Beach racing was convenient the world over. Find a place where the tide recedes way out and leaves a nice flat, wide, hard expanse of sand and you have a race track. Daytona, no doubt, is the Grand Daddy of all beach circuits, spawning NASCAR and long distance motorcycle racing here in the States. South Australia is blessed with the right kind of beaches and Sellick's Beach was the best. In 1900 they formed a competitive hillclimb that went from the Sellick's Pub to the top of Sellick's Hill. It was popular and grew to the point where the event interfered with through traffic so they moved down to the beach and started real racing. In it's heyday they had 10,000 spectators attend and this is just a little 3K long paperclip track. It was predominantly a motorbike track. In 1925 an American, Paul Anderson showed up at a speed meet and went 125mph on an 8-valve Indian, claiming the one way speed record for Australia. In 1934 they started having bigger car races and it continued to 1953 when local paved road courses took over. They now have a Reunion Race annually attended by bikes and cars. My good mate Eric Cossich races his Flying W Wolsley Special at tracks all over Australia but loves his local beach race.
Sellick's Beach Race Track, 20 minutes south of Adelaide.
First corner action.
Bald tyres must have been the ticket on this sand track.
Levis at speed.
You know the old story about water going down the drain the wrong way in the southern hemisphere, well the tracks suffer the same ailment.
Big Allard Caddy vs. Maserati GP .
One of the early big draws was a battle between just two cars, an Amilcar and an Austin 7 Special.
Eric giving it all she's got.
Wide, hard expanse of sand. The very tidal Sellick's Beach.
I remember coming here as a kid. A large group of friends would gather before the tide came rushing in and when it did we would wade in the rushing water spearing crabs that flooded in with the tide.
I was very young and remember being terrified as the crabs would bang into your feet in the fast current and it freak me out. Once the water got more than a foot deep the fun was over.
