After a two-year pit stop, Goulburn's raceway is back on track

A wave of “anticipation and excitement” rushed over Goulburn when more than a hundred racecars descended on the town for the first time in two years.

Technically, the Australian Superbike Championship christened the fresh tarmac at One Raceway – formerly Wakefield Park Raceway – between 4 and 6 October. But it was the turn of four wheels on Saturday and Sunday, 26 and 27 October.

“Every corner’s changed – it’s pretty much a brand new track,” Queanbeyan Mazda RX-8 driver Geoff Connell says.

“It was hard to pass once we got racing – passing is hard with the new layout – but as far as driving it goes, it was great fun.”

All up, more than 100 drivers from four states competed in the various categories that made up Round 6 of the Hi-Tec Oils Super Series, with many more people coming along to watch, including new Goulburn-Mulwaree mayor Nina Dillon and councillor Keith Smith (the pair also scored a hot lap in a Hyundai i30N safety car, which the mayor described as “absolutely great”).

The 2.2 km circuit off Braidwood Road was closed indefinitely by the previous owners in September 2022 after noise complaints ended up in court, but its new owner, Steve Shelley from Pheasant Wood Circuit in Marulan, has spent the past year breathing new life into it.

There are new 10-metre-high sound barriers at either end, remodelled corners and widened tarmac throughout, and completely upgraded pit facilities.

Mayor Nina was “very impressed” with the work and what it means for the region.

“I’m quite sure the hospitality industry, which has been struggling anyway because of the financial crisis … has suffered, and I’m sure this will bring a very welcome injection of funds back into the area,” she says.

“It means we’re going to have more people staying in our motels and more people going to our restaurants and cafes.”

She’s not expecting a repeat of the noise complaints that ultimately felled Wakefield Park.

“I did pull up and listen about 5 km from the track, and then again about a kilometre from the track, just to see what I could hear, and I was very pleasantly surprised.

“It’s certainly much, much improved on the old track as far as the noise goes …. and I’m hoping there’s a lovely balance here between the community and the need to have the track open.”

Geoff Connell was among more than 20 competitors in the Formula RX-8 field, a one-make series dedicated to Mazda’s iconic rotary-engined sports coupe.

Born and bred 45 minutes up the road from Goulburn, Geoff’s motorsport journey started in 2002 at the age of 10, in a go-kart “because we didn’t have the budget to do car racing”.

“At the time, I wanted to race motocross, but my parents said, ‘That’s too dangerous, but we’ll compromise it and give you a go-kart’,” he says.

“The karting results weren’t amazing, but we competed at a pretty high level and won some ACT titles and that sort of thing.”

In his spare time, Geoff was also on the simulator, playing car racing games to “try and stay sharp”. Over COVID, during a boom for online gaming, one of the category organisers for Formula RX-8 held a competition, so if you won a digital race, you’d also win a real-life test day in an RX-8. Geoff was among more than 100 budding drivers across Australia who entered.

“We ended up running seventh, but they rang up and said, ‘Look, you’ve done well, come and drive the car anyway at a discounted rate’.”

Geoff was hooked, and earlier this year, earned enough sponsorship to get his own fully kitted-out RX-8, famous for screaming around the track with the rev counter bouncing between 6500 and 9000 rpm – in true rotary-engine style.

“They’ve got no power or torque down low, so they have to rev high,” he explains.

He was left staggered after the weekend, winning his first race in the first year.

“Was an awesome weekend with such a big crowd and a lot of local support,” he says.

“We topped every practice and ran in the top three every race, other than race two when we blew a gearbox and could only use third and fifth gear. We also wrapped up third in the championship and won ‘Rookie Of The Year’.”

But that wasn’t the only icing on the cake.

“We’ve been everywhere around Australia, so it was really cool to have a race 45 minutes from home.”

The next event at One Raceway will be the 2024 Australian Historic Road Race Championship, from 15 to 17 November, featuring racing bikes from as far back as 1919. Tickets are available from One Raceway.

Original Article published by James Coleman on Riotact.