A new stand-alone drag strip proposal for Melbourne's western suburbs has the potential to open a new era for the sport in Victoria

At a plush function attended by over 200 invited guests, Victoria's new Adrenalin PowerSports Centre, to include a 40,000 seat stand-alone drag strip, just 15 minutes from the centre of the Melbourne Central Business District and the Tullamarine Airport, was publicly announced on October 20.

The $30 million complex, which will also cater for stadium-style clay speedway and jet-sprint boats, is currently undergoing environmental impact study and community consultation process, but is expected to be open for business in late 2001.

The complex is the dream of Melbourne fan Colin Rosewarne, who three years ago came to the conclusion that the poorly serviced and maintained facilities at most speedways were a considerable turn-off to most spectators. He thought that if a modern and clean speedway was built, with comfortable viewing areas and clean amenities there would be a definite market niche available.

Rosewarne began investigating the possibilities, gathering together a team of administrators and businessmen who felt the same way. They looked everywhere from Perth to Sydney but eventually decided that their home town of Melbourne was a more suitable locality.

It then didn't take long to locate the 84 hectare [208 acres] block of land, 1.6 x 0.5 km in size, bounded by Mt. Derrimut, Boundary and Robinson's Roads at Deer Park, to the west of the city, with excellent roadway access to all major suburban areas and only a short distance from a proposed Western Highway bypass.

"We're very excited to have found this site in the western districts of Melbourne," Adrenalin PowerSports chairman, Bruce Thomas told DRAGSTER. "This area, in the City of Brimbank, is a big petrolhead area. We already own the land and if our planning applications with the local council are approved we are ready to be up and working on the site straight away. We are talking to major corporate sponsors now who are keen to start if they see the approvals in place. That, of course, isn't to say that we aren't interested in talking to any prospective investor who would like to become part of the project at this early stage."

Interestingly, the City of Brimbank council area also encompasses the existing Calder Park track, and the Adrenalin site is situated as little as 15 minutes to the south of the long standing Melbourne motor racing venue.

After identifying the site, planning for the project continued to move forward as a speedway venue until the proponents spoke to the proponents of the Western Sydney Motorplex after two years of failed negotiations with the Australian Racing Drivers Club at Eastern Creek Raceway. When shown the plans for the WSM site they realised the potential to build a drag strip on the land they were looking at in Melbourne and began modifying their project.

The drag strip will be built into a hill on the western end of the property, with the start line 15 metres below the top of the surrounding mound/ground level. This will minimise noise impacts on the surrounding area, though the nearest residential property is over 4 km from the site.

Individual plastic seating for over 40,000 spectators will make it the biggest arena for the sport in Australia.

The drag strip will also be home to the Victorian Police's Operation Drag Safe road safety program, and there will be up to 50 Operation Drag Safe street drag race events at the centre.

The pits will contain numerous lock-up garages as well as pit bays large enough to comfortably handle large prime mover transporters. "When you look at the magnificent vehicles out there [referring to the race vehicles displayed outside the announcement venue]," said Thomas, "they deserve better facilities than they have now. That's our plan."

"Our dream is to build the best power sports venue in the world," added board member Jock McNeish, who is an architect.

It is planned that up to six international events will be held at the venue each year. Two rounds of the Jetsprint World Championship have already been signed, and consultation is currently underway with the World of Outlaws, who currently hold the view that there is no speedway worth competing at in Australia.

Thomas told DRAGSTER that at this stage he could give no indication about the drag racing events which would fall into this category, and that the board is still in consultation with ANDRA on the matter. ANDRA CEO Tony Thornton was at the launch to welcome the new track.

"This undertaking will have a profound effect on both drag racing and speedway and will cause a resurgence in these sports in Victoria and Australia," said Thomas.

Chief Superintendent Brian Edward of the Victorian Police said that the venue had the full support of Victorian and Sunshine Police Community Consultative Committee, and the offer to host the Operation Drag Safe program would boost its impact greatly.

The clay speedway will also cater for 40,000 spectators, while in the centre of that stadium will be a clean water jetsprint boat facility that will be more advanced than anything currently available in the world. This will be able to be drained and covered with a mechanically interlocking surface and artificially turfed to enable the staging of other stadium-style sporting activities during the winter off-season for speedway racing.

George Tatnell, president of the Sprintcar Central Council, said, "This is what Australia's needed for a long time. Speedway promoters across Australia haven't kept pace with what the racers are doing and while all they [the promoters] are concerned about is the bottom line at the back gate they haven't kept up with the movie theatres and the other entertainment mediums we compete with. It's just a pity this is in Melbourne and not in Sydney," the New South Wales-based Tatnell added with a smile.

The site is also to be a centre for community, training and industry related activities. It is planned that there will be a full conference centre, a motorsports business centre, museum, restaurant, and, if plans come to fruition, there will be apprenticeship training centres for the Victorian Western Training Group organisation in the hospitality, mechanical and horticultural areas, with the potential for that to be extended into security and sports management training.

It is believed that over a million people per year will see events at the centre, and that it will have an economic impact of $20-$30 million on the local community. It will employ approximately 100 people during construction, and 30 people full time and several hundred part-time once finished.

There will be parking for over 5000 vehicles on-site, and 90 hectares [200 acres] of adjoining land has been leased for overflow parking. There will be a regular bus service operating from nearby Deer Park and Sunshine railway stations during events.

"This project has an outward focus," said Adrenalin deputy chairman, Peter Benson, "It has been our idea to bring the community with us. There will be an ongoing community consultation process that will continue right through the planning and construction stages.

"The community consultation program will involve regular ongoing communications with the public, including open days on site, information nights for residents of surrounding areas, displays in local paers and community radio stations."

While there is still a way to go and obviously still a need for further investors and some local government approvals to be secured, if Colin Rosewarne's dream comes to fruition, under the guidance of the Adrenalin PowerSports management team, this is a venue that will -- as Bruce Thomas promised -- dramatically change the face of Australian drag racing.