Archerfield Speedway land actively for sale with no plans for replacement in place

The site of Brisbane’s iconic Archerfield Speedway has been put up for sale with the venue to shut down soon after 44 years.

After more than four decades, Brisbane’s iconic Archerfield Speedway is actively up for sale with promoter John Kelly saying it will “no doubt” shut its doors in the next few years.

There’s been ongoing uncertainty about the future of Queensland’s premier dirt track venue for years, but now Mr Kelly has confirmed the land is on the market with no concrete plans for a replacement in place.

“It will sell in the next few years, there’s no doubt about that. It will come to an end,” he said.

“It will be sold for industrial use, it’s too valuable for a speedway now. But that means we’ll be in need of a new speedway and it certainly needs to happen sooner rather than later.”

According to the promoter, the private owners of the speedway are now looking to move on their assets after 44 years at the helm as costs are starting to outweigh revenue.

“The facility needs a bit of an update, nothing major but it does need some money spent on it to retain it as a speedway,” he said.

“But for the return bang for buck and the money it’s worth, we can’t return the money that the property is worth now.”

Archerfield Speedway promoters John Kelly and Kathy Kelly. Picture: Renae Droop.

Archerfield has previously been home to National Championships and World Series Sprintcar events, Monster Trucks, stunts and fireworks shows.

The venue could host 7000 spectators with about 2000 in grandstand seating and another 5000 on large grass hill areas.

After the private speedway inevitably shuts down, the community will be working towards getting funding from the state government to support a new facility.

Initial talks are already underway with the government, however a clear plan is yet to be delivered as to where the speedway can be built given noise restriction laws.

“Realistically, you can build a speedway for $20m. They just need to give us a location that we can use. Potentially they could use it in conjunction with the Olympic facilities they’ll have in place,” he said.

The closure is more than just business for Mr Kelly whose whole life has been embedded in the speedway since the day it opened its gates in 1978.

“I was here on the opening day, I grew up here, my whole family has raced here. I love the place, I think it’s one of the best tracks in Australia,” he said.

“It’s a tough little track. It’s sentimental to us, it’s just got a lot of history for me and my family.”