Gary Miocevich, responsible for the design, development and construction of the Perth Motorplex in 2000, entered the ANDRA Drag Racing Hall of Fame at the 2014 ANDRA Championship Dinner on Monday November 3.

Gary Miocevich has a considerable history in Drag Racing from many angles. Whether you look at his career as a racer, administrator or as track builder and operator, his vision has always been consistent to provide the most sustainable long term Drag Racing environment for all stakeholders.

Gary started racing in a 6 cyl altered in his late teens and progressed through to AA/D in the late 1970’s manufacturing his own cast and machined alloy engine block, heads and superchargers. By the early 1980’s he had become unhappy with the way that the Former Ravenswood International Raceway was being run, and with his brothers, decided to purchase the venue with Kevin Prendergast and the Collings family.

Gary switched to Funny cars about the same time and ran BB/FC resetting the record, which stood for many years. He then moved to a new AA/FC with Greg Gower switching to a hemi combination and was the first Australian to run the revolutionary PSI Supercharger, which is now the standard in Australian Drag Racing. After that period, Gary ran the Thunder Down Under Jet Truck around Australia, which he still owns today.

Gary Miocevich running 200mph in the Thunder Down Under Jet Truck at Willowbank Raceway in 1994

 

 

The sport was passing the capabilities of the old Ravenswood venue so during the early to mid 1990’s, Gary started pursuing Government funding for a new drag racing venue closer to the Perth metropolitan area. The State Government supported this provided it was a combined Motorplex. To achieve this Gary and his brothers purchased the majority interest in Claremont Speedway, which was located close to the Perth CBD. Gary was given a free hand to design the most practical and fit for purpose Motorplex which opened in December 2000 at Kwinana Beach in Perth’s southern suburbs.

 

During the 2000’s Gary also drove Jet Dragsters in both the USA and Australia, just for fun.

Gary Miocevich driving the Gravity Storm Jet Dragster in 2006

 

Gary’s involvement in ANDRA started when he was in his late teens as a Divisional Council member and spanned some 35 years of service in various roles on the ANDRA National Control Council, National Executive Committee and the Australian Drag Racing Promoters Association. During this time he was a leading advocate for safety at tracks and was a consultant with overseas and Australian Government and private sector organisations that wanted to build Drag Racing or Motorplex venues. While most don’t end up obtaining the funding to proceed, some fantastic venues were built such as Emirates Motorplex in the UAE and Jeddah Raceway in Saudi Arabia.

 

Gary would like to thank all those people that he has met and worked with over the many years. It has certainly been a wild ride which sort of sums up Drag Racing.