About us

Club Constitution

Read the SDMA Club Constitution here

History

SDMA began life at a meeting on 16 May 2000 calling for people interested in establishing a club to resurrect a disused hillclimb track at Fairbairn Park. Tom Ballard arranged a meeting at the Wests Rugby Club at Macquarie. While only 34 people signed the meeting register, considerably more attended the gathering.

A Steering Committee was created to establish the club and its operational procedures. Paul Grelis, Michael Roach, Beb Fox, Dwain Wilson, Errol Richardson and David Yates put their hands up to be the steering committee.

The abandoned circuit had to be brought back to a usable state and the noise levels created by a hillclimb had to be within the limits of the ACT Government’s Motor Sport Noise Protection Policy.

The track had been established in 1982, but the bitumen surface stopped shortly after the dipper at the top of the track - the rest of the circuit was dirt. In the late 1980s the club then running the track hired a contractor to seal the rest of the current layout. There was a dispute between the club and the contractor over the resealing, which went to court. This led to both the club and the contractor going broke. The track was then taken over in the 1990s by a motorbike racing club. The track was once again abandoned for around five years after bike racing stopped.

The amount of work to bring the track back to usable and safe was enormous. Months of hard labour were needed to repair the track surface and fill washed-out sections that were big enough to swallow cars without trace. The work also included replacing toilets that had mysteriously disappeared just before SDMA took up its lease with the Fairbairn Park Control Council.

The tasks for the Steering Committee were many. Happily, it received assistance from the ACT Government, which gave $5,000 to cover some of the club’s establishment costs, and from the Brindabella Motor Sport Club. BMSC used its CAMS affiliation to help run a trial event on 23 July 2000, to establish that the level of noise generated was within the Noise Protection Policy. Fortunately, it was.

The steering committee set up the new club’s affiliation with CAMS, while returning the track to a standard that allowed CAMS to issue a track licence. The noise authorisation was also established, to allow noise credits to be used so events could be held at the track.

The first event competition event run by SDMA in its own right was held on 26 November 2000, just five months after the steering committee was set up.

After that first hillclimb, events began to be held on a regular basis. A club management committee was formally established, replacing the steering committee. The first club committee election was held in 2001. The club has been very fortunate over the ensuing years to have had dedicated committees to steer SDMA to the strong position it is now in and establishing it as one of the most active Motorsport Australia (CAMS) clubs in NSW.

The official track re-opening was on 8 September 2001. The then Minister for Education and Attorney-General, Bill Stefaniak, a long-time supporter of the club, opened the resuscitated venue.

The facilities at the circuit have significantly improved from that first event. In the early days, sausages were cooked under the old carport on a portable BBQ and trophy presentations were held in the same location. The club now has the comfortable Pit Stop Café, a great step forward. The only toilets were the old facilities at the bottom of the pit area and the timing tower was precariously balanced on top of four posts.

Lap times were initially written down on a white-board in the spectator area, a far cry from the current large display screens, thanks to Chris Hardy’s innovative IT developments. The toilets were improved with the installation of the facility close to the Pit Stop Café and a new, more efficient control tower built on top of a shipping container next to the start line.

The pit roads were all gravel, as were the return road and dummy grid – these are all now sealed. The run off areas on the track were initially very tight. All have been extended to provide greater run off areas and reducing the risk of damage to vehicles.

Until COVID-19 restrictions were imposed in April 2020, SDMA had only cancelled two events in its history – both due to bushfire emergencies. The first cancelled event was in January 2003, the day after 450 homes in Canberra were destroyed by fires and a State of Emergency was in force in the ACT. The second cancelled event was in February 2020, when the Territory was again under a State of Emergency as the massive Orroral Valley and Clear Range bushfires raged in the south.

Some significant events at the track since the club reformed include SDMA hosting its first round of the NSW Hill Climb Championship in September 2001, starting a long and enjoyable friendship with NSW championship competitors and officials. In November 2003, SDMA created history by running the first-ever motorsport hillclimb to be an event in an Australian Masters Games.

The Masters Games hillclimb attracted a lot of interest, with 55 entries and helped established SDMA’s reputation as a new and imaginative club, that had good facilities, welcoming members and efficient organisers.

Events in the early days were regularly fully subscribed, but paperwork was more cumbersome and slower than today. Entry forms were printed, posted out, then posted back or hand delivered to the Event Secretary with cheques or cash - no electronic payments or electronic entry forms in those days! Entry lists were managed on spread sheets, with entries allowed even on the day of the event. Finalising the running order was a minor miracle, performed at every event before 8.30. There was no computer at the track - everything was done manually!

Online entry, electronic entry fee payments, live timing and big-screen real-time result displays now make life much easier for everyone, particularly the Event Secretaries who have to put everything together so an event can take place. The club owes a huge debt of thanks to Chris Hardy, who has pioneered so many of the improvements we now enjoy and take for granted.

Physical facilities have improved enormously as well. An old caravan near the scrutineering bay was a very cramped administration centre until the function moved to a larger caravan near the Pit Stop Café. The Pit Stop Café itself was built, then extended and upgraded. The original timing tower was replaced by a much better facility on top of one of the containers.

The biggest single physical improvement in the club’s 20 years was the resurfacing of the track in December 2013. Having raised funds from entry fees and the proceeds of the Pit Stop Café, the club was in a position in 2012 to ask the ACT Government for help in resurfacing and improving the track. After very effective representations by then President Anthony Hyde and Treasurer Teppo Nupponen, the government came to the party with a grant of $165,000 towards the cost of the project. 660 tonnes of high quality, Mount Panorama-specification hot mix transformed the track, taking out the bumps and eliminating the dipper at the top of the circuit, giving the club one of the best hillclimb surfaces in the country. Not surprisingly, lap times fell significantly from 2014.

The club has had more than a thousand members since it began, some of who, after meeting at the club, are now married and raising families - the next generation of hillclimbers!

Many club members have contributed significant time and effort into building the club to where it is now. It’s not possible to mention all of them by name in this story but their names can be found on the Club Member of the Year perpetual trophy, and in the membership of the club committees, which since 2001 have guided SDMA to the very strong place it is now in.