'70 - '71 track champion Peter 'The Camden Cowboy' Crick's blue Pat Cullen Motors #49 Monaro was amongst the best presented cars running anywhere at the time, setting a bench mark for the sedan division. Crick had been one of the early standouts since the opening of Liverpool in 1967, having his first race in a '38 Stock Rod. He also ran occasional shows at the Sydney Showground and elsewhere and was considered amongst the top ten sedan drivers. After the Monaro he switched to an LJ Torana XU-1 sponsored by McGrath Holden, once again this car was exceptionally well presented. He finished second to David House in the 1972 ASCF national title, that year held at Liverpool, also winning the prestigious Craven Filter Championship. He also spent some time in the USA and raced at a number of tracks including Roseville and West Capital.

Next season the title went to 'Big Bad' Rick Hunter in a GT Falcon (Above), reinforcing the view of the time that big V8s were the way to go. One of his biggest wins was the inaugural Malboro Grand National in 1971 driving Alan Butcher's HG Holden. Hunter began his career in a Stock Rod, progressing to an early model Holden for saloon car competition and then into a couple of Falcon GTs. The prize in the '71 - '72 championship included a new Holden Torana. Hunter, then sponsored by Peter Warren Ford, took the cars value in cash instead.

With the forming of the Australian Saloon Car Federation in the late sixties and a set of rules being formulated for saloon car racing these type of cars began to distance themselves from the crash and bash Stockcar era. However many clubs allowed local interpretations and clubs in two states, Victoria and South Australia, remained separate from the ASCF for many years.

At Liverpool the NSW Production Sedan Car Club was the local club and their name signalled their original intentions. That meant that at the start of the decade the cars were essentially production cars with little modification. In a short period the rules were opened up to allow greater freedoms, however cars still had to be available on a show room floor in Australia, be right hand drive and be run with the same type of engine as they had rolled off the production line with. Supercharging and turbocharging were allowed. Strengthened flared guards were common and were to be limited to 3 inches, this limit was one rule mostly ignored. These were known as either Open Saloons or Modified Saloons.

The changing rules resulted in Peter Graham's (Right) silver #82 Galvinising Services supercharged Mini. Graham was amongst the first to see the possibilities of racing a Mini, maximising the advantage of the cars light weight and nimble handling to run the inside line as the rear wheel drive cars slid up track in the corners, he took out the track championship in '72 - '73, backing up again in '73 - '74. Many titanic struggles were witnessed between Graham's front wheel drive 'brick' and the heavies in their V8s and six packs.

Yet the decade, for Liverpool and its competitors, must be viewed in two parts. Up to the end of the '73- '74 season the track was dirt surfaced just as almost every other speedway in the nation was (exceptions at that time being Portland in Victoria and the 1/2 mile oval at Adelaide International Raceway S.A. which were asphalt, later Latrobe Speedway in Tasmania joined them).

In the winter of 1974 the track was ripped up and converted to asphalt with banked corners. This bold move by the promotor, Frank Oliveri, was the catalyst of change in the sedan scene on the east coast for the rest of the decade and beyond. The 1/2 mile Fraser Park (formerly known as Tralee) in the ACT went asphalt as well and pavement ovals were touted as the way of the future. This spelled the end of cars such as Graham's Mini as its advantage disappeared with increased grip for the bigger cars.

Most of the competitors in the early part of the first asphalt season ran what they had previously used on the dirt but with different tyres, springs and shocks. However as the season moved along lightweight pavement only cars began to appear with several leading drivers and car owners announcing that they and their cars would only compete on tar from then on. Driving the #47 P & R Performance supercharged six cylinder Torana Brian Callaghan (Right) took out the first Liverpool pavement series. Callaghan had only in the recent past taken up speedway, at first on dirt but he realy took to the black top. He scored a double in the Marlboro Grand National in '75 and '76 as well as big races at Fraser Park.

Within a couple of seasons major differences between the 'pavement cars' competing at Liverpool and Fraser Park and those running dirt tracks were becoming quite obvious. Under local rules flared guards were banned and greater freedom in car construction became the norm. This resulted in chassis being built up out of steel tubing dressed with light weight panels, often of fibreglass. This type of chassis construction is often refered to as 'space frame'. Lexen windshields and seemingly ridiculously wide tyres that jutted out from under enlarged wheel wells gave these cars a distinct look amongst speedway sedans of the time. Named after their signature event of the Liverpool season they became the Grand National Division.

Paul Ash, a western suburbs chicken farmer, rose to the top of the division for the '75 - '76 season, backing up with another title the following season. Ashie's two wins were at the wheel of a 2 door bodied Holden GTS Monaro (Left), the last Liverpool championship of the '70s won by a car a fan could call 'local' with a recognisable Australian body. The last three seasons of the decade saw winners driving American bodied cars. The popular Barry Graham, referred to as 'Captain Kangaroo' by visiting US drivers, behind the wheel of the Formula Mirage grabbed the title in '77 - '78 and

again in '79 - '80. Most of the front runners were now either Monza, Mirage or Corvette mounted. Graham was also a highly ranked speedcar driver. In between, Paul Ash, driving an Oldsmobile Starfire, took his third title for the decade.

Other notable regulars on the tar in the '70s at the 'Place of Pace' included Bruce Maxwell, Gordon Smee, Graham Oliver, George Elliot and John Gale. Many of these and the above drivers did not own the cars they raced but drove for owners who had the money to build or buy top line machinery. A share of the prize money between owner and driver being the usual arrangement.
But running one of these light weight pavement pounders was a two edged sword, on the one hand they ran for regular good prize money with great coverage in the national speedway press and even occasional coverage in main stream media such as the Sydney Morning Herald and Television sports reports. A packed house of 15,000+ was a regular occurrence for an Oz versus USA test match and many of Liverpool's finest were put at the pinnacle of sedan drivers of the time.
On the other hand the cars were unsuitable to race on dirt surface tracks and so were restricted to a small number of
	venues, hence the lack of results throughout the later half of the decade in national titles by drivers such as three time track champion Paul Ash and other Grand National drivers. Also running at Liverpool during the pavement era was the Early Models. These were mostly six cylinder Holdens and the class was designed to be an entry level series before stepping upto the Grand Nationals. Towards the end of the decade they became Production Sedans. Stand out drivers being Russ Armundsen (Left), Walter Giles and Col Robinson.
Below are listed the club pointscore winners for each season of the '70s. The list ends in 1980, and a word here on the speedway season at Liverpool. Liverpool, like the majority of eastern state tracks, ran their season from spring through summer with it ending in autumn, hence the spanning of two years per season. So the necessity of including the winner of the '79 - '80 season. This list is taken directly from the club roll of honour board, now amongst the memorabilia of the Linigen collection (Right) click on the image to view a larger version which also shows the winners of the Marlboro Grand National.

1970-80 NSW Production Sedan Car Club Champions, Liverpool City Raceway NSW