Leaders of some of Ballarat’s most well-known car clubs and automotive manufacturers are urging council and state government to deliver a new motorsport facility in Western Victoria.
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Ballarat City Council completed a detailed feasibility study for the development and narrowed down a shortlist of potential locations in late 2016, however the council’s regional motorsport committee has held just one meeting since November.
Both the Ballarat Light Car Club and the Ballarat Drag Racing Club have been operating on month-by-month leases for the past four years due the development at the Ballarat West Employment Zone and the nearby airport. Both will likely need to relocate in the near future.
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Ballarat Light Car Club president Keith McElroy said while clubs and their members would be willing to contribute both financially and non-financially to the development of a precinct, council needed to first acquire the land.
“We’ve had quite a few years where we can’t plan with absolute certainty more than one month ahead,” Mr McElroy said. “We as a club would put everything we could in the way of our own resources into making sure this happened.
“We’re really in danger of being the ones who put a lot of work into the idea and some detailed planning but missing out because it’s gone right on the back burner.”
Ballarat councillors on the regional motorsport committee Des Hudson, Ben Taylor and Grant Tillett all confirmed to The Courier the project was not considered a high priority. The facility would require between 240 and 300 hectares and could cost as much as $50 million.
Earlier this month Confederation of Australian Motorsport chief executive Eugene Arocca reaffirmed his belief that Ballarat was the best location for a new motorsport development, urging the Ballarat City Council to locate a block of land ahead of the 2018 state election. Moorabool Shire has voiced its interest in being a potential host site for the facility.
Racing expert Ken Marriott, who developed the City of Ballarat plan, said while Ballarat was best placed to build a new racing facility, it would have to act soon.
A motorsport committee made of representatives from across the industry is in the process of searching for a suitable location for a new development, with Warragul, Kyneton and Geelong touted as other possibilities.
“Sandown is likely to close at some point, they keep putting it off but at some point they will bite the bullet,” Mr Marriott said. “If a council wanted to come on board and provide a property that would be fabulous because then if the whole thing fell over it would still have a valuable asset.”