√Another racetrack closes in Australia: Wakefield Park shut ‘indefinitely’ from next month
An ongoing legal dispute between the owners of a race track in regional NSW, the local council, and the state’s Land and Environment Court will force the circuit to close its gates indefinitely from next month.
Car enthusiasts who take speed off the streets – by testing their skills and exploring the performance of their vehicles on weekend track days – have hit a road block after the owners of a popular circuit in regional NSW announced the facility will close indefinitely from 1 September 2022, after almost 30 years of operation.
Wakefield Park Raceway near Goulburn (about 200km and a two-hour drive south-west of Sydney, and about 100km and a one-hour drive north-east of the nation’s capital Canberra) will be forced to stop operating from the start of next month after opening its gates in 1993.
When Wakefield Park Raceway was approved as a motorsport venue 30 years ago, the circuit was limited to 48 days of use per year, but it has recently been operating for more than 270 days annually.
In June 2022, Wakefield Park operated for 25 out of 30 days of the month.
After the closure of Amaroo Park Raceway on the north-west fringes of Sydney in 1998 and Oran Park Raceway on the south-west outskirts in 2010 – both due to urban sprawl – Wakefield Park has become the third motorsport circuit in NSW to shut its gates in 24 years.
Wakefield Park Raceway’s demise leaves NSW with Sydney Motorsport Park at Eastern Creek, and smaller private circuits such as Luddenham Raceway in western Sydney and the Pheasant Wood Circuit near Marulan, the latter two having shorter tracks and fewer facilities than the venue that is about to be closed.
In 2007, the Wakefield Park facility was bought by the Benalla Auto Club (which operates the Winton motor racing circuit near Benalla, about 200km and a two-hour drive north of Melbourne). At the time it invested in resurfacing the Wakefield Park circuit and upgrading the facilities.
The brakes began being applied to Wakefield Park Raceway in June 2021 when the Goulburn Mulwaree Council blocked the Benalla Auto Club’s request to upgrade Wakefield Park’s pit facilities, citing factors “largely based on noise and social impact issues”.
The Benalla Auto Club responded by taking the Goulburn Mulwaree Council to the New South Wales Land and Environment Court, attempting to seek approval for the upgrades.
In July 2022, the New South Wales Land and Environment Court approved the Benalla Auto Club’s request on the condition that stringent noise restrictions be implemented, regardless of whether the planned upgrades went ahead.
The conditions included noise limits of no more than 95 decibels for four days per month – five decibels more than the legal exhaust noise limit for road cars and one decibel higher than the limit for motorcycles.
This limit effectively restricts the operation of the circuit to four days per month, or 48 days per year, which circuit owners say makes it financially unviable.
In an interview with motorsport publication Auto Action, Benalla Auto Club vice president Bruce Robertson said: “At this point in time there is no immediate solution to the problems brought on us by the Land and Environmental Court, there is nothing more we can do legally.
“We cannot operate. No-one can operate a business or recreational facility on four days a month. It can’t be done.
“Closing the place has massive implications, not least for our full-time staff and their families, who will unfortunately face redundancy due to the stipulations that have been placed on us.
“This decision can’t be appealed, as there was no error in law, so the state government has to find a path forward with other legislative instruments.”
The operators of Wakefield Park Raceway say the venue injected $17 million into the local economy each year; some estimate the financial impact from the visiting rev heads was closer to $35 million per annum.
“It is a horrific decision in terms of all New South Wales motorsport,” Mr Robertson said in an interview with Auto Action. “If the government wants to have viable motor racing facilities for their citizens, an industry I might add that employs thousands of people, then they need to take notice of this court ruling and act.”
In addition to hosting professional motorsport, Wakefield Park Raceway was used for events such as grassroots racing, plus driver training courses and track days that allow drivers of road-registered cars to explore their limits in a controlled environment.
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