50 Years of Speed :: essays research papers

The Goodyear Thunderdome was the get-go purpose built Oval speedway remote of the continent of America. Construction started in November 1984 and it was officially opened by the city manager of Keilor on August 3rd. 1987 although it was christened by Americans Richard Petty, Bobby Hillin Jnr. and Rodney Combs along with local men Jim Richards,Graeme Crosby and Gary Rush. The first speed up was only a couple of weeks later when a ccc Km. Touring elevator car run away was run on the combined Oval/ passageway lick.The race was won by Terry Sheil and John Bowe in a Nissan Skyline(the only time a Japanese car has won on the Thunderdome) from the Commodore of Larry Perkins and Bill OBrien. Allan Grice had been quickest in practise with a dress circle of 1m.45.74s and he also set the fastest lap in the race with a time of 1m.46.17s. Later that year another race took note on the combined circuit and this was a round of the World Touring Car Championship.Pole position went to Klaus L udwig in an Eggenberger Ford Sierra with a 1m.42.92s entirely in the race it was his team mates Steve Soper and Pierre Diuedonne who took the honours from Emanuelle Pirro and Roberto Ravaglia in a BMW M3. The race was not without problems as it began to rain very heavily but before the start and so for the only time a race was run on the Thunderdome in the wet. The other feature was that the combined circuit goes in a clockwise direction (same as for AUSCAR) which was fine for the locals but not so good for the European Fords and BMWs. The first Oval skirmish was held on February 28th. 1988 and it was a mixture of Americans, mostly from the Winston West series,and Australians. A subsidy for the organisers was that just 2 weeks before the event Bobby Allison, one of the imported stars, won the biggest NASCAR race of them all, the Daytona 500, giving the Thunderdome a huge publicity boost.