Where we’ve come from helps shape our future. Here we celebrate the City of Penrith Motor Cycle Club’s long and proud history which dates back more than 60 years to the late 1940s when the Club was known simply as the Penrith Motor Cycle Club.
Established in 1948, the Penrith Motor Cycle Club was predominately a Dirt Track Club with Scrambles (now known as Motocross) thrown in for good measure.
The Dirt Trackers used to ride at the Castlereagh airstrip (which later became a drag strip) – not too far from the current Nepean Raceway – while the Scramblers took to a track at Moorebank.
When the Speedway Racing (Public Safety) Act, 1957, was introduced, many Sydney tracks closed down which forced riders from across the Sydney basin to consider the future of their sport.
A few visionaries realised securing the future of Dirt Track racing depended on owning a facility that complied with the provisions of the Speedway Racing (Public Safety) Act.
The Plunkett brothers, Scoffer Evans, John Cooper and members of the Penrith Motor Cycle Club, including Len Anderson, built a track on land owned by Scoffer – the same land where today’s Nepean Raceway is located. To pay the land’s £750.00 price tag, the pioneer clubs would pass a tin around at their respective race meetings to raise the money.
The clubs that formed a consortium to buy the 33 acres (approx. 13.36 hectares), included in alphabetical order:
- Bankstown & Wiley Park Motor Cycle Club
- East Parramatta Motor Cycle Club Limited
- Fairfield Motor Cycle Club
- Homebush Motor Cycle Club
- Merrylands & District Motor Cycle Club
- Parramatta & Districts Motor Cycle Club Limited
- Penrith Motor Cycle Club
- Western Suburbs Motor Cycle Club Limited
- Willoughby Motor Cycle Club
Clearing of the land was done by well-known rider and former track curator, Dennis King, and as the Clubs worked to develop the track and have it licensed, they came together under the collective name the ‘Nepean Motor Sports Club’. The Nepean Motor Sports Club became an incorporated company on 22 July, 1959.
While the Penrith Motor Cycle Club remained a key member of the Nepean group, the Club struggled to maintain a strong membership base.
Until the mid-1970s riders had to be 17 years old to compete. When the rules changed the Penrith Motor Cycle Club attracted a few more members in the form of juniors, with Geoffrey Anderson the first registered junior Penrith member.
In 1980, the Penrith Motor Cycle Club agreed to amalgamate with the stronger Cambridge Park Motor Cycle Club that wanted to establish its own track. With about 100 members and a land grant in the Nepean area, the merger was seen as a positive move.
The united Club’s formed under the new name the ‘City of Penrith Motor Cycle Club’, with the initials ‘CPMCC’ a nod to the history of both organisations.
Extenuating circumstances meant the proposed track never got off the ground and the new CPMCC made Castlereagh’s Nepean Raceway its permanent home.
During the 1980s, CPMCC members competed in Dirt Track, Road racing and Motocross, with Dirt Track emerging as the formidable Club discipline.
Over the years CPMCC membership has ebbed and flowed, but throughout the Club’s history it has remained dedicated to the advancement of motorcycle racing.
Today, the Club has more than 200 financial members and is highly regarded as a Club that is focused on the development of its members and the Nepean Raceway. The CPMCC is still a central member of the Nepean Motor Sports Club.