newcastle race precinct

[Growling Ferret]

Agreed Ross, Newcastle is motorsport mad! Have a look how many people rock up to watch the Matara Hillclimb - I used to love bouncing through the right hander up from the startline up the hill towards the Pinch, and seeing the hill absolutely chockers full of spectators (all hoping that you would lose it into the sunken garden or in the Pinch...)

[Senna05]

It's a damned shame. The potential for a festival of speed, the likes of Clipsal, is more than there. Close to the train station (400m's at the closest point!) and not far from the F3/Pacific. Easy re-routes all the way around for local traffic, and massive space for teams and spectators in the infield. To add a short 350m's onto the track, you could easily loop around Broadmeadow McDonalds, and back in at the next right, back onto Lambton Road. But, as Ross suggests, the drain might be a hazzardous issue.

Ross, you may agree with this - It'd be more than interesting to see the reaction from the locals if the idea was "light heartedly" dropped to the press. After all, most of the best things that have happened to Australian Motorsport have happened as a ground swell from the people.....

Wonder what Feedback from drivers/teams on this would be like?

[Aarrgh8]

Originally Posted by Growling Ferret

Agreed Ross, Newcastle is motorsport mad! Have a look how many people rock up to watch the Matara Hillclimb - I used to love bouncing through the right hander up from the startline up the hill towards the Pinch, and seeing the hill absolutely chockers full of spectators (all hoping that you would lose it into the sunken garden or in the Pinch...)

Aaaah... the Mattara Festival and the King Edward Park hillclimb. I first went there around 1963-64 to see the bikes. FTD was Eric Hinton, and as a starry-eyed teenager, I got his autograph. I went back the next year to see the cars, then the next year and the next, and in '69 and '70 I had a run myself in my lightweight Mini. Locked diff and all. Hard work, that diff. Lined up down near the baths, then up beside the ocean, winding uphill past the garden, and UP Perce's Pinch, etc. The finish line was almost outside my great-aunt's old Victorian house on Terrace Street. Back there for tea.

Memories. Newcastle, I love you.

[SkaifeysGal]

I would love to see a race happen in my own home town, it would be fantastic to see all the v8 drivers and not even have to travel very far to see them!! I would be all for it

[v8race1]

Memories. Newcastle, I love you.

Oh yeah, we were and probably still are just a little greyer, bunch of hoons who terrorised the locals utilising the cities many varied and challenging
"road courses". AHHHH long live the memories!!!!!!!!

[Luke Plaizier]

If a street circuit can't be pulled together, can a semi-permanent road circuit be built anywhere else?

I originally thought Mt Sugarloaf would be a prime place to put a neat 6.1km hill-climbing downhill-straight circuit, but national parks/state forests will undoubtedly can that one.

How about the recently vacated Pasminco site in Lake Macquarie with a circuit that runs up and down around Munibung hill? That whole area hill was owned by the company wasn't it? (Someone should speak to the Oran Park guys about this site!) As I understood, it is not suited for building because of the lead build-up and instability due to early coal mining.

If you've ever been up there, that whole area is quite large - stretching as it does now over the vacated boolaroo refinery location, all the way down to the back of the train line behind argenton and the stocklands shopping centre, through to the back of Macquarie Hills and a big swath of land from there down to Warners Bay on the backside of the hill. There's even quite a long ridge along the top.

I've walked from Argenton to Speers Point along the ridge, and the view over Lake Macquarie easily rivals Skyline....


Lukeyson

[stoned pony]

Sorry, Luke, never going to happen. The residents would kill it purely on noise grounds if you are talking aboutr a permanent track and no council would fund the construction costs if it were to be used for a one-off race.
I reckon the HPOTS centre site near Cessnock would be ideal.

[Luke Plaizier]

But hey, what a dream!


Lukeyson