Calder Park Thunderdome
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The Thunderdome is a purpose-built 1.8km (1.12-mile) superspeedway located on the grounds of Calder Park Raceway in the outer suburbs of Melbourne, Australia. It was originally known as the Goodyear Thunderdome to reflect the naming rights sponsorship bought by the Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company.
The track is a tri-oval shape, with a 24-degree banking on Turns 1 and 2.
The Thunderdome was completed in 1987, but can trace its roots back over twenty years previously when Australian motorsport icon Bob Jane, owner of Calder Park Raceway, traveled to the United States and visited Charlotte Motor Speedway and Daytona International Speedway numerous times to gauge stock car racing's rise in popularity. In 1981, Jane struck a deal with Bill France Jr. to bring NASCAR racing to Australia and plans were laid out for a tri-oval at the existing Calder Park Raceway.
Ground first broke for the track in 1983 and took four years to complete. It was built at a cost of $AU54 million - almost completely funded by Jane - and was opened by the Mayor of Keilor City Council on August 3, 1987.
The first race on the Thunderdome was held just two weeks after its opening, although the track used incorporated both the Thunderdome and the pre-existing National Circuit. It was a 300-kilometre event for touring cars, with John Bowe and Terry Sheil in a Nissan Skyline taking first place - to date the only time a Japanese car has won a race held on the Thunderdome.
The first race that used only the oval was on February 28, 1988, a nationally-televised NASCAR event which featured some of Australia's top touring car drivers as well as a slew of imports from the Winston West Series, including Bobby Allison (who had won the Daytona 500 that same month, giving the Thunderdome race a big publicity boost), Neil Bonnett and others. This was the first time a NASCAR event had been staged outside North America.
The Thunderdome also played host to numerous AUSCAR events until that series ended in 2001. AUSCAR was unique in that the cars were right hand drive - based on Ford Falcon and Holden Commodore chassis - and raced clockwise around the circuit.
