2026: “Chariots of Thunder” tour.
Updated Monday September 8th, 2025
You should review the itinerary below to check out exactly what we get up to and places we go to. You might want to join us in 2026.
We may …. or we may not …. add on the Gladstone / Toowoomba extension in 2026.
(It depends totally on getting a minimum of six or a maximum of nine starters.)
Please note that everything on this page at the moment refers to our sold out 2025 Chariots of Thunder tour. This tour is currently happening as I write this update.
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Right from the outset our, 2025 Chariots of Thunder tour had an excellent template on which to base 12 fun filled days in the Darwin winter sunshine. There is no reason why we need to change the format, or our “home away from home” the Ramada Zen in Carey Street.
We have finalised the 2025 itinerary based around the Darwin Speedway Club’s “Chariots of Thunder Festival of Speed” dates of September 11th, 12th and 13th. Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights.
The tour length will stay the same as in other years because we will also include the weekend before (Friday Sept 5th and Saturday the 6th) when all interstate cars who make an early tow up to Darwin will have the opportunity to mix it with the locals for some prestigious title races on those two nights. Including the NT Title on the Saturday.
All of this means that our Chariots of Thunder 2025 tour dates look like this:
Thursday September 4th, 2025: Depart your capital city airport to arrive in Darwin.
Monday September 15th, 2025: Depart Darwin for your home capital. (Perhaps! Before you decide, see the note below about the GST Outback add-on tour.) Sorry, now sold out!
A total of 11 nights and 12 days in the spectacular warmth of Darwin, when it’s probably freezing outside your kitchen window. And five nights of high quality sprintcar racing.
We have again secured apartments at the Ramada Zen, our preferred “home away from home” in Darwin. Although costs have risen across the board as holiday makers realise how good the Top End is at this time of the year, we are always very happy with our deal at the Zen and look forward to a cozy crowd travelling with us in September ‘25.
Based on the above dates, we have updated our itinerary to allow you to read all about what’s in store for you in 2025. After reviewing it and maybe getting excited about Darwin in the spring, please call Peter Physick on 0419 264159, or use the Contact Us link to send an e-mail to ensure you get your name on the list for 2025.
Although we’d love for you to read the full version of the itinerary that follows below, if your time is short then use the following link to read (or print off) a condensed version of the itinerary in a day-by-day table format.
PS: Finally, to get a great feel for what happened in Darwin in 2023, you might want to take the time to read the Tour Blog, written and published daily while in the NT.
Ever wanted to drive from Darwin to Toowoomba?
Before beginning to read the Darwin part of the itinerary, you may or may not be pleased to know we are offering an extension to the Chariots of Thunder tour in 2025. It will only proceed if we get a minimum of six and a maximum of nine participants. You will be able to read all about the GST “Outback tour” ….. Darwin to Katherine to Tennant Creek, to Mt Isa, to Barcaldine, to Gladstone to Surfers Paradise to Toowoomba. Yes, we will drive from Darwin to Toowoomba and undertake a journey that just maybe you have been hankering about doing all your life. Of course, it depends on Gladstone Speedway running a sprintcar weekend on the 19th and 20th and Toowoomba running the Thunder on the Downs weekend on the 26th and 27th Sept. If they do, then we’ll be ready.
Please note that the “Outback road trip” to Gladstone and Toowoomba after Chariots has concluded is now SOLD OUT.
Here’s the 2025 Chariots of Thunder itinerary …….
Do you start missing your regular dose of methanol madness around September each year? Well, why not let the tropics fix that by making a trip to Darwin for 11 nights to experience five nights of top notch sprintcar racing in the spring version of Northline Speedway’s Chariots of Thunder extravaganza?
The on-line itinerary is below. This whole page sets out the tour storyline day by day, along with the inclusions. The 2025 pricing page has the cost for 2025 and it also appears at the foot of this page.
You will see numerous orange hyperlinks. Clicking them will take you to more info to read.
Throughout our stay in Darwin there is extensive sightseeing. There always is on every tour to the Top End. And in 2025 our sightseeing will be much the same as in previous Chariots of Thunder tours. Which means that people who are travelling with us to CoT again may understandably choose to not participate in some, or all daily events. For that reason, a lot of the sightseeing in the itinerary below will be identified as optional. ie The cost has not been included in the tour price. You will pay separately on the day of the excursion.
Day 1 – Thursday September 4th, 2025
Depart (your home capital city) for Darwin and the 2025 Chariots of Thunder (CoT) tour. Hopefully we can get you on a direct flight, otherwise be prepared for a stop along the way somewhere. Also be aware that many flights arrive and leave Darwin just after midnight, but we’ll do our best to get you on a suitable daylight flight.
(If you are travelling from Tasmania, you may be better off flying the day before given the difficulties in connections out of the island state. (An extra night’s accommodation would be required in Darwin which we would quote separately for you.)
On arrival in Darwin, you will be met by your tour hosts and transported via minibus to the Ramada Suites by Wyndham Zen Quarter (the Zen) in the Waterfront Precinct.
With people arriving at different times, there are no official events planned for the balance of today, other than an included group welcoming drinks on the hotel’s 16th floor rooftop garden room. A 4.00pm rendezvous for pre-dinner drinks in the rooftop bar on Level 16 might be just the thing to welcome you to Darwin. Believe me it won’t be the only time you go up there!
There will be other occasions when you’ll be looking for places to have lunch or dinner away from the Zen, so check out these two links which will help you throughout your stay in Darwin. The 20 best restaurants in Darwin and Tripadvisor’s guide to restaurants in Darwin.
Day 2 – Friday September 5th, 2025
On every morning of your stay in the Zen, an included ala carte breakfast is available in the Horizen Café. Even though you have cooking facilities in your apartment, we have included breakfast every day. All previous tour members have loved brekky in the Horizen and never missed a morning there. The record has been set by a 15 year old from Latrobe in Tassie who ate eggs benedict for breakfast every morning for 16 days. He would have had them for lunch as well, but they weren’t on the midday menu.
Unless otherwise noted in the day-by-day descriptions, all other meals on the tour are a personal expense.
For the entire duration of the tour, we have 12-seater mini-buses at our disposal. Primarily they are to get us to and from the speedway every night it’s on, but they will also be available on an almost “on-call” basis to get you to where you need to go in Darwin.
They will not be available to travel to the long-distance destinations of Kakadu or Katherine Gorge, just simply in and around Darwin, as well as to Litchfield National Park for a whole day. (See further comments in that day’s description.) So, please do some homework on what you might like to see in Darwin and let us know.
Although our extensive planned itinerary might be enough for you, some suggested websites to look for more ideas are shown below.
- Darwin and surrounds
- Visit Darwin
- Darwin: Top 10 tours and activities
- Darwin cruises and boat tours
- Fishing charters Full / Half day – Darwin Harbour
But back to today. On February 19th, 1942 Darwin was bombed by the Japanese. Not too many people are aware of this momentous period in the life of a now vibrant city. But it is very worthwhile to learn about it and see how the city (and Australia) has chosen to remember that time during WW2 and pay homage to the 252 soldiers and civilians killed in the many air raids.
[Footnote: When the word “optional” appears in a description it means that we will always get you to and from the attraction, but the cost (if any) will be a personal expense. If “optional” isn’t there, then what we do that day is all fully included in your tour price.]
This morning we’ll make an optional excursion to the excellent Darwin Military Museum at East Point. Voted the #1 attraction in Darwin it will surely impress. Followed by lunch at the Darwin Ski Club which is just metres from the Darwin Museum and Art Gallery where there is a Cyclone Tracy exhibition. The admission fee to the Military Museum is $20.00 for adults and $15.00 for Seniors while the Tracy exhibition is complimentary. Oh, and strolling along the beach outside the Ski Club is also free!
Whatever is done in the morning and afternoon, all guests must be back at the Zen ready to leave on the buses at 4.00pm to the 7Mate Northline Speedway. 15 or so minutes later we’ll be at the track and getting off with us will be the famous GST eskies ready for some popular car park tailgating. Sadly however, $1 beers and $2 bourbons are not possible in Australia, so we’ll have to deal with $3 beers and $7 bourbons on this trip. Regretfully we also need to buy ice, which we never have to do in the USA thanks to the hotel ice machines!
For every night at the speedway, we have admittance tickets to the Chariots Lounge, an indoor air-conditioned area with cash bar and rest rooms, plus a large alfresco area on the massive outdoor balcony allowing you dual viewing choices to suit your preference. Or at times, maybe just wander off around the complex and meet the locals.
Tonight, we’ll see competition for the Darwin Cup amongst all the local drivers, plus those who have travelled up from the southern states a week early to get in some track time before next weekend’s CoT. The winged cars will be supported by the wingless sprints, AMCA Nationals, Street Stocks and Junior Sedans.
Admittance to the track and the Chariots Lounge are included as part of the tour price, along with a hot buffet meal (TBC) served in the Lounge. However, drinks and any additional food over and above the catered supply, are at your own expense.
Day 3 – Saturday September 6th, 2025
This morning and afternoon we continue to look at how WW2 affected the Northern Territory by visiting the Darwin Aviation Museum and the Royal Flying Doctor Service and Bombing of Darwin Harbour Tourist Facility. Again, it’s optional, with a combo adult ticket price of $39.00 for all today’s attractions.
Lunch today will be out on Stokes Wharf where you can choose from six different restaurants to supply your food whilst sitting out in the guaranteed sunshine overlooking Darwin Harbour. Which by the way is six times bigger than Sydney Harbour!
Night 2 back at the speedway sees competition for the NT State Title for sprintcars, supported by wingless sprints, AMCA’s and Junior Sedans.
Day 4 – Sunday September 7th, 2025
We’ve got plenty of things to do late this afternoon and all of tonight at the Mindil Beach Markets, a great place to eat, drink and watch the sun drop from the sky. But before our 3.30pm ride out to the markets in the GST buses, we’ll take interested folks out to Casuarina Square Shopping Centre for their retail fix. By far the largest shopping mall in the NT, it is claimed that the average number of visits per week to Casuarina is greater than twice the population of Darwin. Again an optional excursion, but there is no expense to bear unless of course you choose to let loose amongst the shops.
Lunch will be in the gigantic food hall, but you’ll be back at the Zen in plenty of time to get prepared for a fun night under the stars down on Mindil Beach.
Sunsets in Darwin are legendary and besides Mindil Beach there are many places to watch them from. Be mindful however that next Tuesday you will be out on the harbour watching from a chartered boat, so please don’t voluntarily choose that one to see the sunset.
We have arranged for our Global Speedway Tours group tonight to have tables and chairs set aside in the Sunset VIP area on the lawn for our official tour welcome drinks. It’s a magnificent opportunity to get to know your fellow tour members and you won’t have any difficulty in finding the variety of food that takes your fancy. Take a look at this list!
And we’ll give you $20.00 of Mindil Money to put towards your dinner. Not only that, the GST eskies will be available and stocked up with complimentary drinks. It’s a super night. We’re so sure you will have fun here we have made this one mandatory! The cost of tonight is included in your tour price.
Day 5 – Monday September 8th, 2025
Today is set aside for you to consider a full day tour to Kakadu National Park, or Katherine Gorge. Both are very long full days with a 6.30am pick up from a nominated hotel near us. In some cases, you do not return to the Hotel before 8.30pm.
The following links will be helpful for you in deciding firstly if you want to take a tour, and if so, to where and which one. There are quite a few options and the two links we have shown here are by no means the full complement. You may find other tours that you prefer after talking with friends who have been to Darwin before, or by browsing the internet.
If you do decide to take a tour, please let us know which one, so we can link up other tour member’s bookings with yours.
One day Kakadu National Park Explorer (D4) with AAT Kings.
One day Cruise to Katherine Gorge & Edith Falls (D11) with AAT Kings.
If the Tour company you choose does not offer the Ramada Suites by Wyndham Zen Quarter as a Hotel pick up option, then we will get you to where you need to be.
If you choose not to travel on a commercial tour, then the whole day and night in Darwin is free of any organised events today. But we will go to dinner as a group to the Hotel Darwin because it’s Rib Night on Monday nights. What is usually $40 any other night is only $22 tonight.
But before we go, we’ll catch the sunset from the Level 16 rooftop bar. If you like these next two photos, then you too can replicate them up on the rooftop bar anytime from 3.00pm ’til late every night. The atmosphere, the view, the ambience and the cold drinks make it almost irresistible. Our group is nearly always found up there watching the sunset.
Please note that tomorrow is set aside for us to travel to Litchfield National Park in the minibuses. It is only 90 kilometres down there and 90 back, so is easily doable in a small coach. (See Day 6, Tuesday September 10th for details.)
Day 6 – Tuesday September 9th, 2025
Even if you took the commercial tour to Kakadu or Katherine Gorge yesterday, you really should also visit Litchfield National Park today. This time we’ll take the 12 seaters down the Stuart Highway, given it is only a 90km trip there and the same back. We do way more than that every day when touring the USA, but we won’t have the benefit of a professional guide as you would on a commercial tour to Litchfield. Having encountered those tours in years gone by, I can assure you that you experience way more on our trip! It’s optional and the cost includes the newly introduced one-day Litchfield Park Licence.
Very cost efficient compared to what the various NT tour companies are asking. Their tours start at $215.00.
Here are some links that will introduce you to Litchfield.
Litchfield National Park Destination Guide
Litchfield Tours
Litchfield Day Tour From Darwin | Batchelor, Berry Springs. Litchfield Park
Litchfield Park Tour & Jumping Crocodile Cruise
A Guide to Litchfield National Park | Bookmundi
The cost for today has not been included in the overall CoT tour price, as it rightly should be considered as an optional tour, like the ones to Kakadu and Katherine Gorge. However, we believe that we can do the whole day for $50 per person, plus the $10 park fee. $60.00 total per person. There are no other fees or costs, just your lunch and fluids. Don’t forget your bathers, cozzies or swimmers. (Depending on where you were brought up!) Oh, and a camera. And watch out for slippery rocks when you swim in the pools like the one above.
It’s a 7.30am start (ask the breakfast girls at the Zen to make you brekky to go) and lunch will be at the Wangi Falls Café at some point of the tour! And the GST esky will be on board to assist with regular hydration.
Seeing as how we will be travelling right through it on the way home, we’ll also stop at the famous Berry Springs Nature Park and check out its waterholes. During World War II, Berry Springs was part of a rest and recreation camp set up by the armed forces for the 100,000 military personnel based in the area. Quite a few huts and weirs were built during this time, and you can still see the remains around the main pools. You’ll have time to swim in these ones as well.
The famous Humpty Doo Pub is near at hand, but we won’t be visiting it today, preferring to lunch there on Friday after our Jumping Crocodiles tour on the Adelaide River.
As with all other optional tours you will be asked to indicate on the Booking Form if you want to do this one and if so, payment is to be made to Peter while in Darwin. It truly is a magnificent day of sightseeing and fun ….. which will see you back at the Zen by 4.30pm.
And the day is still not finished, as late this afternoon we take to the man-made rapids of Darwin Harbour …. as created by a jet boat.
At 5.15pm the buses will leave the Zen for Stokes Hill Wharf because tonight is party night with a superb barramundi fish and chips meal in a box for dinner. With a twist. You’ll be boarding a jet boat for 90 minutes and travel out into Darwin Harbour with Sea Darwin’s Sunset Cruise. If we have a minimum of 24 on the tour, we’ll have the whole boat to ourselves. The cost is included within the overall tour price, so we expect a full house. The boat is powerful and I’m sure that the speedway rev heads on board will entice the skipper to give you some thrills! Here’s their pledge for you!
The skipper will use his local knowledge to take us to the best place to enjoy the delightfully warm breeze, an exquisite tropical sunset and a harbour full of intrigue. The tide, wind, weather and the season will be considered as the Captain goes with the flow.
If the tide is in our favour, we may experience taking a chair out onto a Fannie Bay sandbar to eat, or maybe enjoy the meal amongst a pod of frolicking dolphins, or dugong. Sometimes he takes the boat to the Sadgroves bird sanctuary and on other occasions he’ll just cruise around the glistening harbour, taking in nature’s extraordinarily coloured sky at this time of day – it’s like a giant work of art.
You get to keep the glass or stubbie holder that came with your first drink with the rest being at your expense. At the conclusion of our cruise the boat will let us off either at the Mindil Beach Casino, or at the Stokes Hill wharf where we boarded. The buses will be available to make trips back to our hotel several times if required.
Just like getting home from the Dingus Lounge when you think about it …..
Day 7 – Wednesday September 10th, 2025
Pretty much a free day today, at least until 3.00pm or so because from today onwards things hot up on the SSS. (Speedway Social Scene).
There is still plenty to get done before leaving this city next Monday. This afternoon and evening are all speedway stuff. Firstly the legendary CoT Street Motorcade will be on for young and old. In every prior year the sprintcars have fired up at Midday. Right when all the kids are in school.
But not in 2024. When school’s out, so too will the sprintcars be let out to play on the streets of downtown Darwin.
For three kilometres or so they are tethered together and towed along a circuit up and down city streets. Engines are revving and rumbling, but the quick-change diff remains unengaged. Eventually they will reach the Precinct Tavern on the Darwin Waterfront a magnificent setting against the stunning backdrop of Darwin harbour. It’s here that the cars will be unhitched, parked on the green lawn of the Precinct and the official Chariots of Thunder Fan Appreciation night kicks off. To get there you can grab a seat on one of the GST buses or take the 12-minute stroll down the hill from the Zen.
Tonight is a Global Speedway Tours funded night with dinner and drinks to the value of $70 / person available to have some fun. Our tables will be reserved and you’ll receive your wristbands at the venue to help the night flow. Not many choose to walk home afterwards ……
Day 8 – Thursday September 11th, 2025
Maybe time to slow down a little and today has been left open to do that. The buses will be available to take you to places (within reason) that you may have discovered, but we’re not visiting them. Or, just sleep in, catch up on the washing, or take a dip in the pool at the Zen.
At 3.15pm the first bus leaves the Zen for the speedway and Night 1 of Chariots of Thunder. More sprintcars will have rolled into Darwin since last weekend and the total number of cars is hoped to be around the 30-40 mark. The second bus leaves at 4.15pm and will meet up with the others who have arrived early to secure prime viewing tables and stools out on the alfresco area.
On each of the next three race nights we will run the Global Speedway Tours’ CoT 24 Sweep. $5 will buy you an A Main starting position between 1-20 for each night’s feature. We will have three separate draws from a pack of cards at our VIP function at Mindil Beach earlier in the tour. The number you draw will be the driver who starts in this position in that night’s feature. Whatever the pool is each night 100% of it will be re-distributed back to the contestants.
Winner 70%
First to flip 30%
The flip “feature” is designed to give everyone a chance to win a prize. Even if you have drawn the car starting 18th. If there is a simultaneous multiple flip, the prize will be split. And finally, if there is no flip in the feature, 100% of the pool will go to the winner.
Day 9 – Friday September 12th, 2025
We have one last “expedition” to undertake. It is so popular 100% of tour members always go. Even for a second or third time. Hence, we’ve included it within the tour price. We’ve seen and learned about Darwin’s WW2 history. We’ve seen sprintcars on the street, on the track and on the grass, plus museums, speedboats on Darwin Harbour, shopping malls, Kakadu and/or Katherine, waterholes and magnetic anthills in Litchfield, but we’ve yet to see the NT crocodiles in their natural habitat. Well today’s the day to make a one-hour drive to the southeast of Darwin where the Arnhem Highway crosses the Adelaide River.
Down near Window on the Wetlands is the Spectacular Jumping Crocodiles Experience. We’ll be stealing several hours of your time when we visit “a truly cool spot” with highly experienced guides who provide a safe, exciting and educational experience for passengers of all ages. You’ll cruise along the river next to the banks of the Djukbinj National Park to see the hugely diverse flora and fauna that it has to offer. Not to mention the crocodiles you’ll meet along the way. Watch as they are tempted up close to the boat with offers of buffalo meat on a bamboo rod.
Earlier we mentioned the famous Humpty Doo Pub. Around 1.00pm you’ll be walking through the front door ready to order lunch. You could try a ‘Double Buff’ Burger, or a Crocodile Burger. Or better still choosing from this menu might better suit your taste buds. Not to mention an ice cold Great Northern to wash it all down.
By the way, check out the size of Kevvie’s Humpty Doo chicken parmi. (The fish and chips in the background is a seniors’ meal!)
But we must not forget that it’s Friday and although we have achieved so much already today, at one minute after 2.59pm Friday night becomes Speedway night”. At 3.15pm we load up bus #1 and tackle the short drive to Hidden Valley for night 2 of Chariots of Thunder. The same journey will happen one hour later with Bus #2.
Whether we find a tree like we do when tailgating at Knoxville and Volusia remains to be seen, but we do know there are at least two Northline trees that we can usually park beneath to test the contents of the GST esky.
Back in the Chariots Lounge the clay will once again fly high up onto the deck and drop into to the bottom of your beer can …. or down your cleavage. (Hi Jane!) The sprintcar sweep is on again and the cards will have already been drawn under the shade of the Mindil Beach tree.
Day 10 – Saturday September 13th
For some this morning, you may like to stay at the Zen and do your own thing. Or you could venture up to the 16th floor and watch the Friday night racing live from a track in the USA. It might be High Limit at Lernerville, or USAC at Circle City, or WoO at Bakersfield in California. Whatever it is we’ll have it up on the big screen to watch it in the comfort of leather lounge chairs …..nothing but the best!
Mini-bus transport will be with us all day for ferrying folks around. One thought from left field is a Global Speedway Tours Grand Prix at Darwin Kart Hire. If there is sufficient interest and we have plenty of notice, a group booking could be made for 10.00am to test the nerves of loved ones who aren’t there to watch! Not sure how fast the hire karts are, but the website speaks highly of them as you would expect. Here’s some video to make an assessment. You can tick a box on the Booking Form to indicate your interest.
The third and last night of Chariots of Thunder draws an unbelievably large crowd. The promotion knows that and the gates are opened an hour earlier tonight. Hence, we will leave at 2.45pm to ensure those who want to get in early for the best vantage spots in the Chariots Lounge can have a decent opportunity to get them. We’ll once again head out along the quaintly named Tiger Brennan Drive, maybe even via the lookout at Charles Darwin National Park, to Hidden Valley and the final night of Chariots of Thunder. Remember you have the catered food supplied again on all three nights. (still TBC)
Hope you enjoy the biggest night of the year for Northline Speedway as they bring their season to a close for 2025.
Day 11 – Sunday September 14th, 2025
On our Month of Money USA tours, the departure from Knoxville is always delayed by 24 hours because we prefer to factor in a rain date. There’s no point in going at all if you’re going to miss the event you travelled all that way for. I asked Jacalin Ekins whether Northline would have Sunday as their standby day in the event of a rain out on Saturday.
Jac’s response was “Due to the time of year we hold racing, it is extremely unlikely we would receive rain in September; it’s almost unheard of. However, we would look to race on the Sunday should that become an issue.”
We could go home today but we won’t, preferring to stay one more night just in case. Besides there will be more seats on departing planes on the Monday.
So, we will have the buses again today and the whole day is devoted to fun! In the morning you can watch USAC, High Limit or the WoO on the big screen up on Level 16. Make sure you have a late breakfast because our farewell dinner today will be fashionably early at the incomparable Darwin Trailer Boat Club. We’ll arrive at the DTBC around 4.30pm and grab our reserved table in a prime position to see the sunset at 6.43pm. Here’s the menu and here’s the live cam of the beach at the front of the Club. If you’re reading this in December, January or February just ignore what you see. If it’s late afternoon, it’ll probably be raining!
We’ll also grab a group photo here on the beach. The 2023 group looked cool at lunchtime in the heat of the day. In 2025 our group photo will be at sunset overlooking Darwin Harbour.
From the Trailer Boat Club it’s back to the Zen for cocktails on the roof.
Day 12 – Monday September 15th, 2025
Sadly, it’s now time to say goodbye to old friends and new and get ready to leave Darwin for all ports south. There will be various times of flight departure today ranging from (very) early am to late afternoon.
We will arrange for you to be transported to the airport at the appointed time to ensure you are ready for check-in and boarding.
Good luck and thanks so much for travelling with Global Speedway Tours …..
Peter Physick
e-mail: peter@globalspeedwaytours.com.au
mobile: 0419 264159
Please contact Peter at Global Speedway Tours if you would like to accompany us on this excellent tour. Tour spots usually go very quickly.
We will only be taking a maximum of 12 people on the main tour.
If you want to consider the GST Outback Tour from Darwin to Toowoomba via Katherine, Tennant Creek, Mt Isa, Barcaldine, Gladstone and Surfers Paradise, then please open the Itinerary in table format at this link.
PRICES for Chariots. See further down for the Outback extension.
2025 Pricing per person: (We have included a $950.00 air fare credit in each category. If you want to buy your own airfare ticket, or you already have one, or you want to use points, please simply deduct $950.00 from each price shown.) Domestic airfares have increased as you would know. We have therefore increased the credit within the tour price by $50.00 over the 2023 credit accordingly. If your airfare is more than $950 then the extra will be added to your final invoice. If it is below $950, then your tour price drops by the same amount.
| Executive Harbourview apartment | $5,380.00 per person | (based on twin share) |
| Deluxe Junior Suite | $5,465.00 per person | (based on twin share) |
| Twin apartment | $5,670.00 per person | (based on twin share) |
| Two-bedroom apartment | $6,125.00 per person | (based on twin share) |
| Two-bedroom apartment | $5,100.00 per person | (based on quadruple share – two double beds) |
Inclusions in your tour price are: 11 night’s accommodation, breakfast every morning, an airfare credit of $950.00, (any less you get a refund – any more and you pay the extra), airport transfers, ground transport (as comprehensively described in the itinerary), welcome drinks on the rooftop at the Zen on Day 1, sunset drinks at the Mindil Beach markets in the VIP area along with $20 of Mindil Money on Day 4, Casuarina Square Mall, the Fish and Chips Sunset cruise on Day 6, five night’s track admission and passes into the Chariots’ Lounge at Northline Speedway, access to the GST $ eskys, the Chariots of Thunder Motorcade & Fan Appreciation night on Day 7 (including meal and drinks to the value of $70.00). Day 9 has the “Spectacular Jumping Crocodiles” cruise on the Adelaide River (and the Humpty Doo Pub), plus, opportunities to go on self-funded commercial coach tours to Kakadu or Katherine Gorge, optional tours in the Global Speedway Tours’ mini-buses to the Darwin Military Museum, Aviation Museum, Royal Flying Doctor and Bombing of Darwin Experience, Cyclone Tracy museum, a full day trip to Litchfield National Park ($60 optional extra), tour clothing ….. and tons of fun that always comes for free!
Note: We are offering a choice of four room types in the Ramada Zen, all of which are serviced hotel apartments. All rooms contain a full kitchen, washing machine/dryer and cooking implements. Please click this self-contained Hotel Room Types at Ramada Suites Darwin link which will show you all seven apartment configurations. For simplicity, we have chosen four separate types and negotiated rates accordingly. All include breakfast and three room services.
Here is the layout of an Executive Harbourview apartment: Very suitable for married couples and the most economical option.
Deluxe Junior Suite: At 64 sq metres they are larger than the Executive Harbourview apartment, boasting a bigger lounge / living area and a separate bedroom and ensuite.
Twin apartment: Also suitable for married couples, but mainly for sharing with someone “you don’t wish to sleep in the same bed with!” Has a separate bedroom with a queen bed and a single bed.
Two-bedroom apartment: Suitable for two individuals who want their own bedroom and privacy. As the name implies this apartment has two separate bedrooms each with a queen bed and ensuite bathroom. Hence the most expensive price. Two couples might want to choose this option. Why not enquire about the reduction in price?
Your Booking Form will reflect the different tour prices and you will be asked which option you want. If you are travelling on your own and are happy to be sharing with another single person who wants the same option, please indicate whether you want to be in a Twin Room, or a Two Bedroom Apartment. We will do our best to match you up. If we can’t, then we’ll talk to you about an outcome.
If you’d like to see 590 photos from past clients of the Zen, please click here.
The Ramada Zen breakfast menu. You have up to $22.00 credit each morning to spend. You can have more, but the balance will finish up on your room account.
Click this link for the official Chariots of Thunder Fan Guide. We will post the 2025 version when received from the track.
Read the 2023 Chariots of Thunder tour BLOG here.
Thunder through the Outback extended tour price.
(This tour is proceeding as Gladstone and Toowoomba speedways have confirmed their intention to race on these dates.
The pricing below for this extension is designed for people already on the Chariots of Thunder tour. ie: They have a paid air ticket and are in Darwin ready to commence the Outback tour from there. First priority will be given to 2025 CoT tour members, but we would consider interest from other people, but they will need to arrange their own airfare to Darwin and from Brisbane.
By the numbers the highlights are:
14 days,
13 nights,
2 SUVs,
4,868 kms,
780 litres of fuel,
Some great accommodation, (check this out for Surfers Paradise)
4 nights of top sprintcar action and ….
Visiting numerous outback pubs.
There’s just the one price and it’s $3,250.00. (Based on three (3) people or six (6) people. If a different number applies, then a recalculation will be required.)
As always, contact Peter Physick on 0419 264159 or peter@globalspeedwaytours.com.au and secure your inclusion. Or to register your interest because you want to think about it.
HI Peter could you please give me a price for Blayke & us all in the same room , same as this year please if possible
Hi Peter,
Are you able to reserve 3 spots for us that is 2 Adults and 1 Teenager, can you let us know when you will require us to complete the booking form and send deposits thankyou.
Will do Dennis. Leave it with me til the end of the week. I’m also doing the same thing for Blayke again.
Peter