We took the girls down to Catalina Park yesterday so they could ride their scooters on the old race track.
Catalina Park is the old disused motor racing track at Katoomba.
Yes, a race track at Katoomba. Who knew.
For those that don’t….
The 2.1 km race circuit opened in the early 1960s and remained in use until the 1990s. Originally used for top level motorsport including touring car, open wheeler, motorcycle and sidecar racing in the 1960s. The upper mountain location caused problems with fog causing delays in the race programs, plus the track was very narrow by today’s standards and surrounded by walls, armco railings and hillside. The track became used less with the opening of other circuits nearer to Sydney such as Oran Park and Amaroo Park.
In the 1970s the circuit was used for Rallycross, where the cars would use half the bitumen track and a dirt infield section with jumps, like Motocross. By the 1980s the track was only being used for lap dashes with single cars on the track at any one time and was used until the mid 1990s for this.
The race circuit still is still here, but not used by motorised transport anymore.
In our walk we found that the condition has deteriorated very badly with heaps of grass, weeds, and trees growing through the decaying track surface.
If you ever want to walk the track yourself, and many do for daily fitness walks, it’s located behind the Katoomba Sports & Aquatic Centre.
Have a look at the photos from our walk. And further below is a video i found on YouTube of a car racing the track from about 1991.
