Shortest road race circuit ever

Around 1947 motorcycle clubs in Adelaide managed to convince at least three district councils (and others!) that racing on public roads was a viable idea. Two meetings were held at Marion, the short circuit taking in a triangular block of sparsely populated suburban land that is now almost entirely taken over by the Marion shopping complex and it's attendant parking and service facilities.

Shortly before the event on the short circuit, the inaugural event was quite a bit longer, using the two long sides of the triangle, then running up into the foothills above Sturt Road and taking in a long rough straight of badly deteriorated sealed road across the side of the ridge, part of what is still known as Seacombe Road, then turning back close to the main South Road at Darlington on to the long down hill stretch of Diagonal Road with two slight curves in it's length, the lower one at Sturt Road, then on down to a sharp hairpin at Oaklands (Warradale). This lower section of road has been modified in recent years, the hairpin no longer existing as it was then.

Woodside also became a popular venue back in the Adelaide hills, but this circuit had the unusual feature of having to be run to avoid the railway which crossed through the circuit. I remember everyone standing around at the pit/start area with bikes on the line waiting for the start of the next race, while a steam freight waited motionless across the road, waiting for the signals to change! Lobethal had hosted races also, but I only remember attending a car race on this circuit just Post War.

But the Crafers Road Race was a miniature TT if there ever was one! In their quest for public roads that could be easily closed off without public disruption, someone discovered a small block of land on the side of the hill, behind the Crafers Hotel in the Adelaide hills, a rough measurement suggested about half a mile (1 kilometer) around. The circuit was ridden clockwise, the start/finish line was on a short straight that would have been lucky to measure 100 meters, the pits were on a very small vacant area on the outside of the circuit next to the start line, it may in fact have been just waste land at the edge of the road! From the start it was only a few metres into about a 100 degree turn into a rough down hill side street, getting steeper as it dived down into the lowest part of the circuit, where a shocking narrow right hander with a hedge and drop off on the outside, headed you up the steepest and roughest section to the highest point of the circuit, and the short stretch of part of the main bitumen road, which was the only real straight, braking hard around a turn and right on to the finishing line and the right hander into the side street, and the rough downhill section once more.

Looking back, it all sounds pretty crazy, but life was different in those days, and the race day was fine, actually quite hot, but shading trees lined most of the circuit above the level of the road and on the main spectator area on the smooth sealed straight. The roads here were, and still are, carved out of the side of the hills, with thick hedges in places, and generally speaking, speeds were not high, even on the short straight sections.

I only had two rides in the program, OHC Velocette mounted of course, in the 350 class, as I remember it, they were all scratch races, four or five laps. With a second and first to take home, I was a pretty happy rider, but not so the side car boys! Their first race was a disaster, with the road barely one outfit wide on the rough sections, the sealed straight was the only place that they had a chance to race, and they didn't even make it that far in the first race! Their practice session brought loud howls of protest, but eventually they lined up to race, four of them as I recall, and off they went into a mad fight to be first into the side street, where it became a mad mix up down the hill into the lowest corner, which was for them really the lowest point in their day, as they all finished up locked together, and down off the track and into the thick hedge – blackberry bushes as I remember!

One of the riders was on a brand new Norton, sporting the then new Roadholder telescopic forks, and I well remember his outburst when the outfits were finally hauled back into the pit area, his Norton with bent fork tubes and it's share of scratched paintwork. But the meeting went on, with token awards to the sidecar boys, and most riders voted it a great day, but it was never tried again! Although I seem to have a recollection of another event that was held in the same area, but on a longer circuit.

A look at the street map of the area today shows that the Crafers interchange on the freeway through the Adelaide hills, has altered the street layout somewhat, and while the Waverley Ridge main straight, and the short Hawthorn road uphill leading to it still exist, the short downhill side street off the start line, appears to have been cut off and become a court – so it couldn't happen today!