Longford was the fastest motor racing circuit in the Southern Hemisphere.

Its four and a half miles consisted of sharp corners linked by long straights that were simply country roads lined with thorny hedges. There was a Flying Mile, a high speed jump over a railway crossing, a hairy kink beneath an unforgiving brick viaduct, two rickety wooden bridges and a right hand turn around a well patronised hostelry in the middle of the town. A Boag’s Beer sign hung out over the track. Lex Davison once crashed into the pub, jumped out of his car and headed straight for the bar. He didn’t have any money so the regulars shouted him a drink anyway.

Even better was the tale of Don Miller who by mistake pulled in for a beer a lap early while leading a major motor cycle race. It took him years to live it down.

The Longford stories did not end there. It was not unknown for race practice to be stopped unexpectedly to allow an unscheduled train to cross the circuit. On another occasion late night revellers set fire to one of the wooden bridges on the track. Only a huge community effort in the early hours, that involved fighting the flames from dinghies, saved the structure so the racing could go on next day.

Pedro Rodriguez, BRM V12 March 2nd 1968.

Airborne, 1959 AGP

The Longford parties were legendary as well. This long weekend, you see, wasn’t just about racing. Tasmania’s Sunday Observance Act of the time prevented racing on the Sabbath so the drivers and riders enjoyed Saturday night together in grand style then followed it up next day with a country lunch of substantial proportions.

Such was the challenge of Longford – the track and the parties were probably equal in this regard – that it attracted the great drivers of the era: Brabham, Clark, the two Hills, Stewart, Hulme, Rodriguez, Amon, McLaren, Courage, Irwin, Salvadori, Jones, Davison, Gardner, Matich and John Surtees who is the only man to win both Formula One and Motorcycle world championships.

Great riders came too – Duke, Redman, Carruthers, Osborne – sometimes on factory motorcycles that blitzed the locally prepared machines. It all started in 1953 with a small meeting that set the scene for some 15 years of competition for the world’s finest drivers and cars, riders and their racing bikes. In the end, however, it became too dangerous and in 1968 the organisers called it a day.

The control tower came down and the spectator mounds were flattened. The bulldozers moved in and cut a road straight through the middle so a lap of the great Longford circuit was no longer possible. The bridges are gone but the pub and viaduct, however, remain.

Footage courtesy of Libraries Tasmania

Circuit Type - Road Circuit

Circuit Length - 4.5 miles / 7.24km

Location - Around the historic Longford township, 25km south of Launceston in Northern Tasmania

Years of Operation - 1953 to 1968

Fastest Lap - Chris Amon Ferrari 330P4, lap record of 122.19 MPH, top speed of 184 MPH. The fact file has Spencer Martin for the top speed, but he said the timing was wrong as the Ferrari 250LM he was driving was only geared for 167 MPH. A similar problem occurred when Alan Osbourne was timed at 164 MPH on his works Yamaha 250cc 4 cylinder, he said it was geared for 147 MPH in 1966.

Top Speed - The Longford Speed Record: In 1965, driving David McKay's famous Ferrari 250LM, Spencer Martin was clocked down the Flying Mile at a blistering 183.6 mph (295.5 km/h). This stood as an all-time record through the Longford speed trap.

Key Events - Australian Grand Prix in 1959 and 1965, Tasman Cup races in the 1960s, numerous Australian TT titles, club sprints.

Chris Amon’s fastest lap speed in 1968 stood as an Australian record until the first AGP in Melbourne in 1966.

More than 15% of Tasmania’s population turned up to the first race meeting in 1953.

The most popular car to race at Longford was a locally made sports special called the Purple Petrol Eater which had a body made of papier mache. Its driver, Kerry Cox, wore a purple satin driving suit topped with a purple helmet. The suit still exists, the car does not!

Chris Amon's fastest average speed for one lap lasted for 28 years, until the AGP Formula One races went to the Albert Park Lake venue in 1996. It was not the first AGP held at that circuit, others being 1953, and December 1956.