golf ball out of a bucket with 1 of 6 numbers written on it, which gave them their starting lane position. Around 1984, the starting hill was moved to the south west corner of the track. The track had fences with advertising signs and was very professionally operated. In the early 1980’s, a tour was organized for group of American riders who toured the country and raced at the venue. Stu Thompson, Greg Hill and Perry Kramer raced at Metro West at various times. One event at Metro West had a $10,000 pro purse which was the highest purse in Australian BMX history at the time. The end By 1989 the speedway was under threat by the so-called urban sprawl, and this led to the reluctant closure of the venue to make way for new housing and a shopping complex now known as the Valley Plaza and for Winnall Reserve, Rugby League Fields,the home of Hinchinbrook Hornets. With the Sydney Showground Speedway at Moore Park not hosting weekly meetings after the 1979/80 season, and Liverpool closing in 1989, this left the more Sprintcar focused Parramatta City Raceway at Granville (opened in 1977) as Sydney's only active major speedway. The bikes continued racing at the poorly attended Nepean Speedway in north western outskirts of Sydney, but otherwise many Sydney based riders such as Craig Boyce, Mick Poole and Stephen Davies were forced to use the popular Newcastle Motordrome as their home track. The Motordrome, which itself closed in 2002, was located approximately 175 km (108 mi) north of Sydney in Newcastle. Currently most Sydney and NSW riders use the motorcycle only Loxford Park Speedway in Kurri Kurri as their home track. Classes of Racing Sprintcars Speedcars Grand National Sedans Stock Saloons / Super Sedans Solos Sidecars BMX Compact Speedcars GP Midgets Figure 8 racing Demolition Derby Stunt Shows Speedway World Finals World Pairs Championship 1982 - United States (Bobby Schwartz / Dennis Sigalos) - 30pts Famous Competitors Jim Airey () (solo) Grenville Anderson () (sedan) † Paul Ash () (grand national sedan) John Boulger () (solo) Steve Brazier () (sprintcar) Dick Britton () (sprintcar/super modified) Brian Callaghan () (sedan/speedcar) Kenny Carter () (solo) † Peter Collins () (solo) Rodney Combs () (sedan) Gene Cook () (grand national sedan) Peter Crick () (grand national sedan) Phil Crump () (solo) Max Dumesny () (sprintcar) Johnny Fenton () (speedcar) A. J. Foyt () (speedcar)