Photos: New South Wales rider Stephen Gall with his Yamaha bike at the Paramatta Raceway Stadium Supercross promotional day leading up to the big event, with photographers and Victorian rider Greg Flood; advertisement promoting the 10 November 1978 stadium supercross event.
First Supercross on east coast at Paramatta Raceway
On 10 November 1978, one of the first supercross-style events held in Australia was at the Paramatta Raceway at the Granville-Clyde Showgrounds in New South Wales.
Speedway promoter Sid Hopping had a man-made motocross track built inside the confines of his clay speedway venue and a three-round series played out with Mr. Motocross series rivals Stephen Gall and Anthony Gunter the star attractions.
Big prize money was on offer and the Brian Collins Motorcycles dealership was the major sponsor providing three bikes as prizes – a YZ 400 Yamahas to the winner of Unlimited A & B grade class, a Kawasaki KX125 for the 125cc class and a Honda CR250 to the C Grade winner.
Suzuki rider Gunter won the Unlimited class on the night, ahead of Gall, picking up a brand new YZ400, which he sold. Yamaha rider Gall won the 125 class to win the KX125 and C Grade winner Pat Chugg won the CR250.
Looking back in time, this event in 1978 was more like stadium motocross, rather than pure supercross. But it was a sign of things to come with Brisbane Speedway Promoter Blair Shephard’ soon after establishing the Stefan Superbowl of Motocross, which became Australia’s first major international supercross event as we know the sport today.
Between 1979 and 1981, Shephard ran three very successful international supercross events at Archerfield Speedway and Lang Park in Brisbane, with American motocross legend Mike Bell winning all three, with Shephard also hosting events in Sydney during this time.
Originally, the consensus was that the 10 November 1978 Paramatta Raceway event was Australia’s first Supercross-style race. But records show that another famous speedway promoter in Western Australia Con Migro, hosted a stadium of motocross several months earlier at the Claremont Showgrounds.
While Migro was the promoter of this early supercross styled event in 1978, the Harley Davidson Motorcycle Club ran it for over three years as part of the three-day Perth Motorcycle Show, with Graeme Smythe scoring back-to-back victories in the first two years.
Photo gallery
Photos: Mr. Motocross legends Anthony Gunter (NSW, Suzuki) and Stephen Gall (NSW, Yamaha) won the Unlimited and 250cc classes, respectively, at the 1978 Paramatta Raceway Stadium Supercross event; and riders on the start-line for a press promotion during the week.
