Fifty years ago, the dirt track was the place to be. At the peak of this golden era of local motorsport, it was common to have crowds of 40 to 50,000 pile into the big city speedways – Sydney’s Liverpool, Royale and Westmead tracks, Brisbane’s Ekka, and Melbourne Tracey’s Speedway – to cheer on their heroes. Australia’s speedway scene in the 50s and 60s was a melting pot of action, thrills and sometimes deadly spills. Drivers like Johnny Stewart were daredevils, pushing themselves and their machines to the brink and beyond, showing guts and grit that far exceeded any real consideration for safety.<\/p>\n

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The beautifully detailed grey motor features a swag of period hot-up items including McGee direct port fuel injection. “The rare McGee oil filler cap came from the local scrap merchant. He would see the car at my business premises and one day he walked in, said, ‘Here you go,’ tossed me the cap and walked out. I was gobsmacked!”<\/em><\/p>\n

The union of Stewart and the Trackburner was one formed more by fate than intention. John was an accomplished stock car driver operating as a gun for hire, steering cars for various owners. The Trackburner had been around the midget scene in a number of guises since the late 50s. South Australia’s Vic Cerche was a pilot and an avid speedway fan who often flew in new planes from the US for delivery. Sufficient ballast was needed to ensure a safe journey, which provided an opportunity for Cerche to freight in speedway engines and chassis. In 1958, he built himself a scalloped midget running V8-60 power, which was to be the first incarnation of the Trackburner.<\/p>\n

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Cerche campaigned the car for a couple of years before selling it to Sydney team owner Don Mackay. Mackay slotted famed Aussie driver John Harvey (long before his time as Peter Brock’s right-hand man) behind the wheel, but its first outing proved to be a non-event, with the car failing to perform. The diminutive V8-60 donk was swapped out for Holden grey power, which was the affordable local alternative to the mighty Offenhauser. A few suspension tweaks and a repaint saw it returned to a competitive state, with Harvey taking the wheel for race meetings in Australia and New Zealand.<\/p>\n
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Rear wheels were custom made to mimic the originals, while the eight-inch racing rubber was recreated using recapped original tyre carcasses that were regrooved to suit<\/em><\/p>\n
The car was then sold to Victorian driver Aub Cherry, who campaigned it for another two years before it hit the market again in ’64. “John Stewart bought the car for 750 quid,” says Trackburner restorer and current owner Roger Jenkin. “He picked it up from Aub in Victoria on the Friday, drove straight back to Sydney and won the feature at Westmead Speedway that weekend. It was the first owner-driver car for John and he wasted little time making his mark.”<\/p>\n