Surfers Paradise International Raceway: Keith Williams’ Carrara car racing track which hosted 1975 Australian Grand Prix

The Gold Coast once had its own racetrack which hosted everything from local races to multiple Formula 1 world champions including Jackie Stewart and Jim Clark.

Last week’s Gold Coast 500 was declared a success despite crowd numbers being down on recent years.

The annual motorsports event is just the latest chapter in the Gold Coast’s love affair with speed.

From the supercars of the past 15 years to the Gold Coast Indy of the 1990s and 2000s, there’s always been a strong love of for high-octane sports.

It was 60 years ago that the Gold Coast discovered its need for speed at a track on the Nerang River.

The ground was laid for the Surfers Paradise International Raceway on the banks of the Nerang River in 1957 when colourful entrepreneur Keith Williams bought a Carrara dairy farm to host his famed waterski show.

Surfers Paradise International Raceway on a race day, circa 1980. Supplied by Gold Coast City Council Local Studies Library

But there was no signs of activity until 1964 when Williams began to develop the land and build his raceway.

This decision, six decades ago this year, paved the way for the Gold Coast to become a motorsports Mecca.

The first drag race was held on April 10, 1966 over that year’s Easter long weekend, while the first race meet at the 3.2km track was held weeks later on May 22, 1966.

Three-time Formula One world champion and Gold Coast resident Sir Jack Brabham was a frequent competitor on the track in its early years, which often featured 12-hour endurance races before six-hour events became commonplace by the end of the 1960s.

Sir Jack praised the raceway, telling the Bulletin prior to his death that he had fond memories.

“Carrara was good for Australian motorsports and was a big part of the Australian scene in the early days,” he said.

“It was such a good circuit and it’s a pity it had to be demolished.”

Other drivers who left their mark during the track’s early years included New Zealander Chris Amon and British two-time Formula One world champion Jim Clark who raced there before his 1968 death while racing in Germany.

Max Stewart winning the 1975 Australian Grand Prix.

The circuit was the one-time host of the Australian Grand Prix in 1975.

It was the opening round of the 1975 Australian Drivers championship and was held on August 21 that year in extremely wet conditions.

The race was won by “jolly green giant” Max Stewart while racing in his Sharp Corporation Racing Team Lolo T400 despite qualifying sixth.

Mr Williams told the Gold Coast Bulletin in a 2009 interview he spent more than $50,000 to buy the site.

“It was just a cow paddock when I first saw it and it was totally empty,” he said two years before his 2011 death.

Touring car race at Surfers Paradise International Raceway.

“At one point Jackie Stewart (F1 legend The Flying Scot) came out here and raced on the track and we have been friends ever since and still catch up each year.

“It was a great track and anyone who understood motor racing thought it was the best in Australia.”

However it was not without its struggles.

In 1976 a major race meet had to be cancelled after flooding caused by a heavy downpour left the track under more than 1m of water.

Mr Williams later took the raceway concept across Australia before selling the Carrara complex in 1984.

Surfers Paradise International Raceway site in 1997 during its final years

It closed in 1987 and eventually became home to a Tiger Moth joy ride and helicopter charter business, as well as a go-kart track.

Just four years later the first Indy cars raced in the heart of Surfers Paradise, leaving fond memories of the old Carrara course.

The old racetrack was eventually demolished in 2001 to make way for the redevelopment of the land, which is now occupied by the Emerald Lakes residential estate.

Today, nothing remains of the track or its tower.