A most engagng topic, MO, but I have to say that the successes on road circuits were not replicated on speedways. A few 225 powered Valiants appeared on the ovals in the late 1960s/early 1970s, including Bob Andrews (#7) at the Sydney Showground, circa 1971, Bob Shepherd at Perth's Claremont Speedway, circa 1970 and Victorian Noel Graham in the #17 (which was painted mauve) and seen here at Liverpool in November 1972. The scarcity of Valiants on the ovals is due, I reckon, to two main reasons. First: When speedway sedan racing became popular in the late 1960s, there were plentiful and cheap, high output grey Holden engines in FX/FJ/FB/EK/EJs, Some were ex-speedcar/midget motors from the mid-60s, that had been superseded. Obtaining 180HP from one of these was easily achievable, with bolt on parts and some other fettling. With old Holdens so cheap to buy it was a no brainer starting point for aspiring racers. The images from Morisset, taken September 1969, highlight the situation. Barry Smith and Ray and Stuart Taylor in their FJ's round up the #58 Valiant (name forgotten). And with the bonnets off, you can see the amount of development that's been applied to the grey engines. Second: As the division advanced in the early 1970s, anyone who wanted high horsepower went with a Holden or Falcon V8 or a 6 cylinder Torana. The V8s were cheap and increasingly plentiful with local and US sourced go-fast parts. Indeed, a mate of mine had an Iskenderian cam shaft made especially for his 327 small block Monaro (#69). And used it for almost 10 years. On the other hand, if you wanted to race a 225, you were basically on your own when it came to working out how to boost power for an oval track application. Very few in the USA was racing 225s on ovals and few were developing the engine. So, why waste your money on a 225 when a much more reliable and powerful 327/350 or 351 V8 was available? The 225 was also tried in a couple of supermodifieds in the late 1960s, but the benefits of a 327/350 Chev V8 were too enticing. Tasmanian Les Redpath was one who campaigned a 225 for a while.