History

History Page

Well you could almost say it all started a fair while ago when a teenage Alan Davidson (John's Father) actually walking the long way home from school just so he could catch a glimpse of a pre roll cage speedcar driven by one of Brisbane's Dusty hero's competing at the Legendary "EKKA" Show Grounds. When Alan finally got a chance to watch a race meeting at the EKKA, that was it, he was hooked for life.

Later in Alan's life he was moved to Darwin N.T. with the Airforce, and it didn't take him long to get together with a few close friends, to carve an oval track in the bush, which in time was to be known as BAGOT PARK SPEEDWAY.

Bagot Park Speedway's first year of competition was in 1966 and Alan Davidson raced in the first car event ever conducted. In the following 16 years "DAVO" had only missed one season of competition on the track and during that year was the Track Announcer.

With the close of Bagot Park Speedway in 1981, DAVO was chosen as the last competitor to officially race under the Green Light as a tribute to his continuous dedication to the sport.

Alan continued to race when the Northline Speedway opened and stayed with the Speedcar division, he eventually was elected as President of the A.S.C.C (AUSTRALIAN SPEEDCAR CONTROL COUNCIL) these days knows as SPEEDCARS AUSTRALIA. Alan managed to remain competitive right up until the days he hung up the racing boots to concentrate on John's racing career.

Even Kevin Davidson, Alan's brother (Yes, John's Uncle) spent a bit of time sliding around Australia's oval dirt tracks, on the two wheeled Solo Speedway bikes and also spent a bit of time in the three wheeled Sidecar division.

With John he has always had something with wheels under him, a little electric car when he was three, to a specially built scaled down version of what today is known as a Vintage Speedcar, that Alan purchased from a family in Sydney. John would drive the car around Bagot Park speedway during the interval period when he was just six years old. His little head in his Dad's big helmet burning around having a ball.

John started competitive racing in MOTOCROSS in 1976 thru to 1980 at the 14 mile motocross track just out of DARWIN. The space the track used to be on is now a satellite city named PARLMERSTON. During the years in motocross John and his father had many fun weekends, mixed in with a bit of traveling, also enjoying some racing in Tennant Creek (N.T.) and Mount Isa (QLD) with John picking up a few trophies along the way.

In 1981 John decided to have a go at BMX, him and a few mates got together and built a neat little track on some private land next to Freshwater Creek in JINGILI a suburb in DARWIN. Shortly after, some land in the Marrara Sporting Complex was obtained and an awesome new track was constructed to house the JINGLI BMX CLUB. Racing in Alice Springs, Brisbane, Sydney and Perth, John enjoyed a fair bit of traveling during his BMX racing days. During a trip to Sydney he raced at an international meeting held indoors at the Hordon Pavilion, and also got to race at the track that was next door to the Liverpool Speedway when it was open.

In 1987 John finally got his chance in the Speedcar, a childhood of kicking around in the pits watching his Dad race around those oval tracks, his desire to race was finally unleashed completing his first season with NORTHERN TERRITORY RIDERS AND DRIVERS ASSOC. Rookie Of The Year. Racing each meeting in Darwin with Ex Australian Champions Warrene Ekins and Bob Holt, combined with a lifetime around the sport with his father certainly helped to learn the required skills to race Midgets competitively on many tracks across Australia. These skills were certainly put to the test in 1993 when John packed up his car and belongings and moved to Queensland to check out what a bigger city had to offer also to try a bit of racing outside his hometown. That season finishing the year 4th in the Queensland Title and deciding to retire the ageing Autocraft/Gardener car and head back to Darwin to build a new Fontana/Murphy car and returned to Brisbane for the 1994 racing season.

In 1994 John picked up his first feature race win which also happened to be the Queensland Title; it was like a dream come true. After a slight bingle in the first heat race, John repaired his spare front axle with the hydraulic ram on a TNT Car Carrier, put the car back together, then started the feature race from last position and just took off passing the last car to take the lead with just 2 laps to go, and win the State Title. A night he will never forget. John won his second Queensland Title in 1997 this time from the Pole position, a very proud moment as Alan had come down from Darwin to watch the racing. It was the first time John won a feature race with his Dad at the track.

Another moment John has always been proud of is winning a couple of feature races at the Brisbane Exhibition Speedway, it had the best atmosphere and it was where his Dad first saw Speedway Racing. There have been some good times over the years for the Davidson Racing Team, John and now wife Kelly cruising around Queensland and Australia racing at as many tracks as they could get to. Following the Speedcar Super Series around the country was some of the best times the couple has spent together. These days John and Kelly are happily married with a lovely daughter Jasmin and still enjoying a bit racing now as a Family. After a couple of seasons off from racing John has returned in 2004 for a limited number of show's to get him and the team back up to speed, now with the new Jeff Jackson built CHEETAH CHASSIS and GAERTE motor starting to show some form, a full assault on the racing scene is set down for the 2005/2006 season.

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