Dane sets his agenda for new Friends of Motorsport initiative

Roland Dane has made clear the priorities he sees as critical for the Queensland Government’s new Parliamentary Friends of Motorsport initiative.

Announced outside Queensland Parliament House in the lead-up to the Gold Coast 500, the initiative was spearheaded by MP for Aspley, Bart Mellish, and attended by fellow MPs as well as Motorsport Australia CEO, Eugene Arocca.

While Arocca called for new circuits, Dane – who was joined by fellow Queensland-based Supercars competitors including Triple Eight’s Jessica Dane, Declan Fraser as well as Dick Johnson at the event – called for a focus on existing facilities ahead of any new builds.

“Morgan Park out at Warwick, that needs some money spent on it to be honest – and that should be the first objective of the state government – looking at what they could do to help us update some of Morgan Park’s facilities and give us another environment, especially a country one, that’s very well supported by the competitor base,” Dane told Speedcafe.com.

“It’s the sort of place where a little bit of money goes a long way, so they should definitely be on the radar.”

“Would we like to have another circuit in Southeast Queensland? Of course we would.

“We always want new facilities, it would be lovely to have another permanent circuit halfway between the Gold Coast and Brisbane – maybe it’ll happen one day – but right now, let’s get Morgan Park into a good situation and make the most of Tony Quinn revitalising Queensland Raceway and make sure that the DriveIt NQ [Townsville] circuit comes online next year.”

Dane praised Quinn’s progress at Queensland Raceway, located west of Brisbane in Ipswich, which Quinn purchased for $12 million from Lakeside circuit owner, John Tetley, in late-2021.

“We’ve now got someone who’s making the most of that facility and will continue to make the most of it for the foreseeable future, so that’s good,” said Dane.

“[But] we need more Tony Quinns, more [The Bend Motorsport Park owner] Sam Shahins.”

“Do we need more? Yes. We’ve got the Townsville circuit coming along and hopefully getting finished in the next six to nine months, but we’ve also got a circuit at Morgan Park that needs time and effort and money spent on it.

“And that’s going to need some local government input, whether it’s state or council – it needs some money put into it to help make the facility safer, better, and more usable.

“So let’s concentrate on that.”