The race circuit component of DriveIt, North Queensland’s own driver education and motorsport facility is well underway at Calcium, 40 minutes west of Townsville. This will be a facility of national significance, and the first large scale greenfield motorsport facility developed in Australia for decades.
Matteo Sandona and George Milford were instrumental in facilitating town planning approvals from Townsville City Council and the Department of Transport and Main Roads for this precinct. The DriveIt precinct will ultimately see 234 ha of land developed to include a driver education facility, 2.73 km race circuit, international standard drag strip, speedway, go-kart, and offroad racing facilities. This project has been an enormous undertaking for DriveIt NQ Limited, triggered by the closure of several motorsport facilities across the Townsville region 20 years ago.
Paul Morris (Australian Motorsport Legend) said the DriveIT facility was ‘an overnight success 20 years in the making’ and that the community owned facility ‘will be there forever … in the best geographically located site he’s ever seen’.
The initial driver education component of the use (comprising a 2.5 ha highway grade bitumen surface with functionality for vehicle training and product testing) was opened in late 2020, with the race circuit component scheduled for completion in late 2022.