Black Friday Deal: Get 50% Off Memberships Until December 6!

Lakeside Park circuit halts racing

Historic racers at Lakeside Park circuit laps

Bureaucrats and neighbours have halted racing at Brisbane’s historic Lakeside Park circuit where the likes of world champions Wayne Gardner and Mick Doohan once raced.

Operators Queensland Raceways have kept the historic track from disappearing like many other famous circuits around the country. 

They even brought back Superbike racing with the Dunlop Super Series in June.

However, noise complaints resulting in $29,100 of fines (three fines of $9700 each) since August have forced owner John Tetley of Queensland Raceways to suspend all racing.

Lakeside Park motorsport raceway racing John Tetley
John in happier times

John is quick to point out to motorcyclists that the track has not been closed.

“Ride days and the ‘race your mates’ products will continue but we will not be holding the FX superbike series and historic motorcycle race meetings until we get this settled,” he says.

“Even then they may not resume as they have been poorly supported for the last two years.”

Harley-Davidson Fat Bob and Low Rider S at Champions Race Day Lakeside Park track day
MBW on a track day riding a Harley!

Lakeside Park noise woes

The problem stems from the classification of the facility as an “entertainment venue” rather than a “sports ground”, despite a petition from ex-racer John Goss that gathered 18,000 signatures.

The noise limit permitted for an entertainment venue is 70dB, but under “sports ground” it would be 75dB. (Noise levels are recorded at a certain distance from the track, not at the muffler.)

John says they have been in discussions for seven years with the Moreton Bay Regional Council (MBRC) to have the track recognised as a sports ground.

Harley-Davidson Fat Bob and Low Rider S at Champions Race Day Lakeside Park track day
Track day riders at Champions Ride Day briefing

“Make no mistake about it, what we are talking about here is a stroke of the pen by the appropriate bureaucrat,” he says.

He believes the MBRC is under pressure from the Ombudsman to “enforce to the fullest extent of the law” as a result of pressure from “two continual vexatious complainers”.

John has asked supporters who want to see a resumption of racing at Lakeside to send emails to the following (click on their name to send the email):

“We inherited Lakeside from our grandparents; let’s make sure our grandchildren do, too,” he says.

  1. If this message reaches John Tetley I am hoping he can tell me the name of the little Race Car driven by Kevin Bartlett at Lakeside some time ago. It was like a small version of an Ariel Atom, or like a big go-kart on steroids ! It was quite quick, and KB was keen to give it a run. A Shannons club member said you may have brought two of them over to test the category status ?
    Any details you can provide will be most appreciated.
    Thank you, Geoff Scard

    1. Hi Geoff,
      We contacted John Tetley and he had this to say:
      “Geoff has a good memory; that must be the best part of 10 years ago when KB lined up at Lakeside. The car is a Tiger Shark and I have 10 of them in various states of build. Four of them are currently in driveable condition and they were built up to be the main hardware for a racing school which KB was going to run for us. They are actually bigger than the Ariel atom being about 100mm wider and 180mm longer in the wheelbase. They were also built with falling rate suspension to make them easier to drive for people who weren’t used to the razor sharp responses of what is in effect a two-seat open-wheeler. They were amazingly fast straight out of the box and the very first time we entered one in a race meeting in the sports car category, KB set pole by better than a second. Unfortunately KB’s health started to fail and my other partner Neville’s wife became ill and has subsequently passed on. I just have not had the desire to pick this project up and restart it although it is a shame to leave all that hardware just sitting around with no one to love it or use it. Maybe one of these days I will have the time and inclination to picked up the project again. I’ve actually had a few people ask about building a road registerable version which, as it turns out, would not be all that hard to do. It would do to Ferraris and McLarens what the Lotus 7 did all those years ago. For about $50,000 as a road car you would get a purebred lightweight sports car capable of generating around 2 lateral G and getting to 100km/h in about three seconds with the standard Honda K 24 driveline.”
      Cheers,
      Mark

Comments are closed.