About Us
Track History
The opening race meeting for the Northam Police and Citizens Youth Club was held at the old quarry that was converted into a speedway track on March 27, 1965. The track’s opening race meeting attracted good fields on race cars and motorcycles, along with a solid roll up of spectators. Despite the teething issues to come out of the opening race meeting, the track had made an encouraging start.
Following the opening race meeting, the Northam Police and Citizens Youth Club ran for the next two years, and one of the highlight race meetings from this period was the Coca Cola Hot Rod Derby, held on September 11, 1966, and prizes were a $20 winner’s trophy and a case of Coca Cola for each of the placegetters.
In 1967, the Northam Police and Citizens Youth Club was renamed the Northam Hot Rod Club, as it continued to run Sunday race meetings for mainly hot rods, sedans, and motorcycles classes.
Five years after the track’s opening race meeting, the Northam Hot Rod Club on August 4, 1969, was excitingly granted a 10-year lease from the Northam Town Council of the unused quarry to run speedway race meetings.
.Over the years, the Northam Hot Rod Club continued to make steady improvements to its facility with the track running earthed banking and railway sleepers as its safety fence, and it also gained a lot of support – both competitors and spectators – from both locals and the out-of-towners. The latter being helped along due to the track’s proximity to Perth.
Off the back of the track’s continued growth, the Northam Hot Rod Club on February 17, 1972, was incorporated. That same year, Brian Lucy was the second person awarded life membership of the Northam Hot Rod Club behind the inaugural inductee Maud Emily Buckley (1970). Brian was one of the original designers and builders of the Northam Hot Rod Club track back in the mid-1960s. Apart from his ongoing support of the track, Brian helped many competitors build their race cars in Northam’s old Coca Cola factory. To say that Brian was a vital part in the early existence of the Northam Hot Rod Club track would be quite the understatement.
The Northam Hot Rod Club developed into one of the state’s leading regional tracks during the 1970s and was renamed Avon Valley Speedway, as it continued to attract good fields of Hot Rods, along with various sedan and motorcycle classes, as well as continued spectator support.
Come the 1980s, Avon Valley Speedway was continuing to blossom as a club-run track and it also held various Sprintcar race meetings, which included the running of the Kings of the Wings that attracted some of the state’s best Sprintcar drivers, such as Alf Barbagallo, Noel Bradford, and Ray Geneve, during the early 1980s.
By the time the 1990s rolled around, Avon Valley Speedway was on a comedown following the successful period during the 1970s and 1980s. Due to a range of issues, including ongoing committee issues, Avon Valley Speedway grounded to a halt as a club in 1997 and the track was consequently closed.
During the late 1990s, Rod Howe, a businessman who dabbled in Sprintcar racing, and his partner Rita Harris purchased the lease of the facility from the Northam Town Council in 1999, and it consequently spelled the end for the Avon Valley Speedway Club, as they had struggled to find common ground with the new owners and the club folded.
Upon taking over the lease of the Avon Valley Speedway facility in the late 1990s, Howe ambitiously announced that he will be moving the track from its existing site 100 metres south and then spent the next two years bringing these ideas to life. This new track was 400 metres in length, it had significant banking with a new surface, and a state-of-the-art safety fence and track lighting for the period, and upon the grand opening race meeting on October 21, 2000, Howe and Harris were optimistic about the facelift to speedway in the Northam area
For the Howe-Harris duo and Avon Valley Speedway it was certainly a rocky road from beginning to end. He ran selected race meetings every season during the next decade, which included running Saturday nights as opposed to Sunday afternoons. Avon Valley Speedway hosted two Western Australian Titles for Late Models that were won by Brad Blake (2004-05) and ACT’s Scott McPherson (2007-08), as well as SEG Series rounds for the open Sprintcars that saw Americans Dean Jacobs (2005-06 season) and Chad Blonde (2007-08) and American-based Australian Kerry Madsen (2009-10) score wins.
At the end of the 2009-10 season, the Avon Valley Speedway facility was closed by Howe and Harris, and it then sat dormant for the good part of five years.
The Avon Valley Speedway track fired back into life for the 2014-15, and it was met with plenty of enthusiasm, but it never really got going, as the ensuing seasons saw its fair share of hardship, which included race meetings cancelled due to a lack of nominations.
In the latter years of the Howe-Harris promotion of Avon Valley Speedway, the track was used as a practice track for some of Western Australia’s leading Sprintcar teams. In May 2014, a private track hire session was held, and it saw V8 Supercar racers Chaz Mostert and David Reynolds get behind of the wheel of a Sprintcar. The following year, fellow V8 Supercar racer Shane van Gisbergen took one of the Kendrick Racing team Sprintcars for a spin around the Avon Valley Speedway track and thoroughly enjoyed the experience.
From 2014 through to 2019, race meetings held at Avon Valley Speedway were held seldomly by the Howe-Harris promotion. These limited race meetings featured good fields of Formula 500s and 360 Sprintcars.
In December of 2019, it was announced that Avon Valley Speedway was sold by the Howe-Harris promotion to businessman and Production Sedan racer Rick Musarra. Following this announcement, Musarra and his team had been working hard to update the track’s facilities – everything from track to the spectator facilities. Musarra also went about changing the name of the track from Avon Valley Speedway to the Northam Motorplex.
After five years of toiling away, Musarra made the decision, which was two years in the making, to turn the Northam Motorplex into a non-for-profit organisation and is currently in the process of merging with the Perth TQ Car Club and relaunching the track as Avon Valley Speedway.
When it comes to the Perth TQ Car Club, to say that it has a rich history would be quite the understatement. The PTQCC is based in the south of Perth in Western Australia, formerly associated with the Bibra Lake Speedway until its demise, now associated with the rebirth of Avon Valley Speedway.
The PTQCC has an extensive history, being formed in 1956 – TQs, or Three-quarter midgets were called the ‘working man’s race car’ and later evolved to become Formula 500s, which continue to race today. PTQCC’s first race meeting was an ‘around the houses’ race at Mandurah, in conjunction with the Coastal Motorcycle Club. Other race meetings were run in country towns such as Wagin, Narrogin, Kojonup, Katanning, Beverley, Northam, Kellerberrin, Merredin and Burracoppin.
In 1958, the PTQCC took over the running of the speedway track opposite Clontarf Boys Home in Manning. Land was purchased near the Jandakot Airport, and the first of two tracks were built by the members. The first race meeting at this site was held on the 6th of October in 1963. In 1965, due to airport improvements which increased the water table in that area and made the track prone to flooding on a regular basis, the members decided to build the second track at Bibra Lake on higher ground. Members raced on this track at Bibra Lake until its forced closure in March of 2004.
As a result of the forced closure of Bibra Lake Speedway and disposal of associated assets, the PTQCC was in a relatively strong financial position. They originally planned to source land to build and operate their own speedway once again. However, with suitable land very hard to come by and with a lack of government support given the recent at the time investment in the Perth Motorplex, the direction changed to support regional speedway. The plan was to fund high paying regional events to dwindle the club’s bank account. It was initially estimated that it would take 10 years for the club to run out of money; however, 20 years later after operating predominantly from Kellerberrin Speedway, along with Narrogin Speedway and some other facilities, they remained in a strong financial position.
At the recent PTQCC AGM (June 2025), a new committee was elected including Rick Musarra as President and Carl Della as Vice President. Other committee members have extensive experience in speedway management and operations.
Excitingly, the PTQCC is once again committed to operating their own facility by taking over the lease of Northam Motorplex. Everyone understands that a considerable amount of time and resources will be required to get the facility back up and operational, however they feel this would best achieve with the PTQCC, along with their 60+ years of history.
