The Alice Springs Off Road Racing Club Inc. commenced in 1984 when Jol Fleming (the then President) and a few ex bike riders helped to organise Off Road Racing in Alice Springs. Jol knew of an area on the east boundary of Orange Creek Station, where the land was too dry for cattle and the water too deep to be viable, that would be perfect for Off Road Racing. Thanks to Terry and Marilyn Karger (owners of Orange Creek Station) the racetrack is now known as the Mt Ooraminna Race Track.
The track is approximately 40 Kms down the Old South Road, Alice Springs, just south of the Ewaninga Rock Carvings. The track is dry and dusty and is usually a very hot spot but still a lot of fun, if off-road racing is your sport.
The first cars to be raced were mainly Datsun 1000s, 1200s and 1600s cars and utes together with Volkswagon beetle and a couple of Toyota Landcruiser utes (tin tops). The guys would just jump in their vehicles and off they’d go. There were lots of thrills and spills. It was a real adrenalin pusher for most.
These vehicles were just normal registered street cars, would have been in a price range from $200 up to no more than $1,500, which in those days was classed as expensive to some, nonetheless it was great fun. No roll bars or safety nets etc etc. were used in those early days. Mark Rodda, Bryan Cartwright, Dennis Zaglas, Peter Burge, Doug Mansell, Larry Zaglas, John Fidler, Peter Lewis, Taffy Evans, Allan Hoare, Allan Paige and Greg Picken, together with Jol and Enid Zaglas were the main instigators to get this Club up and running.
Alan Paige never raced, but he had tremendous input and did a lot of manual labour, marking tracks, towing in broken down vehicles etc etc. Also at the Club’s inception a well known citizen of Alice Springs, Bob Baldock, had tremendous input into the Club by building vehicles for young boy scouts and introducing them to racing. It was a great way for the young lads of the community to learn to drive.