the Speedway World Championship (Solo's) in 1979.Some of the competitors who raced at Rowley Park Speedway between 1949 and 1979 include: † – Deceased* Frank "Satan" Brewer was from New Zealand but Australian promoters billed him as being from the United States to bring in bigger crowds Final Season