Anew multi-million dollar sporting track is taking shape in South Australia and will be complete for an iconic event in the local sports calendar.


The redeveloped speedway track in Bordertown – better known as Tolmer Speedway – will be ready for Sprintcar Speedweek at the end of December for the 2024/25 speedway season.


The Bordertown speedway will host the second round of the annual extravaganza and is welcomed into the schedule for round two on December 27 – extending the series to five races.


Promoters and management of Avalon Raceway Lara, Borderline Speedway Mount Gambier and Premier Speedway Warrnambool visited the spectacular Bordertown site to inspect earthworks recently as it continues to take remarkable form.


Borderline Speedway president Cary Jennings said promoters and management from the speedway tracks in Mount Gambier, Lara, Warrnambool and Murray Bridge decided to continue Speedweek after COVID despite World Series Sprintcars going into recess.


“Borderline Speedway has been involved with world series sprint cars since the inception of World Series Sprintcars some 30 years ago,” he said.


“During the COVID period we were not able to cross borders and so that put a damper on the World Series Sprintcars Series which travels around Australia.


“We as a fraternity and tracks in South Australia and Victoria did not want to lose the identity of Speedweek because it was a good week of four tracks.


“We kept that series going even though World Series Sprintcars is in recess at the moment until they work out what they are going to do.


“We as a group of tracks decided that ‘let’s get this rocking and rolling’ and we have so for the last couple of years in a little bit of a different format to what World Series was.


“Last year we got up and running a bit better and the series was very well accepted and it was a good series – and then this year we needed to lift the bar a little bit because we are competing against Western Australia and Queensland at that time of the year.


“To keep the good competitors in our area and a few Americans, we needed to lift the game a little bit so we have gone out of our way to try and make improvements to the Speedweek series.”


The inclusion of Bordertown now makes the iconic Speedweek trail a five tracks in seven days proposition.


The news of Bordertown’s addition to the schedule has also been welcomed by many of the elite sprintcar teams that have already indicated interest in Speedweek ‘25.


Mr Jennings said the new arena is a welcome addition to the Sprintcar Speedweek calendar and especially beneficial due to being 185km from Mount Gambier and positioned halfway between Melbourne and Adelaide.


“We have now got a five-track Speedweek, which is going to fit in nice because all of those competitors will want to race at Bordertown because it is revamped,” he said.


“Bordertown Speedway is 50-60 years old, but they have been in recess for five years and now they are rebuilding.


“They are fortunate they have a dirt go-kart track next door which have not lost a lot of members so they have been travelling along between the go-karts and speedway and the fraternity up there has been very supportive of them.


“We knew that if we brought them on board the series would only get better and greater, so we are in the infancy period of inducting them into our group.


“We will push forward and make sure that everything goes to plan and hopefully we will have a very good series come December 26 – January 1.


“We hope we have a good sponsor come on board and make the prize pool a little bit larger than what we had previously.”


While the venue has yet to be officially named and earth and logistical works continue at a steady rate, there is little concern for Bordertown Speedway promoter Wayne Rowett their new dream arena will be completed in time for the 2024/2025 season.


“We’re on target. We have been working hard on many aspects of the facility and we are really excited to be part of the Sprintcar Speedweek series,” he said.


“Naturally there is still plenty to do before we open and we aim to have several test, practice and race event sessions completed before Christmas, but it is absolutely our intention to add our own special Bordertown magic to Speedweek.


“It is an honour to be included and we’re grateful for the show of faith from Murray Bridge, Avalon, Borderline and Premier speedways. We cannot wait.”