During the 1950s the horse-racing industry lacked some of the liquidity it had enjoyed in the halcyon days of the '20s and the war years. A decline in attendances into the fifties also reflected the growing mobility of the populace and the availability of alternative venues for entertainment.

It was under these circumstances, then, that the Australian Jockey Club faced the potential closure of their second-string Sydney track, Warwick Farm, and this prospect led the late Sam Hordern to jump at an opportunity presented to him by the Liverpool Motor Racing Association.

Liverpool was at that time the emerging centre of the growing dormitory area in the southwest of Sydney's urban sprawl. Headed by Alex Strachan and Dan MacFarlane, they had been planning a circuit at nearby Hoxton Park, but it came to nought, so they proposed to the AJC that some motor racing income from the venue would help it remain the valuable training facility that bolstered the viability of their more central Randwick racecourse.

Enthused by the increased interest being fostered in motor racing by Jack Brabham's European campaign, Hordern convinced the committee to send him to England to investigate combining the two forms of racing as practiced at Aintree. There he met Geoff Sykes, who agreed to inspect the site and help guide the AJC in laying out the circuit. This ultimately led to an offer from the AJC for Geoff to run the circuit, with the Australian Automobile Racing Company (as the LMRA became) conducting meetings and paying costs out of the AJC's gate takings at those meetings.

World Championship Plans
From the inception, the ability to conduct a World Championship race was kept in mind. To this end, the circuit length was established as 2.25 miles - just over the minimum required by the FIA - and the layout was to include some very testing corners as well as a reasonable straight.

To a large degree the actual path of the circuit was dictated by the constraints of the property. There had to be a pit straight and a start finish line in front of the grandstands. Visibility (and prime use) considerations put the circuit inside the horse track at that point, with temporary crossings to take it outside to gain the necessary length and variety. A loop road after the first turn, Paddock Bend, provided a connection with the entry to the Causeway and so a one-mile testing and club racing circuit was included - without the need to disrupt the horse rails or put down crossings.

There have been suggestions that Brabham had a hand a in laying out of the course, but he was no more than an interested spectator as the AJC's surveyors and Geoff Sykes worked within the natural parameters to provide a long straight, slow corners (Creek, the Causeway and Polo), medium speed corners (Paddock, Leger), medium speed esses, fast esses (Northern Crossing to the Causeway) and the even faster section that headed onto Hume Straight through the Western Crossing and Homestead.

Their success was evident from the first test day, held in November, 1960. Among those present was the current Gold Star Champion, Alec Mildren, who today remembers well the contrast the circuit provided with others then in use. "Here we had a circuit for the drivers," he says, explaining that all the other circuits favoured power. "At Lowood or Bathurst or Longford it was all power, and an inexperienced driver with a good car could beat a good driver in inferior equipment. But at Warwick Farm he had no chance"

Although efforts to hold a World Championship race in the '60s were stymied, Warwick Farm provided Australia with this great asset through an era of tremendous expansion. But while Sandown, Lakeside, Wanneroo, Mallala, AIR, Oran Park, Calder, Catalina Park and Amaroo Park sprang up, none challenged "the Farm" for what it always was - Headquarters.

Fabulous Racing
Although the first meeting, held in December, was very, very wet ("I just drove into the pits and stopped - the undertray was scooping water into the car and I couldn't see through either my glasses or my visor!" - Mildren), a big crowd turned out to see Bib Stillwell (Cooper) and Frank Matich (Lotus 15) win the main events.

The shakedown having taken place, Australia was ready for full-scale international meetings. In 1961 Stirling Moss won the first International 100 and paved the way for the succession of races that was to become known as the Tasman Cup series, and FIA-sanctioned international series over seven or eight races in New Zealand and Australia.

Ultimately there were so many Grand Prix contenders who spent the summer months in the Antipodes, with Moss winning again in 1962, Brabham beating Surtees in 1963 (the first Australian Grand Prix at the Farm), and McLaren in 1964. It was Jim Clark's turn in 1965 and 1966, then Jackie Stewart in 1967 when it was once again the AGP. Clark was victorious again in 1968, but 1969 put an end to the fine weather and gave a saturated crowd a glimpse of the truly special as Jochen Rindt won.

Through this era there was an Australian who challenged the visitors when he had a car to do so, and when Formula 5000 was added to the 2.5-litre formula Frank Matich was first in line. But the Tasman race went to Kevin Bartlett in 1970 as the Grand Prix drivers kept out of the stock-block racing, the interesting point being that the Farm round was one of only two that went to the less powerful cars.

The AGP was separated from the Tasman at this time, largely because the AARC had tried (unsuccessfully) to obtain a World Championship race at the end of the year. The race was thus held at the circuit in that year and the next, with Matich victorious in both and marking himself indelibly as the local master of this great circuit. It was indeed Matich who mastered the Farm in sports cars, first with his Lotus 15, then the 19 and 19B, then the V8 cars including the Matich SR3 that was a part of that unforgettable dice with Chris Amon and the Can-Am Ferrari in 1968 - a race that electrified the crowd and left the outright lap record out of open-wheeler hands for the only time in the circuit's history.

Warwick Farm was a playground for the masters. For a long time I waved flags on that fast ess between the Northern Crossing and the Causeway. The sight of Piers Courage and the bi-wing Brabham in a full-bore slide off the crossing, flicking it to be sliding in the opposite direction through the left-hander, then slipping sideways for a moment as he pulled a higher gear - the nose of the car dropping for that instant - just cannot be forgotten.
Nor can the memory of Matich and Amon going either side of a hapless lapped car at that same point, nor Ian Geoghegan in the Mustang breaking 1m 40s.

Spectators had a good choice of vantage points, especially when the Hume Straight infield was opened up and the bridge put across the esses. Graham Hill had a different line through there, and that was where it was obvious what tricks Niel Allen was playing in his McLaren M10B in 1970 to keep Graeme Lawrence's Ferrari at bay.

Creek Corner had its embankment full of devotees, one or two with bugles, and a few selective types chose to watch the really fast stuff at Homestead. The stands were comfortable enough, but a little distant from the action, and at the back of the pits there was a bank along the polo field for those confined to the inside of the track.

Perils of Progress
Though things were catching up with Warwick Farm by the time the first decade was closing. One was the expense of keeping a circuit up to current safety standards (although it was inherently safe), then there was the introduction of the Totalisator Agency Board and its subsidies to horse-racing venues.

In a nutshell, the battle for survival was on, and the encroachment of that suburban sprawl was ultimately to bring this to a head. The AJC didn't need the money any more, and they didn't want the headaches either.
Racing went on, however, with Sykes continuing to put together the best range of meetings he could. Club racing on the short circuit had been a regular feature since May 1963, and the Club actually continued running them up to November, 1986 at Amaroo Park, setting a standard that has vastly improved the lot of the lesser competitors.

The last race meeting at Warwick Farm was a club day in August 1973, with the full circuit having been used for the last time on July 15 of that year, Peter Brock winning the final round of the Australian Touring Car Championship at that meeting.

The death of Headquarters was almost a whimpering into obscurity, and the loss was of a magnitude that some don't appreciate to this day. "Geoff Sykes not only gave us a fantastic circuit," says Matich, "he brought to us an English quality of racing and organization, a level of enthusiasm and morale that we'd only read or dreamed of. You could take your bank manager to the Farm and introduce him to the gentlemen who ran the racing."

The safety record was first class too, with the loss of just one life - that of a Vee driver circulating alone one weekday and spinning into the lake at the Causeway to drown. Not that there weren't some crashes - Peter Manton's legendary multiple roll down Hume Straight in the Mini, Niel Allen barreling into the pit fence in the Elan, Bevan Gibson's flip in the Lotus 15 at the Western Crossing, Doug Macarthur's élan erupting skyward out of a first-lap traffic jam on the Northern Crossing…

But more were the classic drives: Greg Cusack shooting back to the leaders after a spin at Creek in May 1965, Norm Beechey's debut win in the short-lived Camaro, John Harvey trying to beat the Geoghegan Mustang with his Mini, Doug Whiteford showing the youngsters how in the Datsun 2000 and Jochen Rindt's unbelievable 1:23.8 in practice in 1969.

Not seen by many were the private sessions on the short circuit of the Peter Molloy-coached drivers. Molloy's specialty was to send them on a final fling in the reverse direction, to give a whole new set of corners to challenge. No, not many saw Warwick Brown in the McLaren M10B with the rail right out coming onto Pit Straight out of Paddock!

From first to last Warwick Farm set a standard and brought an aura of professionalism. The circuit was a challenge and a lesson to all. Now dismantled bit by bit, only a few stretches of the road remain, and the memories dim as children born since its demise have come of age.

A generation has not known the grassy surrounds, the spacious paths, the switching of the commentary from the Members Stand to Creek as the field rushed down Hume, the majesty of a circuit that naturally took its place as Headquarters and has never been replaced.

The winner of the final race, Lynn Brown, was once trying to convince Peter Brock he should race his Austin there. Encouraging the discussion, I asked, "What's your favourite part?" Without hesitation the reply came, "From Creek Corner to the top of Hume Straight!" "What about from the Northern Crossing to the Causeway?" "That's magic!"
And so it was.