HIDDEN in the bush, about half way between Canberra and Sydney on the Hume Highway, a motorsport revolution is underway that you were unlikely to even know was happening.

What is currently known as the Marulan Dirt and Tar Circuits is in the process of being transformed into something that could become a shining gem for racing in Australia.

An enormous upgrade of what was ostensibly a club-level circuit is transforming the still somewhat unknown track, with a view to firmly imprinting itself on the conscious of the local motorsport scene.

It has all happened quietly, away from prying eyes and any notable media coverage but is arguably a significant step forward for the sport – especially when it comes to investment in permanent facilities.

In fact, had it not been for the creation of the $110m The Bend Motorsport Park in South Australia, the cash injection into Marulan may well be the largest in any Australian circuit since the ARDC upgraded Sydney Motorsport Park several years ago.

More on that later.

Located about 25 minutes from Goulburn, the Marulan circuit was founded in 2009 by well-known Bathurst and Touring Car privateer, Garry Willmington and his wife, Natalie.

Having left his role as manager at the nearby Wakefield Park, Willmington moved to establish the grass roots facility further up the Hume, featuring a challenging – though short – circuit, dirt speedway and later, provision to host RallyCross competition.

However, after six years of operation Willmington sold the property in late 2016 to Sydney businessman and racer, Steve Shelley.

The founder of workflow management application and website Deputy, Shelley is perhaps better known for his own racing exploits that include success in New South Wales state-level competition driving, amongst other things, a Mitsubishi Lancer and Lotus Exige.

A chance visit to Marulan some time ago, however, started a journey towards ownership of the facility itself.

“I came out here about four years ago just on a boys track day, mucking around with some legend cars and I didn’t even know the place existed,” Shelley told TheRaceTorque.com, during the renovated circuit’s first ever event – the second round of the 2018 RXAus RallyCross championship.

“When I saw It, I fell in love with it and I said to Garry, just in passing, ‘If ever you have a desire to move on or want to do something different, please make me the first person you call.’

“A couple of years later he gave me a call and of course I was interested. I came down and had a talk to him and we did a deal. Part of that deal was that he was going to stay on and help me manage it and transform it into what it is today – and that’s what he did.

“Some 18 months later we started to rip the old circuit up, with a view to making it the best circuit of its type in the Southern hemisphere and that’s what we’re trying to achieve..

“..Maby even, some people may say, the best of it’s type in the world,” he adds, smiling.

What Shelley acquired was the bones of something with enormous potential, though lacking the required investment to go to the next level.

In Marulan, he purchased a quick, challenging, driver-friendly if unforgiving circuit in a stunning location. A café / canteen was already established, as was a large area for a paddock.

Issues included access (a narrow, almost single-lane road weaving between several, separate properties between the main road and the circuit itself), the lack of significant public amenities or garages and, basically, a lack of cash to upgrade it all.

The circuit closed late last year and a significant construction process begun almost immediately. The old circuit was torn up – re-profiled, smoothed and widened in some places and changed completely in others.

Where the old speedway sat on the infield, the circuit now sweeps through in a challenging sequence of switchback hairpins, both with significant banking.

That opens into a challenging, quick and double-apex left hander that links back in with the existing layout.

A new dirt section for RallyCross was a clever use of otherwise desolate ground at the top of the circuit, as were several new spectating areas – ideally located amongst the gum trees and foliage that will make spectating at the venue truly unique amongst circuits in Australia.

New concrete walls replaced many of the existing earth-filled tyre banks. A new pit lane – yet to be completed – was cut out above the turn one hairpin, which now has an enormous, paved runoff area.

Revised Marulan on-board lap:

In the ultimate act of up-cycling, temporary buildings used at the former Sydney 500 street circuit event in Homebush were purchased. The old commentary boxes, for example, are now being used at the start-finish line for race control and timing purposes. Others sit in the precinct ready to be used elsewhere, where needed.

The scope of the works is truly significant and elevates the track, with respect to what was there before, into another dimension.

It is challenging, quick, has significant elevation and character. At the risk of defaulting to an over-used cliche’, it’s a mini-Nurburgring.

Make no mistake; phase one of the development has been a serious undertaking and ranks among the more significant investments in permanent motor sport facilities in this country in the last decade.

Phase two is set to take it to another level again.

“We’ve basically just completed the track surface now. We want to beautify the place we have a lot of landscaping we want to do. We’ve got develop all the car parking, the infrastructure facilities,” Shelley said.

“Then we want to work on our pit area, we’ve just received our DA (development application) to do a beautiful building that will provide that corporate offering.

“It will have a drivers club, proper garaging facilities and drivers amenities suites so they can get changed, prepare for racing, shower down afterwards in a nice environment, rather than out in a gravelly carpark like we’re all used to at many circuits around Australia.”

The pit building is likely to be impressive. Set to be nestled amongst the Gums at the top of the circuit, the multi-story building will arc around the contour of the pit lane and will have sweeping views over not only the entire facility – but the surrounding valley and hills in the distance. It is likely to be a truly unique structure in the context of local motorsport.

“I want to offer people who come and get involved in motor racing at every level a proper place to go and get setup and get their head in the game, and after the day is finished tidy up and go and have a drink with their friends and go home.”

It’s a country club approach that more and more circuits are catering to. The Bend, for instance, will rely heavily on the corporate and enthusiast ‘drive day’ market to be viable as a business and has been designed with the amenities to suit. Marulan is no different.

What’s more, the new owner suggests that the scope of the circuit is set to be as broad as the works undertaken to get it to this point.

“I want it to be everything to everyone – from grass roots – I’d like to get kids off the street, not learning how to drive the very first time they’ve been in a drivers seat; I’d rather that they do it here than on the street.

“Right through to RallyCross, Go karts, all different types of closed and open wheel motor racing – even push bikes, who knows. I also want to make it a beautiful corporate offering, so people can come down with their executives or whoever they might be in a corporate environment and training environment – be it car training, or even strategizing what they are doing in their company.

“Or even having the driving, car racing as a supplement to that.”

The circuit is also a shot in the arm for New South Wales, which otherwise lags other states in the context of high quality racing facilities.

With Oran Park and Amaroo gone, only Sydney Motorsport Park services a metro area of over five million.

Goulburn’s Wakefield Park and the occasional or once-a-year use facilities at Bathurst and Newcastle are, otherwise, it.

The redeveloped Marulan will add another layer to what the state can offer the sport – though don’t expect It to compete head-on with it’s neighbor just down the freeway.

The owner says they will likely maintain a safe distance from Wakefield Park’s core business of higher-level circuit racing.

“I think so. I think that’s their bucket – that’s a much bigger circuit; we’re much more boutique. We’re more suited to smaller vehicles, or smaller numbers of race cars.

“I think we can work in closely with Wakefield and where we stop, they start and vice-versa. We can work in as ‘sister companies,’ if you like and provide better offerings to the motorsport fraternity.”

It’s a refreshing approach not not often seen in the an the otherwise combative, adversarial landscape that is motorsport business.

Look out also for a name change, too.

While ‘MDTC’ may be functional, it doesn’t exactly scream the country-club style aesthetic the new ownership is after; though in this case there is a much more significant, more personal reason to change names.

The circuit it set to be renamed after the cemetery where Steve’s late Grandfather was buried after being killed during World War One, near Fromelles, in the North of France.

Welcome, then, To Pheasant Wood.

WORDS & IMAGES: Richard Craill

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The Race Torque Comment:

THANK the racing gods for people like Steve Shelley and the Shahin family in Adelaide.

They’re the ones driving money into permanent circuits in this country and that’s a great thing.

Governments rarely invest significant money in them because it’s often hard to justify the kind of return they can get from bankrolling an Adelaide 500, Gold Coast 600 or Newcastle event.

Unlike the modern sports stadiums to which they throw billions, circuits are often located – for obvious reasons – in more regional areas that are low on the tourism department’s hit list. It’s understandable, however it’s also a fact of life for the sport and it’s very nature. It’s loud and considered by many pretty anti-social. That’s the way it is.

So instead, a lot of our permanent facilities come from benefactors like the ones I’ve mentioned, or local councils keen to promote a regional area.

What is going on at Marulan is outstanding and should absolutely be applauded.

In fact, despite the naysayers who continue to bemoan street circuit events, we’re wondering if there’s ever actually been more investment in private circuits in Australia’s history?

From operating projects like The Bend and Marulan, to those underway like Circuit Italia to the North of Sydney and Luddenham Raceway to the west.

Then there’s proposals like Mildura, Geelong and the recently announced circuit to the South of Perth.

It’s a good time for permanent circuits in Australia – and it only looks like it’s going to get better.

It’s now our job to make sure we embrace them in the same way we embrace the annual street-circuit events that bring the eyeballs to our sport in the first place.

– Richard Craill, Editor.