A TUMBY BAY farmer with a need for speed has built a 60 kilometre offroad racing track on his Eyre Peninsula property and will welcome thousands of visitors to the world's fastest farm tour this weekend.
The culmination of a dream, hard work and half a million dollars of investment, the Jamalka 360 is a three-day offroad racing event, showcasing some of the nation's best motorbike, car and offroad buggy drivers in a unique setting.
Ben and Nat McNamara, cattle traders and croppers, ordered their first offroad buggy in 2020 after selling a farm block at Port Neill.
"We sold 1500 acres (600 hectares) up there and became debt-free, so I decided I'd start doing a few things I wanted to do, but never had the time to do, or the money to buy," Mr McNamara said.
"I ordered a buggy and started racing. I was going to do the Finke (desert race) this year and needed a track to practice on."
A solution presented itself out the back window in the form of the McNamara's 2500ha property.
After harvest last year, Mr McNamara set about grading and cleaning existing farm tracks and fence lines, and widening cattle tracks.
Two and a half months later, he had a 60km loop to race on. The track traverses the boundaries of paddocks used for cropping, while it also snakes through swamplands and along coastal fringes.
With interest from racing organisation Off Road Racing in bringing another event to SA, Mr McNamara thought "why not Tumby Bay?".
The McNamaras have installed a purpose-built car and bike shed for the event, that will double as a machinery shed when not used for race days.
The event, and associated news coverage, has sparked a huge amount of interest across the country, with the McNamaras expecting about 3000 visitors to attend the public race days on Saturday and Sunday.
A dedicated viewing area near the start/finish line will allow people a good view of much of the track.
The event will host 50 competitors in five classes of cars and five classes of motorbikes, and give out $15,000 worth of prizes.
Mr McNamara said about 30 local businesses were supporting the event.
While he hopes the Jamalka race will one day form one leg of a nationwide series, Mr McNamara is hoping the inaugural event goes off without a hitch before getting back to farm business on Monday.
"We did a heap of spraying last week and a heap of cattle work this week," he said.
"We're getting the airseeder hooked up in the next few days so we'll finish the race, and if we get this 10-20 millimetres (expected over the weekend) we'll be sowing canola on Monday.
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