Owners Doug and Bev Byron open their front paddock to die hard speedway fans to camp each January and Easter for the venue’s biggest events.

It’s an arrangement that precedes them, with the property’s previous owners also giving the speedway access.

Up to 500 vehicles park there with a small number setting up camp on the Thursday of the Classic and make it their home for the weekend.

The Byrons said the most impressive was a bloke who came years ago and landed his helicopter there and camped on the property.

Since then they’ve had everything from a ‘big gold bus’, to motor homes, caravans and tents, as well as providing car parking for the night’s patrons.

Both Premier Speedway life members, they speak fondly of those who come and stay, including groups from Adelaide, Geelong, Ballarat and Western Australia they’ve got to know over the years.

“They come from all over,” Mrs Byron said. “We’re used to it and we gear up for the weekend. We enjoy it, it’s like a big catch up because some of them have been coming longer than we’ve been here and we’ve been here nearly 40 years.”

They said they enjoyed hosting people and did so in the spirit of the event. The couple don’t charge those who camp on their property. 

One group’s been coming for 45 years and has been upgraded to stay in the shed, the closest thing to the Byron’s version of the Hilton, which is specifically cleaned each year for their arrival. 

“A bloke can get very drunk here if you go around to all the people,” Mr Byron said. "Because they appreciate it, they say ‘come and have a beer’. I’m a very moderate social drinker but everywhere you go they say ‘come and have a beer Doug’ and so you sit and have a beer.”

Mrs Byron said the regulars had sites that are “sort of booked”. “They park wherever they want,” she said. “We don’t tell them where to go except for the regulars who have been coming for years, they’ve got their regular place they like to stay.”

Mr Byron, who’s had a range of roles at the speedway over the years, said apart from moving the cattle and cutting the grass, there wasn’t much to do to prepare for the onslaught. He said campers appreciated the arrangement and didn’t want to jeopardise it.

“The paddock’s always been available to the speedway for 40 or 50 years,” he said. “The previous people did it and we’ve been here since ‘79. My wife and I are both life members of the speedway.

“We’ve given them 30 years of service each and a lot of them have become friends. I raced sprintcars for years and Bev ran the canteen and started off lap scoring at the old track at the racecourse in 1959 to ‘70.”

The South West Conveyancing Grand Annual Sprintcar Classic is underrated locally, Warrnambool’s visitor economy manager says. 

Warrnambool City Council’s David McMahon said the three-day event had a direct economic impact of $4 million which was magnificent for the local economy. 

“The event is underrated locally for its significance, both in terms of its world-class competition and also it’s underrated in terms of its value to our economy,” Mr McMahon said. 

“David Mills and the team at the Premier Speedway are delivering a world-class product right here in our home town and they really need to be congratulated. 

“They have drivers from around the world coming to compete. There’s hundreds or thousands of speedways in the world and Warrnambool is renowned as world class and we should be really proud of that.”

Mr McMahon said 102 drivers from across Australia and America would take to the track attracting a crowd of 23,000 to 25,000 people.

He said research showed that a third of the visitors in town for the classic stayed five nights or more spending money at motels, hotels, restaurants and local shops.

“Going to Premier Speedway for thousands of people is something they do every year and it’s extremely important to the tourism fabric of Warrnambool.

“It’s like the May Races. Without events driving genuine economic impact, the businesses and the community would definitely feel it.”

Mr McMahon said the drivers and their teams were referred to in the industry as high-yield visitors.

“They are here and they indulge themselves,” Mr McMahon said. “They’re eating in restaurants. They’re having high-quality meals and they’re staying in motels. They’re very important. 

“They’re staying in Warrnambool and they’re here throughout the year as well. These events are magnificent economic drivers for Warrnambool.”

He said it was also a chance for visitors here on holidays who had never seen sprintcars in action to head along. “For those people who have never experienced speedway, this gives visitors a wonderful and different experience to go to.

“Our research shows us they regularly get lots of first-time attendees so it just adds to what Warrnambool has to offer. It’s something different.”

He said it was a big weekend for motor enthusiasts with the speedway, drag racing and the Shipwreck Coast Motocross events on. 

“This week is a great example of Warrnambool’s reputation as a family-friendly events destination on the Great Ocean Road. Events like these, bring thousands of visitors and massive economic impact.” 

The first thing American speedway fan Chris Trainer did when he arrived in Warrnambool this week was to go and get a Kermonds hamburger. 

It’s his third visit for the South West Conveyancing Grand Annual Sprintcar Classic and he loves the area. “I follow pretty much anything with wheels,” he said. “I’m a complete motor head. If you’ve got five vehicles with a motor and a crazy man behind the wheel, I’ll probably watch.” 

He met now-Premier Speedway general manager David Mills and other south-west fans at the Knoxville Nationals about 20 years ago, sparking a long friendship.

Mr Trainer’s first visit to Warrnambool was for the Classic and national championships in 2011, and again in 2014. He said his experience was “fairly mind blowing”, expecting 75 or 80 cars. “When I got here there was 120. It was much bigger than I thought it would be.” 

He hopes to make it an annual or biannual trip, already planning a visit in 2020. “The people here in Warrnambool and my friends are the reason I keep coming back,” he said. “I could go to Arizona or Florida or somewhere in the United States and see racing but I choose to come here.”

Mr Trainer, from Minneapolis, is staying at the Best Western Olde Maritime for four nights and enjoys visiting local cafes and restaurants. “We like to go shopping and of course Kermonds Hamburgers is a must,” he said. “That was the first place I went. Oddly enough I found one of the American drivers sitting in there eating as well. Giovanni Scelzi was in there eating a burger.”

He said the teen could be described as a prodigy. “It has to be natural talent because he doesn’t have years of experience telling him where to go, he just knows where to go,” he said. “He seems like a terrific kid. I hope he does really well. He’s a really nice young man.”