Giant motorsport park plan in SA

Moves are gathering pace in South Australia for the development of what is claimed could be Australia’s biggest motorsport park. The site is the former Mitsubishi test track at Tailem Bend, on the Murray River 100km south-east of Adelaide.

That distance from a major population centre is one issue in it being viable, but it has numerous other factors in its favour.

Ownership of the 680-hectare site has passed to Adelaide’s wealthy Shahin family and it has the financial muscle to proceed with the proposed $40m development. It has envisaged a multi-purpose facility, including a top-class road circuit, to host events from grassroots and club level up to “A-grade, first-class national and international events”.

For one, the Confederation of Australian Motor Sport (CAMS) has identified Tailem Bend as the best of several options for a motorsport hub in SA. Curiously the existing Mallala Motorsport Park, 55km north of Adelaide, was not even considered.

Most importantly, though, the SA government already appears to favour Tailem Bend, although it has not made any public pledge of financial support for the development.

SA premier Jay Weatherill has spoken previously of the Shahin family’s Peregrine Corporation having a fine record of investing in the state and a well-placed source has predicted that “something will happen fairly quickly”.

The existing Tailem Bend Motorsport Park (TBMP) non-profit organisation runs a wide variety of activities at the venue – motorcycling (including supermotards), off-street drags, drifting, club sprints, motorkhanas, rallycross, four-wheel-drives and driver training and vehicle and component testing.

The facility already is used for up to three days a week.

TBMP had its own plans for a major upgrade but Peregrine Corporation won the Coorong Council’s recent tender for its sale.

Since Fred Shahin migrated to Adelaide from Palestine in 1984, he and his family have built a business empire employing about 2000 people in SA and with more than 100 service stations, most with major franchised fast food outlets attached. This year the Shahins took over 16 metropolitan and 12 regional BP sites, three years after acquiring 26 Mobil service stations.

Fred Shahin died in 2009 but his sons Charlie, Yasser and Sam have continued the business, with Sam responsible for the property arm under which Tailem Bend will sit.

The Shahins are keen motor racing enthusiasts and it has been reported that they regularly hire Victoria’s Phillip Island circuit (a quarter the size of Tailem Bend) and Darwin’s Hidden Valley for private track days.

While Adelaide hosts the annual Clipsal 500 V8 Supercar event on a shortened version of its former Formula One grand prix street circuit, Sam Shahin told the city’s Advertiser newspaper that SA had been “starved of [motorsport] venues of the right standard”.

“There is no doubt the support is here for it,” he said.

Of it being 100km from Adelaide, he said: “If we could have 400 acres in the middle of Adelaide so that it was convenient for everyone to drive for 30 minutes then it would be great, but realistically that’s not going to happen. Enthusiasts, spectators and participants will travel if the facility is right.”

The site is at the intersection of the Dukes and Mallee highways, close to the Princes Highway.

Other sites considered were Gilman near Port Adelaide, the old Adelaide International Raceway at Virginia on Adelaide’s northern outskirts and Cougar Raceway at Monarto, south-east of the capital and near Murray Bridge.