Calder Park Raceway

Calder Park Raceway is a motorsport facility situated on a 440 hectare site outside of Melbourne, most well known for the Thunderdome - a 1.8km Super Speedway. Opened in 1987, the Calder Park Thunderdome was the first tri-banked oval super speedway built outside of North America, although it is no longer used for major events. Other facilities include the National Circuit, the Club Circuit, the Grand Prix Circuit and Drag Strip.

Calder Park Raceway previously hosted NASCAR, AUSCAR, Drag Racing, Touring Cars and many other forms of motor racing. Other than motor sport, Calder Park also hosted some concerts including Guns 'n Roses in 1993 which was attended by 66,000 people.

The Calder Park Thunderdome was for a long time one of only two banked Superspeedways outside the USA, and the only one of its kind in the southern hemisphere. Construction of the $54 million Thunderdome began in November 1984 and it was officially opened by the Mayor of Keilor on August 3rd 1987. Based primarily on the famous Charlotte Motor Speedway in North Carolina USA, the 24 degree banked tri-oval involved the moving of some 14 million meters of earth during its construction. Lights were installed in 1991 to allow for night racing at the circuit while the record crowd for a NASCAR event was 46,000.

The 1.8km circuit has a capacity of 44,000 including seating for 24,000 spectators. However, with the venue not having hosted any major events for a number of years, it is now overcome with weeds and is in a state of disrepair.