Lakeside Raceway

[DAVID PATERSON]

Go to www.prsc.qld.gov.au and you will see a media release from Pine Rivers Shire Council calling for expressions of interest to operate Lakeside Raceway. The relevant document can be downloaded from the website.

[Sultan]

As much as I miss lakeside (& man, I seriously do!), I have no faith in the politicians of Pine Rivers to get the job done right....

I do hope that the above comment comes back & bites me on the ass though.....

[spook]

One would like to think that the only surviving home of Queensland Motorsport for the 1960's, 70's, 80's and 90's could be held in some regard by lovers of the sport.

A small but significant museum, two or three motorsport "club" race meetings each year (conducted on the full circuit with the addition of a couple of "safety chicanes"), and the rest of the year as a family picnic and heritage venue where all can remember "the grand old days of Qld Motorsport".

It's time for someone to step up to the plate and make this happen. There is only one Lakeside - it's all that is left from over 40 years past - what's left of Lakeside should be saved.

????

[Guest]

Reading the documents it would take a lot of work and dollars, but hopefully someone is up to the challenge!

[mixxer]

A small but significant museum, two or three motorsport "club" race meetings each year (conducted on the full circuit with the addition of a couple of "safety chicanes"), and the rest of the year as a family picnic and heritage venue where all can remember "the grand old days of Qld Motorsport".

Hear hear

[fordlover]

the problem is very few people who love lakeside have any money, i know i dont lol.

we need someone who has some spare millions for a small museum and maybe a resurface if they wanna hold race meetings (even at club level).

[spook]

Lakeside is a long way from Bathurst and even further from the Gold Coast.

[fordlover]

Originally Posted by spook

Lakeside is a long way from Bathurst and even further from the Gold Coast.

??? care to explain what you mean by that

[spook]

The Bathurst City Council established a Museum at Mt Panorama many years ago. It now attracts thousands of PAYING visitors every year. I'm not saying that Lakeside has the same pull, but is there anything else in Pine Rivers to interest a follower of Motorsport to even stop there for a pie.

The Gold Coast has no problem attracting government funding for any projects to boost visitor numbers, because that's the business that community is in and they understand the value of tourism dollars. I'm not sure the PRSC know or care about tourist dollars I'm also sure that if Lakeside was close to the heart of those at Marine Parade, they would help save this part of our history. The queensland motorsport industry (AKA V8 Supercars Australia & all of the teams bar one), are also located on the Gold Coast.

I could say more, but that would ruffle some feathers and not help the cause. Time will tell all.

[Falcadore]

The tender documents actually specifically preclude V8Supercar involvement. Which is fine beause Marine Parade want nothing to do with the place either. With two new circuits about to be added to the Queensland environment - anything other than the occasional clubby of historic revival is probably unrealistic.

[silver 2]

What 2 new circuits are you referiing to and how far advanced are they?

[storyline]

Townsville (read V8's only) and another pie in the sky secret track being thrown in to muddy the waters.

[twinwebbers]

Has anyone forwarded the documents to Mr Bowden?

His collection on display at lakeside! I'd like to see that!

[silver 2]

So these other tracks are more important than seeing Lakeside recovered? This is probably a once only possibility.

[DAVID PATERSON]

Originally Posted by storyline

Townsville (read V8's only) and another pie in the sky secret track being thrown in to muddy the waters.

OK, now I'm curious, what's this secret pie in the sky track you speak of?

[storyline]

That's what I am asking - what is this 'second track' that is so nameless?

[DAVID PATERSON]

Originally Posted by storyline

That's what I am asking - what is this 'second track' that is so nameless?

OK, now I understand, you've simply written this other track off as a pie in the sky secret, without having any knowledge at all of the proposal. Nice.

Falcadore's post was cryptic in that he didn't name the two circuits. We've assumed one was Townsville and I'm assuming the other was Kilcoy. But I could be wrong, he might be talking about Darlington Park.

[saliv8]

word has it the kilcoy track has been pegged out and land has been cleared as we speak. i live some 30 k's from kilcoy and there is a real buzz about the track being used sometime in the future for the v8's.
i will try and find out more and post as i gather the info.

[storyline]

Yes I've partly written it off because what we have here is a track that is being alluded to, without any facts being given as to whether it exists in reality or in the 'mind of the beholder'.

How many times have we heard 'such and such a track is being built' only to find that the concept is there - pity about the reality (Manly foreshore, Fremantle, Newcastle etc etc).

Maybe he is talking about Darlington Park - however given the cost it is going to need to bring that particular track to anywhere near a standard that CAMS (or anyone else for that matter) would require before they even enter the property to do a genuine circuit inspection - money would be better spent buying land, designing and building a circuit from scratch.

BTW - who currently owns Darlington Park?

So please - forgive me if I am sceptical about a GTR style 'new circuit announcement' (although at least GTR finshes such posts with 'If this really happened')

[DAVID PATERSON]

The builder/founder of Darlington Park died recently and his son now owns/operates the facility. Rumour has it that he is much keener to attract mainstream motorsport than his father was and also that he is far more willing to do the work that is required.

IMO, Kilcoy has a better than 80% chance of going ahead within two years.

[storyline]

Kilcoy - but that is still way off in the future isn't it? Doesn't help the immediate problem in QLD.

Darlington - thanks - I seemed to recall a change of ownership but couldn't recall the exact details. But, even if he is interested, the last estimates I had access to (around 2001/2002) were that the cost to bring it into line with CAMS requirements was in the order of $2-3 million minimum. That's a lot of cash to inject into a track that isn't guaranteed a future.

[DAVID PATERSON]

$2 or 3 million is a lot to you and I, but not to the owners of Darlington. I'm told it's just 5% of what they have already spent there.

Kilcoy is virtually a done deal in terms of governmental approval. The remaining challenges are admin, funding and construction. I believe that 70% of the required funding has already been identified internally. This is without going public.

[spook]

Darlington Park closed on 3/10/2005, permanently.

There is no longer any car driving/training activity planned or proposed for this venue.

It is being turned into an industrial subdivision and they have sold off all their "racing infrastructure" including the two Lola Indycars they had. They have conceded defeat with the Gold Coast City Council over the development of a motor racing circuit on the site.

Most of the former hirers of Darlington Park have moved their planned activities for 2006 to Queensland Raceway.

As for Kilcoy, there a lots & lots of little ducks to line up for this project to reach fruition, but as we speak all the little ducks so far have moved just perfectly and the circuit is moving forward.

[storyline]

spook - are you hinting that Kilcoy will be like Manfeild in New Zealand and have a boat course built in it as well?

[storyline]

Following on from this thread, I had a copy of the November 2005 HRCC Newsletter passed to me yesterday - of interest was the following item:

New Circuit at Kilcoy
The original charter of the Steering Committee for the new race circuit was to “investigate
the ways and means of establishing a new circuit”. Progress to date can be summarized in
the following way:
· Suitable site found
· Agreeable joint venture partner found
· Survey data provided by Lawrie Watson
· Circuit design provided by Don Thallon
· Engineering data and design provided by Ken Wasley
· Drafting services provided by Arthur Bach
· Qld State Govt approvals for new race track obtained via IPA (1977)
· Track design submitted to CAMS for initial review
· Track design submitted to MA(Motorcycling Australia) for initial review
· Safety benchmarking provided by Ross Holder
· Initial expressions of interest in pre-sale of practice rights sought
· Financial assistance from CAMS sought
· Financial assistance from MA sought
· Memorandum of agreement with landholder developed and presented
· Business plan development continues
· Meetings with landholder and accountant held (2x)
· Meetings with Commonwealth and State Govt re funds occurred
· Local Govt (Kilcoy Council) negotiations re conditions for approval completed. All State and Local Government approvals are now in place.

The new President of the HRCC will take these matters forward and with the will of the members, the new circuit is not far from fruition. Thank you for your support. This year ends a very interesting part of my life. While three years as President does not seem long, it represents nearly 10% of an average working life. The future of the HRCC will be very exciting indeed and I look forward to being part of that excitement.

BILL WESTERMAN

and this from the Minutes of their Oct 17 2005 meeting:

Race Circuit Sub-Committee: Bill talked to the Council recently, and has managed to negotiate all the conditions that they had applied to consent for change of use. Bill also made a short presentation to the meeting on predicted turnover figures for a track depending on numbers of weekends booked per year, with some very conservative revenue assumptions. On his figures, we would need at least 26 weekends booked (plus some mid-week use) to start to turn a profit over running costs, and at 40 weekends would generate somewhere around half a million or so. These figures are very broad only, and give some indication of what is needed in terms of use to make the idea viable. He also ran through a draft Memorandum of Understanding with the landowners, drafted by Guy Gibbons, Bill and Don Thallon. This MoU gives a “heads of agreement” for any joint venture legal agreement should the proposal proceed – it is not a legal or binding document in itself. It proposes forming a joint venture between the Club and the Kennedy family. The family is looking at the draft MoU at present. Ken Wasley has also done some rough figuring on construction costs, but until there is a clear Council OK it won’t be developed any further.

....

Kilcoy Canter: Bill had heard from Dr Nethercote who asked Bill to call Mr Connolly, the chairman or ARCOM (rally). Mr Connolly went through the CAMS requirements to run the event, and indicated that they weren’t keen on the downhill run. Bill commented that we still have the AASA option if required.

So as far as Kilcoy is concerned it looks as if it is at the submission of initial track designs to both CAMS and MA but a sod has yet to be turned.

Realistically it is all dependent (based on the Committee minutes) on approval by local council - no approval, no Kilcoy race track.