EVER had the dream of turning your driveway into a hillclimb like Lord March, or squeezing a karting track in the backyard between the Orange tree and the Hills hoist? Turns out, you’re not the only one.

WORDS: Richard Craill

OWNING YOUR own private race track is a dream for anyone with even the slightest hint of octane running through their blood, only for the fact that they are extremely expensive, very large and generally quite antisocial.

It is a sad indictment on today’s society that people would probably frown on you sneaking a driveway with small series of challenging corners into your quarter-acre plot in suburban downtownville, instead of a rose bush or two.

And yet, we are proud to say, that hasn’t stopped people from having a crack.

Because we spend hours on Google Maps just looking at things, every now and then you stumble over a little gem that has all the hallmarks of a racing track – only one we’re probably not supposed to know about.

That’s what this series is about – we want to chart any backyard karting track, dirt course etched into a paddock, extravagant driveway with ripple strips or fully-blown race tracks that pop up in people’s yards, or nearby.

If you’ve seen one in your internet travels (or even in the real world) we’d love for you to let us know. Do drop us a line via our social channels (@theracetorque on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram) and we’ll investigate.

We start with a man with a farm and what was claimed to be an ‘Access Road’ to some new paddocks.

Of course it is.

“The Farm Access Road”

Tweed Heads, New South Wales

THIS ONE is a beauty.

Located just south of the Queensland-New South Wales border, this farm property was the subject of debate at the local Tweed Council as they investigated changes to the driveway and ‘farm access’ roads at a property on Dulguigan road, due West of the Casuarina township on the coast.

According to documents freely available on the Tweed council website, it turns out a Mr. Williams had begun improvements to his farm after investigating ways to improve on the profitability of his land given the ‘limited economic return from the cultivation of Sugar Cane’.

His proposal was to rase stock feed crops which would be used on site for his grazing cattle.

The Cattle would graze on the northern end of the property, near a proposed house (which appears to have since been built) while the feed crops would be grown south of the property.

The council received complaints regarding the way his farm road crossed over, at two points, a ‘drain’ on the property, named on Google Maps as ‘Dulguigan Creek’.

Long story short, the concerns surrounded whether the new access roads were either blocking the waterway or the land itself, given the region is a high flood-risk area.

The available document has been produced by a town planning consulting company for the property owner, essentially defending his improvements and arguing for the development to continue – including putting down a hard surface what was at that point an unsealed farm road.

As you can see, the Google Maps image now shows an at least mostly completed paved surface on said farm road – as well as the finished house – so it’s clear that at least some of the development went ahead.

What’s more, the South of the property definitely has crops growing – though there seems no sign of the fencing for the proposed (and rather oddly shaped, it must be said) cattle paddocks that the proposed access road would weave in and around.

What do you think? We’ve not been able to dig up any further dirt on this one.

Is it just a farm road? Or is there more to it?

For what it is worth, there was zero mention in any documents we could find of it being a semi-disguised racetrack.

Having said that, even a quick look suggests that it would make a pretty good bit of road regardless.. at 2.4km long, 10m wide and with 15 corners it would make for some good times giving the Cattle their breakfast…   

Farm access road, or extremely ambitious backyard racetrack? You be the judge.

If you know more, please let us know.

Thanks to expert farmer Jack Perkins for the tip off on this one.. As Jack says, ‘It pays to sit in Window seats when flying’..