Townsville Mayor Nick Demetto today confirmed the plan to refresh the Reid Park course ahead of next year’s event.
According to Supercars’ event manager Matt Ramsden, the work is “well overdue” having only received patchwork since the event began in 2009.
The Townsville 500 is held at Reid Park on a course featuring purpose-built roads and the pre-existing Boundary Street.
A proposal to resurface the track was referenced during the weekend by Paul Morris, who described it as a “confusing” move.
“The reason the racing up here in Townsville is so good, in my opinion, is the track surface,” said the Norwell track owner.
“It’s just coming good. It’s got good tyre deg, it’s got some bumps, it’s got some cool kerbs. Some of the asphalt there is in really good nick.
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“There’s some places that might need a bit of attention, a patch or something, but… there’s nothing to be gained by resurfacing this track from a racing point of view.”
Mayor Demetto acknowledged similar feedback from drivers but declared the cost of not undertaking the resurface could be far greater.
“Resurfacing the track is something that needs to happen to make sure that we’re keeping the condition of the track up to specification, not only for Motorsport Australia but also Supercars,” he said.
“Spending about four-to-five-million dollars on this track resurface means that in six or seven years time that if we get in front of it, we don’t have real track degradation that could cost us in the tens of millions of dollars.
“We’ve had a number of drivers actually say to us that they love the condition of the track right now, they love the rough surface, but at the end of the day, it’s up to the engineers to tell us whether or not the track surface can protect what is underneath.
“Making sure what’s underneath holds together means that next time we hold the Supercars here in Townsville, we have a track that’s going to hold up to the absolute punishment that these cars give it.”
“The last thing we want is that track surface coming up mid-race, which we did see some years ago.”
Ramsden added that “drivers have a bit of nostalgia with the old surface”, but underlined the reasons to complete the works.
“To do it now, to really secure the safety and I guess the longevity of the event into the future is really important,” he said. “That’s a pretty critical part of it.”
Demetto said the majority of the track works will occur on the closed-road parts of the course, making for minimal public disruption.
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