{"id":927713,"date":"2026-10-14T10:20:17","date_gmt":"2026-10-14T10:20:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/927713\/"},"modified":"2026-10-14T10:20:17","modified_gmt":"2026-10-14T10:20:17","slug":"the-upgrades-to-australias-best-kept-secret-track","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/927713\/","title":{"rendered":"The upgrades to Australia’s ‘best kept secret’ track"},"content":{"rendered":"

THE southernmost racing circuit in Australia this weekend plays host to Baskerville Historics, one of the nation\u2019s growing classic motorsport events.<\/p>\n

Set in a natural amphitheatre less than 30 minutes from the Hobart city centre, Tasmania\u2019s Baskerville Raceway was built in 1958 and played host to exhibition races for touring cars and Sports Sedans throughout the 1970s and 1980s<\/a>, as well as a round of the Australian Drivers\u2019 Championship in 1980.<\/p>\n

The layout of the undulating 2.01km circuit remains unchanged and full of old school character nearly seven decades since its opening. But over the past 13 years, a passionate band of volunteers has worked away quietly to ensure Baskerville continues to be fit for purpose.<\/p>\n

The Baskerville Foundation is a not-for-profit entity which has generated over $2.5 million to fund numerous refurbishments and upgrades to the Motorsports Tasmania-owned venue, made possible largely by the goodwill of Tasmania\u2019s motorsport community.<\/p>\n

Since its inception in 2013, the Baskerville Foundation\u2019s achievements have included a full circuit resurfacing and the additions or upgrades of earth and drainage works, covered paddock carports, concrete hardstands, guardrail fencing, gravel traps, marshalling posts and an overhaul of the circuit\u2019s 1970s-build control tower.<\/p>\n

The circuit described by Tasmanian racing legend John Bowe as \u2018the best kept secret in Australian motorsport\u2019<\/a> is actively utilised for historic and state level racing, private practice and track days. Just last month, Paul Morris\u2019 Norwell Motorplex team hosted a Corvette driving experience at Baskerville for GM Special Vehicles.<\/p>\n

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Peter Killick, chair of the Baskerville Foundation and a Heritage Touring Car racer who will compete in this weekend\u2019s event aboard a Group A Toyota Corolla, reflected to V8 Sleuth on the Foundation\u2019s recent work.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are very fortunate that Baskerville has a really strong community around it who never want to see it disappear\u201d, says Killick.<\/p>\n

\u201cFrom the many donors who have generously supported the Foundation to the volunteers and men\u2019s sheds who have given their time to help out with so many of the jobs we have done around the place, it has all added up to something we are proud of, but we will keep going and doing more.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are not many circuits like Baskerville remaining in Australia. It\u2019s a special track that makes perfect use of its topography with fast corners, slow corners, blind corners, camber\u2026 there is a lot packed into two kilometres!<\/p>\n

\u201cI just love it. When you are here and there is no racing happening, you are standing in a natural amphitheatre looking around and it\u2019s one of those magical old tracks that speaks to you. It\u2019s such a unique place and I would imagine it is similar to what Amaroo Park was.<\/p>\n

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The resourcefulness of the Baskerville Foundation has also enabled a key safety upgrade on the circuit, as Killick tells.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe blind corner at the top of the hill (Turn 7, Calvins) was an issue as there was only four metres of run-off from the edge of the track to the tyre wall. The land boundary on that end of the track was a limitation.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo we ended up doing a land swap with Cherries Tasmania, who own the cherry farm next door. We were able to give them some land at the bottom of the hill that they wanted, and in return we got extra land at the top of the hill to help us extend the run-off area to 35 metres.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe bought secondhand armco fencing from the road contractor that did the Midlands Highway upgrade and spent $70,000 on getting the right type of gravel laid down as that corner can be nasty, particularly for motorcycles if they come off. That\u2019s probably the upgrade we are most proud of.<\/p>\n

In 2021, Baskerville hosted a non-championship event for Trans Am as well as exhibition races for TCR Australia and Touring Car Masters, while Aussie Racing Cars opened its 2018 championship at the circuit.<\/p>\n

In its heyday, Baskerville was raced on by names such as Allan Moffat<\/a>, Peter Brock<\/a>, Dick Johnson<\/a>, Jim Richards<\/a> and Alan Jones. So what does Killick believe Baskerville needs to host national level motorsport again in the future?<\/p>\n

\u201cUltimately, it needs more gravel traps and we would like to install more gravel across the whole circuit. The compliant gravel we would need is on the other end of the state and the expense to purchase it, transport it and lay it down would require about another $350,000. Maybe one day\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n

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Baskerville Historics is a V8 Sleuth advertising partner<\/p>\n

Ambrose to return to scene of first ever car race<\/a><\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"THE southernmost racing circuit in Australia this weekend plays host to Baskerville Historics, one of the nation\u2019s growing…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":927714,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[572],"tags":[64,63,806,805,803,804,85],"class_list":["post-927713","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-motosport","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-motor","tag-motor-sports","tag-motosport","tag-motosports","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/927713","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=927713"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/927713\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/927714"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=927713"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=927713"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=927713"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}