It was once an essential destination for motorsport enthusiasts, but the closure of Wakefield Park Raceway has proved fatal to some businesses and a significant blow to the sport.

The 2.2-kilometre motor racing circuit near Goulburn shut its doors in August last year, in the culmination of a legal dispute over noise restrictions. 

New owners have plans to reopen the raceway — but in the meantime, the sport is hurting.

Phil Alexander was once a professional driver who competed at Bathurst throughout the 1980s.

He now trains amateur drivers at Pheasant Wood, a smaller circuit in Marulan.

But he said the closure of Wakefield Park had hit his business hard.

"We are losing business; the state is losing business hand over fist," Mr Alexander said.

"Three times this year I have had to go to tracks in Victoria, because there is no room on the calendar for the events that we run.

Pheasant Wood is the only other racing track in the state operating outside of Western Sydney.

The closure of Wakefield Park put pressure on the state's largest racetrack.

"It has crammed the schedule into really one track, which is Sydney Motorsport Park, that's now running day and night," he said.

"It's full all the time."

One of Phil Alexander's students, Alyce Tippett, is training to race at Mount Panorama.

She hopes the reopening of Wakefield Park will help her take another step towards her goal.

"Once you have mastered that, it is sort of time to get a little bit more ballsy and take on the faster tracks, which we don't really have too many of down here," she said.

"So, opening Wakefield will be a really good addition."

Wakefield Park sold

Wakefield Park was opened in 1994 to cater for amateur drivers due to concerns about the future of tracks in Western Sydney, threatened by urban sprawl.

Four years after it opened, Amaroo Park Raceway in north-west Sydney shut its doors, and in 2010 Oran Park Raceway the city's south-west also closed.

So, when the Land and Environment Court handed down a ruling limiting Wakefield Park to racing just four days per month last year, it felt like the death knell for regional racing for many enthusiasts.

At the time, the track was owned by the Benalla Auto Club and was operating more than 270 days a year.

After the ruling, the owners said they had no choice but to close the track.

Seven months later they announced it had been sold to Steve Shelley, the owner of Pheasant Wood Circuit.

An economic assessment of Wakefield Park carried out in 2019 estimated the track contributed almost $17 million to the local economy annually, but that its facilities were outdated.

"There is talk that it brings in between $20 million and $30 million to the Goulburn economy each year, we firmly believe it's more than that," Wakefield Park manager Cameron Shelley said.

"There were businesses that set up purely just to run off the back of Wakefield, mechanics, tyre shops, catering businesses, you name it, and the list just goes on and on and on.

Plans to reopen

Mr Shelley said after purchasing the track, his brother spoke to the neighbours about noise concerns and negotiated "quiet days", to be used for driver education programs.

Mr Shelley welcomed the inclusion of the funds in the latest state budget, but said it was just a drop in the ocean towards the cost of revitalising the track.

"Better viewing platforms put in, noise walls, or noise abatement walls, will also then accommodate spectator areas.

"They would reflect the noise and there will be ... safer seating and perfect view of the whole circuit."

The new owners hope to return racing to Wakefield Park by the end of the year.