Mallala Motor Sport Park’s long-term owner Clem Smith has died (Feb 8), aged 90.
He had owned the 2.6km circuit since the 1970s and fought a court battle to get the former WW2 bomber air base recommissioned as a racing venue.
A former speedway and circuit car driver, Smith constantly reinvested profits into upgrading the circuit, situated 60km north-west of Adelaide.
He had a caravan on site where he would spend a large part of the week working, when he wasn’t running his car retail business in Adelaide.
Former GP celebrity flag waver Glen Dix had joined him for the past 25 years as a volunteer to maintain the circuit .Their efforts to ensure the boundaries had ploughed firebreaks meant it narrowly missed being affected by the district’s devastating grassfires in 2015.
The circuit will continue to honour bookings for the immediate future but its long-term viability could be threatened by the recently-announced, SA Government-supported, $20m circuit-hotel development at Tailem Bend Motorsport Park, 90km east of Adelaide.
