How Bordertown has announced itself to the speedway world
After a special story of a community banding together, the 2024/25 Brandt Sprintcar Speedweek is coming to Bordertown’s Tolmer Speedway.
Tonight the second round of the 2024/25 Brandt Sprintcar Speedweek will be held at the small South Australian town with a population of around 7000.
Incredibly it will be the town’s first sighting of sprintcars for six decades.
It’s a special story as recently as 2019 the Bordertown Speedway Club announced that it was winding up because of increasing costs and difficulty attracting volunteers.
But after support from the whole town, a revamped oval replicating the I55 Speedway in Missouri has been created in around two and a half years and it will be the attention of the sprintcar world tonight.
Tolmer Speedway Secretary Lauren Nelson explained the reasoning behind the inspiration.
“My partner, Wayne Rowlett, who’s the President of the club, he has done a bit of racing overseas and in America,” she told Auto Action’s Andrew Clarke.
“He spoke to some of the drivers, and that is the track that is the most exciting and probably appropriate for where we are located in Australia, as well.
“That’s how we came to choose that track.”
Nelson said council and government support have played a big part in making it happen, but also remarkably support from the locals.
“It was probably the engineering and getting the track surface right. That is something pretty important in a speedway track,” she said.
“The banking, just the hours and hours of land claims and equipment to build it was probably the most challenging, long part and also with the weather, you can’t do much when it’s wet.
“The council is actually really supportive. Getting funding was also challenging.
“We heavily relied on donations from farmers and local people for the time and also the diesel to keep the machines running, to get it started.
“Once everyone saw we were pretty serious, then we were able to be successful in a grant application to the government.
“The community has been overwhelming. We have had a lot of young people, young kids that have just dedicated after-school holidays, before school, and the excitement in the whole town in our region has been overwhelming.
“That’s what a lot of people comment on and just can’t believe how this community has banded together to get this track built.
“Without it, we really would not have a track.”
As a result, drivers, locals and many more cannot wait for tonight’s historic meeting.
“The excitement has been overwhelming, to be honest,” she said.
“Everyone is absolutely pumped that we have given it a crack, and I think in a speedway world, where we are seeing a lot of tracks close, and I personally can understand how that does happen, it is very exciting.
“I think Bordertown is very well located between four really solid, well-run tracks.
“Geographically, we are in a good location, and everyone is very excited.
“The format will be quite simple with our track.
“It will be short, sharp, and shiny, the way we run our race meeting, so that people can get back on the road.
“I think they are very excited.”
A street party will be held at 12.00 before gates open at Tolmer Speedway at 15.30 before cars hit the track at 18.00.
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