SYDNEY SPEEDWAY TO BE DEMOLISHED

Sydney Speedway To Be Demolished – Photo: Art of Speedway

AUSTRALIAN SPEEDWAY has been rocked today with the sudden news that Valvoline Raceway (Sydney Speedway) at Granville will be demolished to make way for the new Sydney Metro West’s stabling and maintenance facility.

By GEOFF ROUNDS

Construction will soon begin on the Western Sydney Metro, with the location of seven station confirmed today by the NSW Government.

Premier Gladys Berejiklian said construction work will begin mid next year, commencing at the Bays Precinct, to prepare the site for major tunneling works.

The first works in the Bays Precinct will include site surveys, investigations and early works such as road relocation. The locations of seven proposed Metro stations have been confirmed at Westmead, Parramatta, Sydney Olympic Park, North Strathfield, Burwood North, Five Dock and the Bays Precinct.

The news has left current Valvoline Raceway officials furious saying that the State Government’s failure to consult them about demolishing the track will throw the sport in Australia into “disarray.”

Speedway business director Felicity Waldron said the government had not indicated the track would be used for the underground transport network despite two years of renegotiating to renew a Crown land lease that expires in 2026.

Negotiations were undertaken in an effort to overhaul the 42-year-old track with new stands, a hotel and a carpark.

But she and her husband Barry, who is also a principal at the site, only discovered that the track would be cleared for a stabling and maintenance facility to operate opposite Rosehill Racecourse today.

The centre will be bound by James Ruse Drive, the M4, and Unwin and Shirley streets, and include the speedway site.

A Sydney Metro West spokesman said Speedway operators were notified about the project “the same time as all other affected parties” but Mrs Waldron said she only received a call from a government official about 11am today.

“(We’re in) total shock,’’ Mrs Waldron said.

“We’ve been pushing and fighting for two years. We’ve wanted to do major improvements to the facility. In none of that two years have they ever said anything about the train.

“The government has never, ever said and they’ve had ample opportunity in renewing the lease. This is like an episode of The Castle.’’

“It just impacts the whole sport in Australia, not just in Sydney.”

The speedway’s property adviser John Elvy slammed the government’s “appalling” lack of consultation about the Metro project despite dealing with ministers Melinda Pavey, Rob Stokes and Parramatta state Liberal MP Geoff Lee.

“I think it’s appalling,’’ Mr Elvy said.

“The government needs to take some responsibility and be transparent.

“This Metro has been talked about for five years. They should have said ‘Look, we won’t give you approval for a new lease because it’s being considered for the Metro. It’s an international speedway.”

The Sydney Metro West spokesman said construction work would not start before mid-2021.

“Sydney Metro’s preference is to reach a commercial agreement with affected land owners/tenants, as occurred with 85 per cent of people on the Sydney Metro Northwest project and 80 per cent of people on Sydney Metro City and Southwest project,’’ he said.

“Sydney Metro will work closely with all affected parties.”

The Raceway is a focal point for the industry nationally and internationally and has attracted tens of thousands of spectators and literally thousands of race competitors over its four-decade reign.

The impact that a development like this would have for the sport of Australian Speedway nationally and indeed internationally (the sport of Speedway in Australia is some 93 years old having started in Maitland NSW in 1923) would be devastating.

Barry and Felicity Waldron have invested literally millions of dollars into the upgrading, the maintaining and the future development of the Valvoline Raceway since 2014 firmly in the belief that with a long-term lease they could take the sport into a new era.

“This is devastating. Absolutely devastating, I can’t believe that in all our dealings with the Government through Crown Lands in our proposed long- term planning discussions nobody thought to give us even a hint that this could happen,” says Barry Waldron, “how is it possible something as enormous as that could be overlooked?”

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