small block V8 engine, similar to a Sprintcar engine and although designed primarily for racing on Liverpool's paved oval the cars competed on dirt or clay around the country including at the Newcastle Motordrome north of Sydney, Parramatta City Raceway in western Sydney, Rowley Park and later Speedway Park in Adelaide, Claremont Speedway in Perth, Premier Speedway in Warrnambool, and Archerfield Speedway in Brisbane. One of the speedway management's biggest promotions was to annually bring a team of four sedan drivers from America to race at Liverpool in test Matches against the Australian drivers. American drivers such as Gene Welch, "Big Ed" Wilbur and Rodney Combs became regulars in Australia and the action on the track was often described as "World Championship Wrestling on Wheels". The test matches took place both on the dirt track and the pavement with the usually good natured crowd totally against the visiting Americans. Despite the change in track surface from dirt to asphalt, Speedcars, Sprintcars and other car categories continued to race at the speedway with the track hosting the Australian Speedcar Championship in 1976 and a round of the three race 1977 Australian championship. In 1975, Mike Raymond and his promotions partner Frank Oliveri attracted then three time Indy 500 champion A. J. Foyt and fellow Indy racer Mel Kenyon to Liverpool to race in VW powered Speedcars in the 21st Australian Speedcar Grand Prix. Foyt passed Kenyon for the lead in mid-race after Kenyon almost spun on oil and tapped the fence. Kenyon still finished 2nd while the USA made it a 1-4 result with Larry Rice and Garry Patterson being the only other drivers to finish on the lead lap. The attendance for the Grand Prix was around 10,000. Foyt returned to Liverpool for the 22nd Australian Grand Prix in 1976 along with fellow Indy 500 winner Johnny Rutherford and fellow Americans Ron "Sleepy" Tripp and Hank Butcher. All four Americans, along with most of the field, drove the VW powered cars. A.J. Foyt was again the winner this time passing local hero and National Champion George Tatnell in the dying laps. Tatnell was driving his controversial Winfield sponsored "Wedge" Speedcar powered by an off-set Offenhauser engine. Despite Tatnell's over 10 years of racing speedway until that point, his relative inexperience at running on paved ovals compared to Foyt showed when his tyres went off while Foyt was able to keep