Gillman Speedway to honour legendary Australian promoter Con Migro - June 2014
June 28, 2014 by Gillman Media
Gillman Speedway will honour legendary Australian promoter Con Migro at this year’s Classic Championship meeting in October.
Con Migro is the man who promoted the world famous Claremont Speedway in Perth WA and he was a leading figure in Australian Speedway promotion and administration for 40 years.
Con first attended the Claremont Speedway as a 12-year-old in the early 1950s courtesy of some complimentary passes that were given out at WA schools by the then track manager Aub Lawson, and his first involvement on the other side of the fence was in 1959 as a pit crew member for a Claremont Speedcar driver. In the 1963/64 season he was a mechanic for solo riders Ken Greedy and Don Eade, and his move into administration came in 1966.
Just prior to the 1966/67 season he mentioned to Lawson that the speedway could do with more publicity. Lawson agreed and told Migro that he had the job if he wanted it. Migro took over the position of editor of the Claremont program and also secured a speedway radio show on all four of the WA commercial radio stations plus had a speedway column in The Sunday Times newspaper.
He also started work as the track announcer, and then became the speedway manager in the early 1970s (after Aub Lawson suffered heart trouble), a position he maintained until the track’s closure in 2000.
With the closure of Claremont looming, Migro, together with his business partner, successfully negotiated with the WA State Government ministers and consultants to obtain financial support to relocate the Speedway to a new, world-standard venue at Kwinana Beach, and he was part of the management team that developed the new Perth Motorplex. He then ran the Motorplex for several seasons to establish the new venue on a sound footing prior to retiring from day-to-day operations, but he is still a part of the track commentary team.
As well as promoting the Claremont and Kwinana speedways, he filled the roles of National President of the Australian Speedway Promoters Association; National Promoters’ Representative/Director on the Australian Speedway Control Council; Australian Speedway World Team Cup Manager in England and Europe; and founding member of the NASR (National Association of Speedway Racing). He was the first Australian to be inducted into the American Sprintcar Hall of Fame and was awarded Life Membership of the Veteran Speedway Riders Association of Great Britain and in 2008 was flown to England as the guest-of-honour at the VSRA’s annual dinner.
The previous year, 2007, Migro was inducted into the Speedway Australia (NASR) Hall of Fame.
The Gillman Classic meeting will take place on Saturday night, 25 October.
Top pic: Con Migro (left) with British promoter Reg Fearman and World speedway Champions Ivan Mauger (New Zealand) and Anders Michanek (Sweden). Migro travelled to the UK many times to arrange for touring Solo teams, and individual riders, to come to Australia.