Circuit Italia: the circuit near Newcastle that grew in silence

On 23 June 2023, Damien White, the manager of a circuit under construction near Newcastle, posted a picture of a crashed drone found on the site. Someone had wanted to take an unannounced look at a project that had been growing out of sight for years, and had lost the machine. White captioned the photo of the wreck on social media: “Penalty of loss of drone to this operator for exceeding track limits. People are obviously keen to see our progress. Not long now.” “Not long” turned out to mean two years. In June 2025 Circuit Italia, a circuit north of Newcastle in New South Wales, officially opened.

Location	49 Italia Road, Balickera, Port Stephens Council area, New South Wales, Australia; north of Newcastle
Type	private permanent racing circuit
Length	“just over 3km” according to the operator; 2.9 to 3.1 km in the press
Direction	clockwise
Corners	15, including 10 right-handers and 5 left-handers
Elevation change	33.9 m
Width	mostly 12 m
Opened	25 June 2025
Owner and operator	Circuit Italia Pty Ltd and related companies; the facility belongs to the businessman Matthew Higgins
Status	active; track days with an open pit lane and private bookings

The forest by Italia Road

The circuit takes its name from the road it stands on: Italia Road. It is not the first motorsport facility in the area. It was planned next to the existing Ringwood complex, where the MG Car Club of Newcastle runs hill climbs; at the end of October 2023 the Australian Hill Climb Championship was scheduled there, with seven runs on a 1.3 km course. When the local paper “News Of The Area” wrote in 2016 about what the circuit would give Medowie, Brad Host of Toy Shop Automotive Imports pointed out that motocross and hill climbs had been held there “for ages”, and that the site adjoins the Pacific Highway and lies under the flight path of Royal Australian Air Force jets.

The project received approval from Port Stephens Council in 2013. According to the Mazda MX-5 Club of New South Wales, which reported on the decision as it happened, efforts to build a circuit on this site had been under way since 2002 and went through several court cases before the council approved it on 8 October 2013. “News Of The Area” later noted that the approved project met with complaints and attempts to block construction. The developer received the construction certificate in March 2016.

The developer was Matthew Higgins, a Newcastle businessman and motorsport enthusiast. In July 2016 the “Newcastle Herald” wrote about a $12 million circuit that was meant to be of international standard and attract the biggest events.

The plan for 2017

The circuit’s website from 2016 described the facility more modestly than the headlines suggested. The track was to be 2.9 km long and 12 m wide, and the project was being drawn up to FIA guidelines for the construction and safety of circuits. Weekends were to be given over mainly to supersprints, hill climbs and motorkhanas, that is, timed tests of car-handling skill, plus three race meetings per season from October to March. The operator also announced year-round practice sessions, driver training, drives in road-registered cars and promotional events. The noise of racing cars was to be limited to 95 dBA measured at 30 m, in line with CAMS rules.

In November 2016 the operator was collecting enquiries from people wanting to hire the circuit and from those interested in arrive-and-drive days, and expected construction to finish in the last quarter of 2017. A month earlier Higgins had spoken up in a letter published on the same website. He called the state-funded Supercars street race in Newcastle an “appetiser” for those who want to get into motorsport; Circuit Italia would be the venue for their “main course”. He also argued that Sydney Motorsport Park is booked 18 months ahead and that the state has more than 10,000 licensed competitors.

In March 2017 Speedcafe reported that construction would start in April. The project was then described as a circuit with 14 corners and 40 m of elevation change, meeting FIA Grade 2 specification, that is, able to host every series except Formula 1. Damien White, a former Supercars sporting director, joined the team. The CAMS chairman Eugene Arocca told the outlet that his organisation had been advising Higgins for two years: “I always felt that Matt would get there and we will help him every step of the way.”

Thirty percent and a pause

Construction began in 2017. Three years later it stood still. In August 2020 White, by then one of the project’s heads, denied rumours that the investment was in jeopardy. The contractor, Ditchfield, had completed a third of the work, and the stoppage had nothing to do with government funding, geology or local authority action. “Simply, Matthew (Higgins) is currently focused on another project,” White explained, adding that the owner wanted to oversee construction personally.

The pause was used to change the design. The pit lane entry was redrawn so that cars would enter it more slowly. It was also decided that a traditional pit building would be fully used only at major events, so the buildings were moved and reduced to a group called the “T14 Complex”: a parc fermé building with a storeroom, offices and a medical point, and a clubhouse overlooking Turn 13, the Turn 14 hairpin and the start straight. The buildings were designed by Matty Brabeck of the studio Hauswerk, son of Steve Brabeck, the co-owner of DJR Team Penske who died in 2018. The “Newcastle Herald” wrote at the time that, according to the circuit’s team, the facility could host a Supercars race weekend.

Asphalt, barriers and the Supercars dispute

In mid-2023 the circuit returned to the news. First a drone came down, and in July trucks arrived with asphalt. White explained the team’s earlier silence by saying that “pictures of dirt aren’t always convincing”; they had waited until the conversation could begin with “we’ve done it” rather than “we will do it”. Speedcafe wrote that such elevation changes had not been seen in Australia since the now defunct Amaroo Park and Oran Park circuits near Sydney. White reached for a comparison with Bathurst:

“The sharp rise of Turn 10 reminds me of The Cutting at Bathurst, except you approach it on a sharp decline, and you exit to a blind crest, where braking for Turn 11 will start as soon as you peak the crest. It’s breathtaking.”

Damien White, July 2023

Construction coincided with the crisis of the Newcastle 500 street race. In June 2023 Christine Everingham, co-author of the book about that event, “Wrong Track: What Drove Supercars to Newcastle”, urged that the race be moved to Circuit Italia. In early October, however, the “Newcastle Herald” wrote that, according to White, neither the state government nor Supercars had shown interest in the option. White argued that if temporary infrastructure can be set up on city streets, it is all the easier on a permanent circuit “that is not in people’s backyards”.

The last work on the barriers finished in early March 2024, when White announced the installation of the last of 2,995 posts and 4,510 lengths of Armco barrier. Back in July 2023 White had said he wanted to see the first car running at full pace in mid-September, though he cautioned that the team had “learnt long ago not to put absolute timelines”. From those announcements to the official opening, almost two years passed.

Opening without a pit building

The official opening took place on Wednesday 25 June 2025. The circuit has 15 corners, ten right-handers and five left-handers, is driven clockwise, and has an elevation change of 33.9 m. “We’ve been having a great time ‘product testing’, but now we’re ready to share this old-school-cool circuit!” White said. The first drive days were entrusted to David Russell’s The Drive Team; Russell is a veteran of Supercars endurance rounds. He called the layout one of the most challenging and rewarding in the country.

In August 2025 a drive day was held, after which, as the “Newcastle Herald” wrote, motorsport fans could see the country’s newest circuit for the first time. Speedcafe then published a video of a fast lap by Cody McKay in an Aussie Racing Cars machine.

The infrastructure is for now temporary. “The circuit is complete, and we are operating with temporary infrastructure,” White said just after the opening. The next stage is two buildings: the T14 Complex with a bar and a clubroom of 350 m² and 150 m² of terraces, overlooking Turn 13 and the Turn 14 hairpin, and a 1,000 m² building for preparing and storing cars, with changing rooms, a circuit control centre, offices and a kitchen. There will be no traditional pit building; the development approval was changed for this purpose, and for major events the pit lane is to take temporary structures. Asked whether the circuit could handle a Supercars round, White answered in one word: “Yes.” He gave no completion date for the buildings.

Half a day with an open pit lane

For an amateur driver, Circuit Italia means above all open pit lane drives, that is, with the pit lane open for the whole three-and-a-half-hour block; the clerk of the course may close the pit exit when deemed necessary. In the operator’s calendar for October 2026 there is one such date for road cars and closed-cockpit race cars: 14 October, 09:00–12:30, for 600 Australian dollars. The afternoon of that day is set aside for open-wheel cars, and the calendar marks seven other days in October as private bookings.

The requirements are simple. Every driver needs at least a Motorsport Australia Track Day licence, which the operator includes in the price. The helmet must meet the Australian standard AS1698, clothing must cover wrists and ankles, and shoes must cover the whole foot; a race suit is not required. There is no tuition in the price, and private instructors may not ride in the passenger seat. An entrant may bring one companion, but the operator asks that nobody be brought just to watch: the circuit cannot be seen from the areas guests can access.

The paddock bay measures 18 by 4 m, so that a rig of trailer and track car fits in one line. There are no garages; you may put up your own tent as long as it fits within the bay and is weighted from the outside, with nothing driven into the ground. For people there is a covered tent of 200 m² with tables and chairs, but no food can be bought on site. Companies hiring the whole facility get in the package, among other things, a clerk of the course, medical cover for non-competitive events (other events may incur an extra charge) and EMMS devices for electronic marshalling signals, fitted in every car on track as a requirement; for a damaged or unreturned module the operator charges 2,000 dollars.

Anyone wanting to get to know the circuit in a simulator first has nothing to look for. Asked whether the operator will make a track file available for simulators, the official website replies briefly: “No. Nothing beats the real thing, come and try it.”

Timeline

• 2013: Port Stephens Council approves the construction of the circuit at Italia Road.
• 2016: in March the developer receives the construction certificate; in July the press writes about an investment worth $12 million.
• 2017: construction begins.
• 2020: work stands still after about a third has been done.
• 2023: in July the laying of asphalt begins.
• 2024: in early March the installation of Armco barriers is finished.
• 2025: official opening on 25 June; in August a drive day, after which fans saw the circuit.