Kerry Castledine at the Esperance Speedway.
From humble beginnings, the Esperance Speedway Club has seen a lot of changes since December 28, 1974, according to founding member Kerry “Casper” Castledine.
“The club’s journey over the last 50 years has been intense,” Castledine said. “It took quite a long time to get a local speedway built up in all these divisions, but it all came together.
“When the dust settled after the first meeting, local members were saying ‘how long is this going to go for’, nobody knew if we’d get through a season or two or ten. It was a good start, but we didn’t know how long it would last.
“Over the years there’s been lots of work done on the track and upgrades with the safety catch fence and the concrete safety fence masterminded by Des Plecas. There were always ongoing improvements, adding facilities such as the pits, clubhouse, canteen, toilets, public parking, a caretaker’s house and obtaining lights for night racing in the early 1980s.”
After racing at haphazard places such as Pink Lake and Bandy Creek, the ESC in agreement with the Esperance Shire Council was able to secure a large, abandoned gravel pit to the east of Shark Lake.
“It was a relatively short period of time, between a group of people getting together and deciding to start the speedway club and building the track and hosting our first race meet. We probably did 12 months’ worth of work in six!” Castledine said.
“We had to do everything to turn the gravel pit into a speedway facility. This included levelling, forming the race track, extending the footprint of the track and building the safety fence.
“A group of volunteers built the track from scratch, which involved very substantial earthworks. John O’Donnell, who ended up being the first president of the club, had an amazing network of contacts, and lots of earthmoving experience, and was the main driver of getting the track built.”
While finding it “impossible” to name everyone that was involved in the early days of the club, Castledine recalled some of the dedicated volunteers.
“We were a dedicated group of about two dozen locals, who were passionate about speedway,” he said.
“A few of the key ones were O’Donnell, Marcus Gray, Doug Bishop, Bain brothers, Les Western, Peter Kelman, Gavan Jones, Eddie Cartledge, the team from DND Pavers.
“And of course Jock Murray, AM Wreckers Group, having his tow truck and crew attend every single race event and the tradition continues with the current owner Gary Leeson.
“The date of the first race meet was set based on the suitability for getting racers from Boulder Speedway down.
“We worked flat out to get everything ready for that meet, but a lot of the basics were still incomplete by the time the race came around.”
The club’s first event turned out to be a screaming success held on what was described as a “beautiful day that was attended by half of Esperance” in which Castledine also raced.
“I raced an EH Holden with Marcus Gray at the first race meeting and we were so busy trying to keep our own car going!” he said. “I was just ecstatic that it had gone so well, everyone was a winner as far as we were all concerned.
“There was a full complement of competitors, including solo bikes, several divisions of cars and open wheelers, such as Supermods, Speed Cars and Formula 500s. The majority of cars and drivers racing that day came from Boulder Speedway, and there were some cars from Norseman. There were only a few local drivers.
“People enjoyed it so much that a spectator rolled his car on the way home, before he got onto the road. He was OK.”
Awarded life membership of the ESC in 1997, Castledine also turned his hand to the on-course commentator role after retiring from racing.
“We had a Super Sedan event, and the two fastest cars of the night were doing a two lap sprint to win a gold nugget,” he said.
“This night, the two fastest cars were Tim Stewart, a local, and another driver from out of town. “The visitor was an aggressive driver and had already proved to be a bit unpopular with the crowd.
“The two cars got the green light to start racing, and as they turned the first corner side by side, there was a bit of side swiping and they both came to a stop. It turned out Tim had a flat tyre. So, from the commentating box I asked if this meant that the visitor would win the gold nugget.
“Suddenly there was this huge ‘NOOOOOOOOO’ from the crowd, and I was flabbergasted that people were actually listening to me!
“I’m pleased to say though that they both continued on, and Tim won the nugget.”
Castledine is proud of the ESC’s place within the Esperance landscape, and how the club has been able to give support back to the community.
“Over the years we’ve hosted thousands of out of town drivers, and they’ve all contributed to the local economy,” he said.
“As someone who was there at the very beginning, I can’t believe the club is where it is today. It’s just great.”
