A who’s who of Australian motorsport has signed a petition in support of improvements to the Eastern Creek circuit over the recently announced Homebush Olympic Park Sydney Street Race.

Racing legends led four-time Australian Touring Car champions Allan Moffat (a member of the ARDC which currently runs the circuit) and Bob Jane are among the signatories on a petition presented to the NSW government calling for greater investment at Eastern Creek.

Other signatories include former touring car champions Colin Bond, John Bowe and Glenn Seton, as well as Bathurst 1000 winners John French, John Harvey, Barry Seton and Bob Holden.

The petition says expanded facilities at Eastern Creek are essential for the future development of Australian motor sport and road safety in NSW. More than 385 car and motorcycle clubs with 76,000 members currently use Eastern Creek according to the petition.

Opposition to the plan to stage the final round of the V8 Supercar series at Homebush is growing only one day after the announcement much of it from within new Premier Nathan Rees’s own party.

Former NSW Planning Minister Frank Sartor, says the New South Wales Government should be focusing on other priorities, like the North-West Metro. “Don’t build the V8 Supercar - $30 to $40 million of totally-wasted money because of the enthusiasm of a couple of promoters,“ he said. 

Local Labor candidate in the upcoming Ryde Byelection Nicole Campbell said she would lobby Mr Rees to find an alternative venue. “I am aware of local concerns, and I share a lot of those concerns, and I will be making representations to the premier in that regard,“ Ms Campbell said. “I think there are alternative locations and I’d like him to actually have a look at that.”

Meanwhile opposition or support for the race also seems to be based on people’s consumption of media. An online poll on the website of the Fairfax published Sydney Morning Herald, the city’s self appointed “quality” broadsheet are voting overwhelmingly against the race. So far over 3639 votes have been taken with a substantial 73% opposed to the running of the race.

Predictably the Greens are also opposed to the event, with Greens MP Lee Rhiannon saying that “The Premier will have to pass an act of Parliament to allow the race to proceed, which the Greens will oppose in the Upper House.”
The Greens also moved a motion in Parliament last week to publicly release documents about the proposal for the race but Labor blocked it.
“Premier Rees’ decision to approve the event without consulting with the community or releasing any environmental impact studies or cost/benefit analysis is negligent.”
“When the myriad of problems associated with staging this race unfold, the Premier’s decision to reject an upgrade of Eastern Creek Raceway to host this event will come back to haunt him,“ Ms Rhiannon said.
Meanwhile an audit of State Political Donations by the Greens has claimed that V8 Supercars Australia last year donated $15′000 dollars to the NSW Labor Party.