Tailem Bend Motorsport Park to open in early 2018

Australia’s next motorsport park, Tailem Bend, is moving along to be completed by early next year.

The location used to be Mitsubishi Australia’s test track, but now it’s well on its way to being a motorsport and even industrial hub.

The main circuit should be complete first, with a 4X4 track, a hotel, and a small stadium track for drifting and other events to follow.

Development manager at Tailem Bend Motorsport Park Paul Trengove tells MOTOR that the main track will be ready by January at its current rate.

“We’re hoping the main circuit stays on track to be finished by January, and the pits will be mostly complete then too,” Trengove says.

“The stadium circuit, which is for drifting and other events, will also be done by early 2018, but the 4X4 park should be complete in January as well.

“There’s also a hotel going up which should be ready by March.”

In terms of coming and planned events, some big (and maybe not-so-big) series have expressed interest in making use of the multi-layout track.

“Supercars has an agreement in place with us that there will be a race here in 2018, but they’ve not confirmed the calendar yet, and they obviously won’t want it too close to the Clipsal,” Trengove says.

He told us we’d likely see Supercars at The Bend later in the year.

“We’ve also had some international interest, with a motorcycling series called Asian Road Racing planning to head down here. It’s good to get a mix of different events in, I think.”

“A few local motorsport series have expressed interest, and it’s easy for them since we’re an hour east of Adelaide. It makes it less of a travel from the eastern states.”

But he adds that Tailem Bend is also being built as a place for amateur and novice drivers to get to experience the full potential of their cars.

“Our biggest focus is track days, so we’re planning to have a membership system similar to a golf course. You’d pay for membership and be able to join in on member days with road cars or race cars, and across multiple variations of the track.”

More places to race? Sounds good to us!