Updated: Casar Park raceway forced to abandon 'social enterprise' plan

UPDATE, 30/10/2019:
Chris Thompson

A major setback for a motorsport precinct on the NSW Central Coast means it might not go ahead. CASAR Park co-founder Brad Wilson has announced on the project's Facebook page that a lack of funding for 'ecological assessments' means the track won't go ahead as a social enterprise. It instead means that if CASAR Park can't find investors for the track as a commercial venture, it won't get off the ground and the plans might have to be abandoned.

"Whilst this announcement marks the end of the social enterprise model, there is one final avenue that may yield a result - a purely commercial model," Wilson says.

"At various stages over the years, some individuals have expressed interest in the project not as a social enterprise but as a commercial venture, and so it is to those people we will be returning over the coming weeks."

MOTOR will follow the potential revival of the CASAR Park raceway plans until the deadline on Friday 29th November.

ORIGINAL STORY, DEC 01 2016
Tim Robson

A new motorsport development on the central coast of NSW is currently in a holding pattern, as environmental studies are taken to comply with a development application.

Casar Park will be located near Wyong, about an hour north of Sydney, and will take up 40 hectares of land, with a multi-use circuit already mapped out in digital form and submitted to the Wyong Council as part of a $200,000 development application.

However, the project is currently on hold as environmental studies on various elements of the 140ha site are completed.

“Unfortunately, we need to observe the site over the course of different seasons to complete the study, so we expect to be able to hand it to Council this time next year,” said co-founder Brad Wilson. “We’re a bit annoyed about the time factor, but that’s part of a DA of this size.”

Mr Wilson said that even if the studies – which include observing a sugar glider habitat and some plant species – showed the facility would have an impact, the size of the site gives them the ability to design around of it.

“We have 140ha to play with, and the facility will only tae up 40 of that,” explained Mr Wilson.

Once the studies are submitted, and if the council approves of the plans, Mr Wilson estimates a build time of less than 12 months. “I anticipate that two years from now, we’ll be cutting the ribbon to open the facility,” he said.

Mr Wilson says that the facility is looking for funding assistance from local, state and federal governments under schemes like the Regional Australia Development Fund, as well as private investors.