THERE are hopes for the newly announced circuit at Avalon Airport Precinct to open as soon as 2026.
The Victorian Government on Saturday confirmed it will tip an initial $1.6 million into designing and planning the state’s new Home of Motorsport.
From there, the mission will be to lobby for significant further government funding to underpin the build.
“We have appointed a project manager (Tim Bamford) to oversee the feasibility and design phase and that is expected to be completed by November/December of this year,” Motorsport Australia CEO Eugene Arocca told V8 Sleuth.
“Our aim would then be to get it before government in the following six months, and with a fair degree of hope and some expectation that the government would support funding the venue.
“Ultimately what we would be realistically expecting is if that happened, we could hopefully be opening a new track or cutting the ribbon on a new track in late ’26 or early ’27.
“These things don’t happen overnight, it takes a lot of work.
“This started four years ago, so we have sort of got to look four years into the future before we actually cut the ribbon on the track, assuming all of the things that we hope happen actually occur.
“That in particular is, the feasibility stacks up, and that the government sees the value in the track.
“I do believe, of all the governments I’ve dealt with, this government has certainly been invested in motorsport over the last few years and certainly walking the talk.”
Arocca believes the model attached to the project will be a gamechanger for the industry.
“Most of the tracks in this country are not operated by the sport, they’re operated by private individuals because they have invested the money, or by clubs sitting on crown land,” he said.
“The intent behind this particular project is for Motorsport Australia essentially to be the guardian and occupier of the premises, and to make sure that all money that’s generated from the premises is put back into the sport.
“I think that’s the gamechanger.
“It’s the first time in our history a peak motorsport body will actually have access to a track for development purposes, training purposes, for a Centre of Excellence, for junior development, for Girls On Track, and not have to pay significant amounts of money to other venues to be able to do those programs.
“That’s a real gamechanger, that we can actually accelerate the growth of motorsport because we’re not being held back by other tracks’ schedules and costs and fees.”
Adding another permanent facility at a time when Pukekohe Park has been lost to motorsport and both Sandown and Newcastle are under threat is a means of safeguarding the sport at elite and grassroots levels, too.
“We’ve been strong supporters of street circuits, we see and understand the value in street circuits but the inevitable consequence is that they pack them all up at the end of a week and we don’t see them for another 12 months,” said Arocca.
“These permanent venues actually feed the supply through the whole year, and what this particular project will, in my view, is open the eyes of other governments about what the model could be in their own state.
“You have got New South Wales that has literally got just one track and it’s basically a monopoly: they can name their price, they can name their date.
“We need more supply so that we can meet the demand and I’m hopeful that governments around the country will follow Victoria’s lead and see there is a lot to be gained by investing in permanent circuits which provide a permanent facility for training, safety, road safety, officials training, Centres of Excellence, engineering, innovation.
“We’re the test tube for the automotive industry… it’s a really important signal to other governments that there’s value in building and supporting permanent circuits. We’re hopeful that this will drive that narrative.”
Avalon is roughly 55km southwest of the Melbourne CBD.
