Sir Jack Brabham Park, motor racing ties to Orange sports field

However, prior to it becoming a sports ground or race track, Tiger Moths, Austers and Cessnas flew in and out of the site, which was the first Orange aerodrome.

An old aerial-viewed Orange sign can still be found at the park and a windsock can still be seen on what used to be known as windsock corner.

The old aerodrome was opened in February, 1938, by Minister for Defence Harold Thorby and was the only access to Orange by air until work began on Spring Hill Airport in the late 1950s.

Because of its limited area, the aerodrome was used only for training and light aircraft up to the 70s.

Following its use as an airport and race track, the site became the town's sports field.

Initially it was called the Orange Sportsground but was renamed Sir Jack Brabham Park in September 1985. Sir Jack, who was knighted in 1966, and Lady Brabham attended the renaming ceremony.

The park is now also being extended with eight new sporting fields to be created as part of the $25 million Sir Jack Brabham Park Sports Precinct.

The precinct involves the conversion and landscaping of part of the former Orange Ex-Services' Country Club golf course and it is hoped to be in use by mid-2023.

In 1952 a plan was made to turn the roads surrounding the aerodrome into the Gnoo Blas Racing Circuit. The name Gnoo Blas is a Wiradjuri term meaning "two shoulders" referencing the twin peaks of Mount Canobolas.

The plan to build the track was made in April 1952 by a group of people associated with the Orange Cherry Blossum Festival with promting from the Australian Sporting Car Club.

A triangle of roads were reconstructed and sealed with a light coat of bitumen to create the track, which was not wide

Eighteen days before the first race meeting, a call was put out before the first race meeting for local people to donate funds so the track could be finished in time and so a public address system could be hired and amenities provided for spectators.

Most of Australia's best drivers raced at Gnoo Blas between the first race in 1953 and when the circuit closed in 1961.

Among them was Sir Jack Brabham, who raced a variety of cars and started his road racing career at Gnoo Blas at the opening meeting in 1953 in a small Cooper 1100 and after that was a regular competitor in Orange, winning a string of titles.

His last race in Orange before returning overseas to race in the Formula One was the South Pacific Championship in January 1959. It was the second time he ran that event and he setting a lap record of 102m/h, equivalent to 163km/h in his Cooper Climax.

His lap record was still in place by the final meeting at the race circuit.

In 1960 the track hosted the first Australian Touring Car Championship, which later became the Super Cars Championship.

In 2020, then Gnoo Blas Classic Car Club founder and president, the late Denis Gregory, said the championship started as a single race at the Gnoo Blas Racing Circuit, well before the Bathurst 1000 was established.

That first ATCC race in 1960 was held as part of commemoration celebrations of Orange's 100^th anniversary.

The Cherry Blossom Motor Racing Committee and the Bushmen's Carnival committee organised the inaugural event, which was billed as 'fast cars and rough riders' with a rodeo and trotting gymkhana held at the showground.

In the lead up to the 60^th anniversary celebration of the inaugural ATCC race, Mr Gregory told the Central Western Daily that the race attracted 52 cars of 15 different makes, but only 44 started due to mechanical problems in earlier events.

The cars ranged from a Fiat 750 Abarth, all the way through to Jaguars, a swag of FX and FJ Holdens, Rileys, Morris Majors, Austin Lancers, Wolseleys, Zephyrs, Peugeots and Simcas.

A crowd of 7000 attended, with gate takings of about $3400, although it was still short of covering expenses.

However, the 1960 race was only held in Orange once and due to increasing competition with Mount Panorama, the Gnoo Blas track closed in 1961.

"The car we raced was what we drove to work on the Monday," Mr Gregory said of the races at the track.

"They didn't have the brakes of the modern cars, they didn't have the tyres.

"I had a Morris Minor, then a Morris Major, I raced both of them."

Some of the other drivers who raced at what is now Sir Jack Brabham Park include Bob Jane (Maserati), Stan Jones (Maybach), Prince Bira of Siam (Maserati), Peter Whitehead and Tony Gaze (Ferraris), Alex Mildren (Cooper Climax), Ted Gray (Tornado), Doug Whiteford (Maserati), Tom Sulman (Aston Martin), Leo and Ian Geoghegan (Holdens and Jaguars), David McKay, Bill Pitt, Ron Hodgson (Jaguars), Des West, Arnold Glass, Paul Samuels, Max Stewart, Jack Myers and Len Lukey.