Jack Brabham wins his first grand prix: the 20th Australian, at Port Wakefield circuit in South Australia in 1955
Jack Brabham among competitors in the Australian Grand Prix in open saltbush country at Port Wakefield circuit in 1955.
Future world champion Jack Brabham, in a streamlined Cooper T40 Bristol, won his first grand prix – the 20th Australian event – at the Port Wakefield circuit, in October 1955.
The race, with 22 starters, over 80 laps of the 2.09 km circuit and a crowd of a few thousand (including a 21-year-old Glen Dix), was open to Formula Libre cars of unlimited capacity. Lap times for the circuit were around the one-minute mark, with Brabham and Reg Hunt (Maserti A6GCM), who gained pole position, sharing the fastest at 1:03.0.
The race was promoted by Brooklyn Speedway (SA) Ltd. and organised by the Sporting Car Club of South Australia. Port Wakefield’s Australian grand prix was the first on a purpose-built circuit after the previous 19 were held on closed streets, country roads or airfields.
The Port Wakefield circuit – the first purpose-built in Australia after World War II and only the second in Australian history – was created out of necessity in 1953, with the South Australian government banning motor racing on public roads two years earlier after a spectator was killed. The ban stayed until 1985 when the Adelaide street circuit was created for Australian grand prix as a round of the Forumula One world championship.
Port Wakefield circuit, in open saltbush country a kilometre east of the town, was small in an era of three- to four-mile circuits. When South Australia’s turn came to again host the Australian grand prix in 1961, the Port Wakefield circuit was declared inadequate and the 3.38 km Mallala race circuit was created.
With part of its structures used to create Mallala, the Port Wakefield circuit faded quickly back into the saltbush. Its last race meeting, organised by the Austin 7 Club of South Australia, was in May 1961. In 2019, the 32ha Olson Road property including the Port Wakefield 1955 grand prix circuit site was sold for $90,000 to an interstate buyer at auction.
