Queensland Raceway expansion works revealed

The Tony Quinn-owned venue is currently reviving and expanding an existing dirt track that sits on a parcel of land to the west of Turn 2.

The rallycross-style track is being renovated along with the addition of technical four-wheel-drive facilities such as hills, mud pits and rock climbs.

Due to be completed by March, the new off-road area will be available for competitive use, manufacturer events and driver training.

“There’s a dirt sprint circuit around there, it’s got about four layouts,” QR’s general manager Josh McFarlane told Speedcafe. “A loop of that track is about 1m20s, 1m30s.

“And we’re doing that off-road program with mud pits, up over hills, rock climbing for the driver training facility.

“Manufacturers can come out, use the corporate centre for new releases, and then they can drive their vehicles around our ring road, go into that property over the back of Turn 2 and they’ll have an off-road program that is available for high speed stuff or very low speed stuff.

“It will be perfect for manufacturers who want to do testing or driver training and even things like side-by-sides.

“The property size is exactly the same as what Queensland Raceway already is, so it’s a fairly big property. Plus at the back of the property there’s a large hill climb that we’ll be adding to the venue later on, when we get a bit of a feel of the venue.

“Our goal is to have rally sprints, and off-road testing and driving that’s close to Brisbane and the Gold Coast. It’s usually four or five hours out.”

The addition of the new off road facilities coincides with a number of upgrades to QR as the circuit prepares to host Supercars for the first time since 2019.

New garages and a new permanent podium are nearing completion, while kerbing and drainage work has been undertaken on the track itself.