National Upgrade for Rural Facility
Southern Queensland will have another fully national spec quarter mile drag strip operational this year, with progress on the revamped Warwick Dragway closing in on completion.
Located adjacent to Morgan Park Raceway in the busy Morgan Park sporting precinct on the outskirts of the Darling Downs town, the Warwick Dragway until now had been a busy one-eighth mile strip, although initially designed with the runoff space to allow for this eventual upgrade.
In 2020, confirmation of federal funding to the tune of $1.9 million paved the way for the project to commence in 2021.
Despite setbacks caused by terrible weather throughout 2022, the pandemic, and price rises, the final touches to the facility are now in the works.
Outside of the extension and repaving of the competition surface, the track will also receive full concrete walls down both sides, new return roads, upgraded lights, improved spectator facilities and a new PA system.
The genesis for the facility came in a series of legal on-street meets in downtown Warwick in the mid-1990s before the strip officially opened in 2000.
The news of the upgrade in Warwick comes at a time of positivity for drag racing, with The Bend Dragway set to come online soon, while the sport will be unified at the top end of town under the National Drag Racing Championship banner.
However, at the stage, Warwick hasn’t featured on the Group 1 calendar, which is focused on The Bend, Sydney, Perth and Willowbank, or the Sportsman calendar, which takes in the main metropolitan tracks, plus more regional venues.
The Morgan Park precinct is a fantastic blueprint for how grouping together different disciplines in a location can work.
In addition to the drags and circuit racing, the area also features dirt bikes, model aeroplanes, high-quality polocrosse fields, and horse trials.
The race circuit was originally constructed in 1968, and like the drags, has grown over time on the back of tireless volunteer efforts.
The original 700m long dirt short circuit was paved in 1997 and subsequently extended to 1.2km.
The next addition saw the circuit length grow to 2.1km in 2002 to handle state championship racing, which was utilised by the Shannons Nationals in 2009, while the return of that series the following year was on the full 2.967km configuration.
By a quirk of the various additions over the years, the venue now has 11 different configurations and is a regular on the Australian Superbike Championship trail.
Mark Walker (administrator)
A vastly experienced Motorsport Public Relations operator, journalist, commentator and photographer, Mark brings his unique angle to The Race Torque in both words and imagery. As well as serving as our key photographer on the ground at major events around Australia (and overseas), Walker will often chime in with his unique and pin-point sharp viewpoint of the racing world via the keyboard too.
