MOTORSPORT: Mildura wants a race circuit

Mildura is the latest regional centre with hopes of establishing a new permanent motorsport facility that could host V8 Supercars and Superbike racing.

The hometown of Nissan Motorsport team principals and drivers Todd and Rick Kelly is doing a feasibility study on building a circuit near its airport.

Glenn Milne, mayor of the city of 30,000 on the Murray River, has estimated the cost at $15 million and said it could generate $30 million a year in economic return for the Sunraysia district.

It is earmarked for the Koorlong area south-west of Mildura and the council is hoping for a corporate investor of the ilk of trucking magnate Lindsay Fox’s Linfox group getting it started within a couple of years.

“We have a special projects team at council building a business case for it and I’d like to think we’d have it up and running within 10 years, if not sooner,” Milne told the Sunraysia Daily newspaper.

“[But] Lindsay Fox owns the Phillip Island track and surrounding land [in southern Victoria] and if we can somehow get a private investor then we’d be looking at getting it started within the next two years.”

John Kelly, father of the Kelly brothers, has been a prominent property developer in Mildura and owns a sheep station and vineyard across the river in southern NSW.

“We’d look at hosting the V8s, but we’d also be looking at having rounds of the Australian Superbikes,” Milne said.

“The other big thing is that the track would lure car clubs from around Australia, like the Jaguar and Aston Martin clubs who have up to 150 members.

“These people have very expensive toys and they need a place to use them.

“You’d also have the likes of BMW hire the track for a week and bring their clients here.”

Mildura is 392km from Adelaide, 542km from Melbourne and 1015km from Sydney. Its feasibility study is being led by the council’s manager of development services, Andrew Millen. Another councillor, Jill Joslyn, recently inspected Darwin’s Hidden Valley, venue for the Northern Territory’s round of the V8 Supercar and Superbike championships, and reported that a similar set-up at Mildura would be of great value to the Sunraysia district.

Mildura has a strong motorsport heritage, especially in speedway motorcycle racing, having produced international stars Phil and Jason Crump and Leigh Adams. In the 1950s it hosted motorcycle racing on a public road course. It has the Olympic Park and Timmis speedways, an off-road motorcycle racing club, a kart track and a short drag strip.

Mildura’s interest in a new permanent circuit follows moves at South Australia’s Tailem Bend and at Wyong on NSW’s Central Coast. There is also the potential sale of Holden’s proving ground at Lang Lang, between Melbourne and Phillip Island, when General Motors ceases production in Australia. Linfox has already expressed informal interest in that venue, although the price it wants to pay is understood to be well short of the $20 million Holden is seeking.

Adelaide’s Shahin family is finalising the takeover of the former Mitsubishi proving ground at Tailem Bend, 100km south-east of the SA capital, and has plans for a $65 million motorsport park that would be Australia’s largest.

The NSW Central Coast proposal, CASAR (Community Automotive Sport and Recreation) Park, is at Bushells Ridge bordering the Sydney-Newcastle freeway and a train line.

A motorsport and driver training facility is envisaged on a 115-hectare site estimated to cost $25 million in two stages.