THE Vintage Sports Car Club of WA officially opened its new club rooms in Whiteman Park with more than 130 people in attendance.

Vintage Sports Car Club of WA (VSCCWA) president Glenn Swarbrick said though the club had been running for quite a few years it’s never had its own club rooms.

“We’ve had uses of other club rooms but they were never ours so it was hard to do anything that was permanent (and) even in the last rooms we had, we had to share them with other people at times, so it was difficult for it to be our own space,” he said.

“This has given our members a good impetus to be a lot more involved in what the club does.

“We run four major events a year, sort of encompassing historic motorsport and each of those events is run with volunteers.

“The two biggest ones we do are around the houses in Northam and in Albany and each of those takes upwards of 60-odd volunteers to actually make them work.”

The VSCCWA was able to secure a 10 plus 10-year lease with Whiteman Park, giving the club a home to facilitate its own events and bigger projects.

The Whiteman Park clubroom opened officially on May 18 during volunteer week and Mr Swarbrick said it was a nod to the significance of the Caversham area to the history of WA motorsport.

“It’s part of our history in a lot of ways because some of our more senior members actually used to race at Caversham and so they’re really happy because Whiteman Park’s not far from Caversham’s old circuit,” he said.

“And as part of the history of Caversham, our club was instrumental in getting the suburb of Brabham named after Sir Jack Brabham.

According to an article published by the VSCCWA, the military airstrips in Caversham became Western Australia’s first dedicated motor racing circuit at the end of World War II.

Two Australian Grand Prixs were held there with one in 1957 and the other in 1962.

The VSCCWA provides a place for people to gather, appreciate and engage in the history of the state’s motorsports.

The move to the new facility was made possible by a $50,000 Lotterywest grant which helped the club fit-out their clubroom, workshop area and shed space.

“It’s a club that’s open to anybody,” Mr Swarbrick said.

“It doesn’t matter whether you’ve got a car or not, or if the car is not even historic – to be a member of the club and support the history of motor sport is more important than anything.”