When Chris Amon blasted his Ferrari P4 to a new lap record at Longford on Saturday, March 2, 1968, he would hardly have expected it to last out the weekend. But it did, rain washing away any chance of it ever being eclipsed. At 122.2mph (196.62km/h), it was to be the fastest lap record in Australia until the advent of the new Albert Park circuit in 1996. If Longford still existed today it is fair to say F1 cars would lap it at well over 160mph (257km/h). Only Leyburn could have been faster.

Longford is a small town nestling on the side of South Esk River, only 23km south-west of Launceston. Its surroundings are criss-crossed by the railway and roads that connect Devonport with the main link and Launceston with the interior. In this setting lies just over 7km of roads that caught the eye of motorcyclist Martin Coombe in the mid-1950's.

The East bank of the river creates a shelf, with the ground rising on that side to overlook the town and the lush green of a stream divided by an island between two bridges about 1.5km apart. The area had a history of attracting people for special events, particularly centered on this area. Mill Dam was downstream of the island, and parkland alongside the river led up to a golf course. Between the two areas was Kings Bridge, a timber structure with typically 1940's white railing, and a steel girder railway bridge on a higher level. This was the way into Longford from Perth, nearest town on the Midland Highway.

It was in this setting that Coombe convinced the authorities to back road closures to enable motorcycle racing to take place. The first meeting was held on the Labor Day weekend in 1953, with the main events on March 2, the Monday. Maurice Quincey was the victorious rider, taking all the motorcycle honours and lapping in around 87mph (140km/h) to show it was all pretty quick. Fastest car competing was the Allard J2 of Tom Hawkes, which was some 14km/h slower. Races were handicaps, with winners like Donald Gorringe (Skoda Spl) amd Warwick Hine (Morris Minor SV), place getters like Dick Crawford's Austin A40, Mick Witts Anglia, Jock Walkem's Joweet Jupiter, and competitors like Geoff Crawfords chain-driven special and Seymour's Salmson Ford. One race was stopped by a passing train. Of the mainlanders on the entry list, Stan Jones, Bill Patterson and Bib Stillwell all failed to appear with the little Coopers. The production car race was won by Alan Hale's Simca from Roach's Vauxhall and Don Goss in a Jowett Javelin.

A meeting was planned for the following year, but shipping trouble led to its cancellation. How ever, CAMS (Commission Australian Motor Sport) had come into being and objected to bikes and cars running together - a problem that was to prevail for the life of the circuit.

The people of Longford saw the value in what the Motorcycle Club had begun and the Longford Motor Racing Association was formed. Geoff Hudson was President for the first three years, with major landholder Ron McKinnon taking over that post later. The first meeting was in 1955, and big things happened.

Geoff Duke showed off the latest Gilera and put in a 100mph (160km/h) lap. Lyndon Duckett joined Hawkes for the trip across and won the main race (again a handicap) in the Anzani engined Bugatti, while Hawkes was again the quickest car. Continuity was again broken in 1956, this time a Polio scare, but in 1957 Paul England impressed locals with the Repco-Holden powered Ausca. The visitors noticed the the Government was helping out with road improvements purely aimed at improving the circuit.

Big things happened in 1958, with the importance of this new circuit - and confidence in the people running it - being shown by CAMS granting it the third round of the Gold Star series of 1958. For 1959, more road-works were funded by the State Government and the Australian Grand Prix left the mainland for the first time in nearly 24 years. The turned out to be a classic race, a two-way struggle between Stan Jones and Len Lukey, which resulted in Jones' long awaited win and the last front-engined victory in the AGP. At the other end of the scale Bill Bashford's Bashmobile had to survive a meeting of the other drivers before it was allowed to race, and then its brakes locked on early in the event to spin it out of the race.

By 1960, Tasmania's Premier promised Longford would become the best road racing circuit in Tasmania. By 1965, Eric Reese was clearly heading towards making it the best in Australia. Under Ron McKinnon, who owned a great deal of land around the circuit, it was an amiable place to watch a motor race, even though the greatest amount of circuit visible from any one point was about a third of the long lap.

That lap began on level ground on the eastern side of the river, with a fast kink near the town's water supply reservoir that heralded the beginning of a gradual descent to the viaduct. Another kink put the road parallel to the railway, with poplars lined up on one side of the road and spectators filling the railway embankment on the other, then it ducked hard left under the viaduct and through a little wiggle in a swampy area to the Kings Bridge. Straight ahead lay the famous Longford or Prince of Wales corner, a crossroad with a service station on the left and the pub on the right. Turning right the cars were then on Tannery straight, which crossed the railroad a few hundred metres on via a level crossing that created a hump in the road. Tannery Straight wasn't altogether so. It curved very gently between trees and tall hedges for much of its length until - a kilometre or so on - it ran into the T-intersection that led to another bridge. This was a very different picture, a longer bridge, standing high on its timber poles and with a curve onto and off it. Then a curved braking area into Newry Corner, where the main road to Launceston branched off, and the climb and gentle curve onto Mountford Straight, where sprints had been held for years on a flat section known as the 'flying mile'. This was a long one and it included the timed flying eight just before the braking area for the tight Mountford Corner. Until 1958 the pits were located on the outside of Mountford Straight, with the start/finish line there too, but they were moved around Mountford Corner before the AGP.

It was an ever changing circuit for a couple of reasons. First was the governments commitment to constant upgrading, then there was the response to the accidents that occurred. And, naturally, there was some discussion about improved safety standards.

After 1958, Longford was only used for major meetings. In 1960 the circuit hosted a Gold Star round and the Australian Tourist Trophy, for 1961, 62, 63 it was an International meeting with Gold Star status and then in 1964 it was the final round of the first FIA Tasman Series, with the ATT thrown in as it rotated amongst the States. Longford held this status until it closed in 1968.

The importance of government backing can be seen when comparing the racing surface with that at Bathurst, While Con-Rod Straight was hotmix by 1965, most of the rest of the circuit was patchy. Longford, however was wholly hotmixed by 1962, and road widening was making it ever faster as well. Longford became Australia's fastest circuit on March 4 1960, when Jack Brabham lapped 9 seconds faster than the previous record, then he peeled another 4 seconds off in the main race to average just over 169km/h.

But it was a violent place when things went wrong, which was not at all surprising on a public road circuit, and not surprising with such high speeds. Timed speeds on the flying eighth rose from Doug Whiteford's 241km/h (Maserati 300S) in 1958 to Chris Amon's 292km/h 10 years later. For a long time things did not go too wrong, but in 1964 the higher approach speeds to the braking area for Longford Corner meant that some cars were very light over a small rise, and one of a row of trees on the left-hand side of the road claimed American GP driver Timmy Mayer. Lex Davidson's similar crash the previous year had less serious results. The rise was all but eliminated.

That wasn't the end of it. Bill Burns' Jaguar got crossed up at the end of Mountford Straight and barrel-rolled itself to death, although Bill walked away. In 1968 Greg Cusack had a monumental at the water tower that prematurely ended his last race meeting, this being the same spot where Noel Hurd had got air-borne, landed sideways with his brakes on and spun into various items of shrubbery. The year 1965, however was to see Longford's highest and its lowest points reached.

This was at the second running of the AGP in Tasmania. Five World Champions has been coming, but John Surtees failed to arrive. Still there was Bruce McLaren to keep the two Hills, Brabham and Clark on their toes, Gardner in the Mildren Brabham, Stillwell, Matich in the Team Total car and Jim Palmer in Clark's 64 Lotus, Kerry Grant, John McDonald, Jack Hobden and Rocky Tresise made up the balance of the 2.5-litre field with five 1.5s also starting.

I had travelled to Longford with a friend and pitched a tent in the camping area adjacent to the Kings Bridge. Early motor-cycle practice had disturbed our sleep on Saturday morning, but we weren't aware that local ace Dennis Wing lay fatally injured off the track just a few hundred metres away. Yet another motor-cyclist died, and then came the sudden inclusion of Tresise and photographer Robin D'Abrera in the Grim Reapers tally - all of this just a week after Lex Davidson's death at Sandown.

Listening to the race commentary on 7LA as we watched up the hill from Newry, we heard the bad news announced by McKinnon. Yet around us was exploding this magnificent race the best I have ever seen. Five cars constantly swapped places during their dice, the lap record falling to this one then that before McLaren claimed victory. Clark was fifth, 8.4s behind. Onlookers had been staggered when Phil Hill passed Jim Clark over the Long Bridge.

McLaren thus became the first major two-time winner at this circuit, putting an end to the debutant victories claimed successively by Ted Gray, Stan Jones, Jack Brabham, Roy Salvadori, John Surtees, Bruce McLaren and Graham Hill on his first sojourn with David McKay's Scuderia Veloce. In 1966 Jackie Stewart won on his debut, but Brabham lined up again in 1967 to become the other dual winner and Piers Courage paddled home in the 1968 downpour at his first appearance.

That downpour was the final straw for Longford. The place had always attracted incredible crowds, but the Scenic Preservation Board banned roadside advertising. The big meetings had big expenses, as starting money had to be paid to the Internationals and traveling money to the locals - all of whom had to cross Bass Straight. An oil company wanted to sign-write the Viaduct; Joseph Lucas wanted to pay for permanent signs at each corner, but they couldn't.

The circuit began life in a period of worldwide public road circuit closures in the wake of the 1955 Le Mans disaster, and the 1957 Mille Miglia fatalities which put an end to that event. Closer to home, it was in the same era that spectators died at Bathurst and Orange. Yet Longford was killed by finance.

It was the gutsy little Mexican driver Pedro Rodriguez, who tipped the scales in favour of going ahead with the event in the drivers' meeting called to cancel proceedings in 1968. While stewards were inspecting the water running over Tannery Straight and firemen were putting out the saboteur's flames under the King's Bridge, Clark, Amon and the rest gave in to Pedro and went ahead with the show. It was Jim Clarks last race finish and it put the seal on his Tasman Cup victory. His Lotus 49T was fifth in a race dominated by Courage and the 1600CC McLaren, mainly because of its tyres.

There were great races and there were some dud races. There was a local flavour by the early '60s that made it different from anything else. Longford stands today as an interlude that helped Australian racing mature. It was known as the Reims of the South Pacific (and most races carried the 'South Pacific' nomenclature, borrowed from Gnoo Blas), complete with the champagne for practice and races.

Folklore has it that the only local to ever contend for outright honours was aided by the local railway people. That was in 1963, when the north west coast train trundled onto the scene during a sports car handicap. The race stopped and John Youl's mechanic descended on Bib Stillwell's Cooper Monaco to remove the gearbox and install it in Youl's open-wheeler for the main event.

Between some of the races that road was opened to allow spectators to move between spectator areas, following the direction of racing. Occasional lapping by competition cars was not unknown at the time, and I know well what Sir Gawain Baillie's Galaxie looked like going down Tannery. During a mixed practice session, Spencer Martin put his Brabham into the hay-bales. David McKay drove the Ferrari out to the Viaduct, where it happened and gave him that car to continue practicing.

 Such were the things that made it colourful. The people all over Tasmania talking about the big race, the transformation of the sheep paddocks into pit areas, parking areas and spectator areas. And the raw speed of the fastest circuit in Australia.