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  *Comments on Calder Park Thunderdome:*
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  1.   RaceFanX posted:
  05.20.2012 - 12:59 am
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A rare NASCAR-style oval outside the United States, this was the first
track outside North America to host an official NASCAR race.

The Calder Park Thunderdome was built in the 1980s specificially to
bring NASCAR to Australia. The tri-oval track, which largely resembles
Charlotte Motor Speedway, hosted three NASCAR exhibition races between
1988 and 1990. The Thunderdome was also one of the first tracks to have
a naming rights deal, for several years it was known as the Goodyear
Thunderdome thanks to a deal with the tire company.

The Thunderdome was an expansion of the existing Calder Park Raceway
road course, a track which once hosted the Australian Touring Car
Championship (ATCC, it evolved into the V8 Supercars series). The tracks
can be linked together and were for a round of the 1987 World Touring
Car Championship.

The Calder Park oval is unique in that it is set up to be run both
counter-clockwise and clockwise (the latter is done when races are done
with local Aussie cars or when linked as part of the road course).


  2.   AnonymousEFR posted:
  04.22.2013 - 8:43 am
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Oval mostly sees speed testing, fairly low ranked events on the road
course today. Don't think the combined course sees anything.


  3.   RaceFanX posted:
  01.25.2014 - 11:57 pm
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Was the centerpiece of a domestic Australian NASCAR series that ran in
the 1990s (with some additional races on the street course at Surfer's
Paradise and, incredibly, Bathurst). Surplus Winston Cup cars were used
with most cars using American bodies alongside handful of
domestically-developed Holden Commodore stock cars.


  4.   RaceFanX posted:
  10.20.2014 - 9:29 pm
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When talking about this complex as a whole and the road course where the
V8 Supercars raced the correct name of this track is "Calder Park
Raceway." However "Calder Park Thunderdome" is still the correct name
for the oval where all the NASCAR races took place.


  5.   Unser1 posted:
  08.09.2015 - 10:17 am
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Track Location: Melbourne, VIC


  6.   Peter posted:
  05.27.2018 - 10:04 am
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During its heyday from 1988-2001, the tracks used by both NASCAR and its
Australian offshoot AUSCAR were:

Calder Park Thunderdome
Adelaide International Raceway (a half mile, 805 metre flat track oval)
Surfers Paradise Street Circuit (AUSCAR & NASCAR)
Eastern Creek Raceway (AUSCAR & NASCAR)
Oran Park Raceway South Circuit (AUSCAR & NASCAR)
Calder Park Raceway (AUSCAR)
Mount Panorama Circuit (NASCAR)
Barbagello Raceway (NASCAR)
Queensland Raceway (NASCAR)

The Thunderdome and Adelaide (both owned by Bob Jane) were the only oval
tracks they raced on in Australia, which kinda limited stock car
racing's appeal. Plans were announced in 1990 for a semi-high banked
half mile oval in Sydney (which was to be a conversion of the old
trotting track on the outside of the Sydney Speedway), and another in
Brisbane, but neither of these got past the planning stage.


  7.   GGDC posted:
  04.23.2020 - 1:42 am
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I found results for 3 of the remaining major Australia/NASCAR crossovers

1988 CHristmas 500
1990 Christmas 500
1994 USA vs AUS 200

They have been sent to the webmaster.


  8.   RaceFanX posted:
  05.23.2020 - 5:53 pm
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Speeds at the Thunderdome for NASCAR stockers were up in the 186 MPH/300
KPH range, more than 20 miles per faster their cousins the AUSCARs top
end around 165 MPH/265 KPH. AUSCAR ran road tires and smaller enginers,
thus the difference.


  9.   RaceFanX posted:
  10.01.2020 - 7:47 am
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After the success of the first 1988 exhibition here promoter Bob Jane
wanted to go all in on more NASCAR for the future. In addition to adding
a second NASCAR race that December with USA drivers and pushing to get
the Aussie NASCAR series off the ground behind the scenes he was
supposedly even attempting to try and get an actual NASCAR Winston Cup
Series points race held at the Thunderdome. That would have been an
amazing feat but ultimately that effort never went anywhere. NASCAR
showed little interest in promoting any international events here after
the track landed a $4 million sponsorship in mid-1988 from an
anti-smoking campaign which conflicted mightly with its Winston Cup
branding in this era.


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