Bathurst Regional Council (BRC) is weighing up five proposals from Australian and overseas firms who have expressed an interest in designing a new permanent circuit at Mount Panorama.

A tender to design a state-of-the-art 4.58km FIA/FIM accredited circuit situated on an area of land west of McPhillamy Park and Reid Park was launched by BRC last month.

The latest step of the long mooted project to build a second Bathurst circuit has attracted two bids from international firms and three from domestic operations.

These candidates will now be whittled down to three who will be asked to lodge a formal application within the next three weeks.

Bathurst Regional Council will name the successful applicant in July.

Speedcafe.com understands UK firm Apex Circuit Design and Australian company iEDM are among the candidates.

BRC general manager David Sherley has been encouraged by the quality of the proposals received.

“We have received five (proposals) and we are currently shortlisting those to three and they will be asked to put in details and a formal application,” Sherley told Speedcafe.com.

“I would say it has been very encouraging to see the detail that has come in and that it has attracted a range of people with skills from around the world.

“I think the response is a combination of the respect that Mount Panorama is held in, but also it is an exciting project to deliver a brand new racing circuit at Bathurst.”

The council has placed an indicative figure of $50 million to construct the facility which will feature several circuit configurations.

BRC has filled applications for $20 million in funding from the Federal and New South Wales state governments in addition to $10 million in finances from the council.

“We are working on a $50 million indicative figure but we will have a much better idea once the detailed expressions and tenders come in,” Sherley added.

“We are getting very positive responses from the Federal and State governments and we are working with them as to the available funding options from both those governments,” he added.

“We have made three applications. The timeline for those grants is over the next one to three months.”