{"id":411310,"date":"2026-05-04T13:16:23","date_gmt":"2026-05-04T13:16:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/411310\/"},"modified":"2026-05-04T13:16:23","modified_gmt":"2026-05-04T13:16:23","slug":"supercars-news-70-million-bathurst-upgrade-wishlist-revealed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/411310\/","title":{"rendered":"Supercars news: $70 million Bathurst upgrade wishlist revealed"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<img decoding=\"async\" fetchpriority=\"high\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/IGTC126_021008162201137SC_SVS.jpg\" alt=\"$70 million Bathurst upgrade wishlist revealed\"\/><br \/>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tA top-down view of the Mount Panorama Bathurst sign.<\/p>\n<p>Bathurst newspaper the Western Advocate has revealed details of the proposal, which is headlined by safety improvements.<\/p>\n<p>They include a full resurface of the 6.21km circuit, increased fauna fencing and an electronic warning light system.<\/p>\n<p>Deputy mayor Ben Fry is spearheading the pitch on behalf of the cash-strapped council and is working closely with Supercars and Motorsport Australia.<\/p>\n<p>The Bathurst council previously sought a $15.8m grant through the Regional Precincts and Partnerships Program but was unsuccessful.<\/p>\n<p>Fry told the Western Advocate the plan aims to future-proof the venue for decades to come.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cTo be transparent, this list has no ceiling, so we\u2019ve created everything we wish we could have into one big list, with a weighting system that prioritises safety over potentially functionality, or aesthetics, or crowd experience,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cDefinitely crowd experience and tourism-centric projects are further down the list and we\u2019ll be approaching the relevant ministers for those as well at a later date, but safety has always been prioritised in compiling this list.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Supercars and Motorsport Australia are said to have provided their expertise to the proposal.<\/p>\n<p>Safety at Mount Panorama has been in the spotlight this year following two major accidents at the Bathurst 12 Hour in February.<\/p>\n<p>A kangaroo strike on Conrod Straight and a multi-car crash at Forrest\u2019s Elbow strengthened calls for more fauna fencing and an electronic warning light system.<\/p>\n<p>Another major crash occurred under yellow flag conditions during Easter\u2019s Bathurst 6 Hour.<\/p>\n<p>Bathurst council meanwhile began pitching for a full track resurface in 2024, a decade after its most recent undertaking.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/t.cfjump.com\/92797\/b\/250635\" rel=\"nofollow sponsored noopener\" data-bid=\"1\" data-no-instant=\"1\" target=\"_blank\"><br \/><img decoding=\"async\" style=\"border: none; vertical-align: middle;\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/250635.jpeg\" alt=\"\"\/><br \/><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A top-down view of the Mount Panorama Bathurst sign. Bathurst newspaper the Western Advocate has revealed details of&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":411311,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[111,139,69,216,213],"class_list":["post-411310","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-slot3","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/411310","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=411310"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/411310\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/411311"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=411310"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=411310"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=411310"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}