The Confederation of Australian Motor Sport is preparing to lobby governments for funding to build a state-of-the art centre of excellence within the next five years.
The organisation has been working on plans for the last six months to construct a new facility to help unearth the next wave of talented drivers.
CAMS also hopes the development will become a dedicated home for Australian motorsport.
Government proposals for the centre have been drawn up with the concept expected to cost in the region of $5 million.
While the exact details of the plan are yet to be revealed, it is understood to consist of a facility which would be attached to a permanent circuit to act as a national motorsport hub.
This venue would be used to help develop young drivers coming through the CAMS Academy ranks as well as assisting in the training of officials, mechanics and engineers.
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CAMS chief executive Eugene Arocca told Speedcafe.com that CAMS has broached the subject with seven circuits around the country but the project will require government funding before any work can begin.
“Most sports in this country at the highest level have got academies or centres of excellence where they develop elite talent,” said Arocca.
“We certainly have got to the point of drawing up plans and having proposals prepared to start talking to governments.
“The FIA has mooted the idea of centre of excellences around the world.
“In a Utopia you would have a park with motorsport industries around it with the centre of excellence in the middle.
“We are certainly in discussions with tracks about the possibility of a centre of excellence being funded and placed on their premises. We are very passionate about having a facility attached to a track.
“We think its a great idea worth pursuing and when you think of the billions of dollars spent by the governments on other sports we think its time for motorsport to be looked after.
“I would be overly ambitious if I though this would happen in the next 12 months but I would be very disappointed If there isn’t some movement on this in the next three years.”
Australian motorsport is enjoying one of its most fruitful periods on a global stage with Daniel Ricciardo thrusting Formula 1 into the limelight with three victories this season, while Toowoomba’s Will Power has become the first Australian to win the IndyCar Series.
The effects of these successes have already been felt with Arocca stating that engagement on a grassroots level is growing, while memberships are at all time high, up 10 per cent compared to a record 2013 season.
As a response, CAMS will launch two new schemes next year to target aspiring young drivers at an early age with the Ricciardo’s Rookies and Ricciardo’s Racers programs, headed up by the Red Bull F1 star, who has recently taken up the role of CAMS ambassador.
The programs, which will act as an introductory step on the motorsport ladder, will resemble a similar approach the AFL has taken with its Auskick scheme.
While Arocca is delighted Australia is able to produce talent to compete on the world stage but for that to continue in the future, he feels the sport requires a further injection from the government.
“We have produced seven or eight elite drivers on a world stage in the last 20 or 30 years,” he said.
“We believe that has a flow-on effect to the economy and our culture and I think a centre of excellence would help promote that and allow us to continue to punch above our weight, but not so much by accident but by design.
“The reality is we need money. We have been getting too little for too long its been the same figure for eight years.
“We are committing more of our funds to finding the next young talent but we do believe that we should get a leg up by a willing government that can see the overseas benefits that will flow of having a centre of excellence.”
CAMS will receive $339,800 of federal funding through the Australian Institute of Sport this financial year; an unchanged figure from the previous period.
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