$95 Million BlackRock Motor Park Debuts In Assetto Corsa

Black Rock.jpg
Image Credit: FrostyBerry
Currently under construction in Wakefield, New South Wales, Australia, Black Rock Motor Resort is a $95 million project that automotive enthusiasts will hopefully call home for decades to come.

The BlackRock Motor Park will turn Lake Macquarie and its surroundings into Australia’s first dedicated recreational resort park for motoring enthusiasts. The project includes a 5.25km racetrack, go-kart track, driver training, luxury accommodation and function centre, and café.

This project will inject more than 450 jobs during construction, and 229 jobs ongoing. What's more, it's already within Assetto Corsa!

Black Rock 5.jpg

Image Credit: [I][SIZE=3]FrostyBerry[/SIZE][/I]

With all of the drama going on in California with Laguna Seca and its greedy neighbours, it's fantastic to see a brand-new circuit being built with motoring at its heart.

CEO of Dantia, the company behind the project, Tim Browne said he was "pleased to see a project come to fruition that demonstrated what could be done on former mining land."

What Will BlackRock Be Used For?​

The venue is designed by the Tilke Group, known for their work on race tracks around the world like the Yas Marina Circuit in Abu Dhabi, Circuit of the Americas in Texas and the Red Bull Ring in Austria.

BlackRock's circuit will host driving events, performance car driving experiences, public track days, and driver training courses. No racing series compatibility has been announced as of April 2024, however, expect to see BlackRock popping up on calendars in the future.

The project lends itself to a bold move towards adaptive reuse, repurposing former mining land into a place for adventure seekers and motorsport enthusiasts. Think of it as a gold club, but for driving enthusiasts.

Sim Racing Relevance​

OverTake.gg mod author, FrostyBerry, created the future layout of Blackrock for Assetto Corsa fans to enjoy from the comfort of their sim rigs. This mod was created and published within a matter of days of the project starting construction!

Black Rock 2.jpg

Image Credit: [I][SIZE=3]FrostyBerry[/SIZE][/I]

According to the mod page, FrostyBerry emailed the track owners and received an unexpectedly helpful and enthusiastic response. After some back and forth, the track owner helped create the layout for the mod to recreate how it will be in real life perfectly come 2026.

AI Support​

The base mod doesn't include AI support, however, Monyx has created a basic GT3-specced AI system for BlackRock that will allow up to 32 cars to race at once. For a mod to have this level of support and development early on is a good sign for the future of the virtual BlackRock Motor Park.

Online Competition​

Up until the 30th of April, there is a competition being run to see who can get the fastest lap around the brand-new BlackRock Motor Park Circuit. The cars being used for this competition are the original GT3 cars in the vanilla version of Assetto Corsa.

Black Rock 4.jpg

Image Credit: [I][SIZE=3]FrostyBerry[/SIZE][/I]

The competition is an open hotlapping server that encourages players of all abilities to come and try out the track. The layout and the track itself will be new to everyone, so come and have a go. There's even 100 Australian dollars up for grabs come the 30th of April for the fastest time!

What do you think of the BlackRock project? Is it a fantastic new addition to the world of motorsport and sim racing? Or is it all a bit too hyped up?

Go and try BlackRock Motor Park for yourself and let us know how you get on over on X @OverTake_gg or down in the comments below!
About author
Connor Minniss
Website Content Editor & Motorsport Photographer aiming to bring you the best of the best within the world of sim racing.

Comments

I didn't know there was a lawsuit against the owner of Laguna Seca. There was a similar lawsuit against the owner of the Mont-Tremblant track north of Montreal, where the 1968 and 1970 Canadian GPs were held, and where Champ Car raced in 2007. The suit was settled out of court, with the owners of the circuit agreeing to curb the noise a bit.

Personally, I find these lawsuits ridiculous. The track has been there for decades and if you buy a house nearby, you should expect to hear the noise of the cars, just like people who buy houses near an airport should expect jet engine noise. If you can't stand the noise, don't buy there.
 
Premium
Is it me or is the D/L link missing? or am I just blind? possibly the latter..

nvm I am blind.. link wasn't highlighted on my end until i hoovered over it

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Well done to FrostyBerry and to the track management for establishing their cooperation, what a fantastic example to set for circuit management all around the world. It's already a great mod and I look forward to seeing how it will be refined as construction moves towards completion.
 
I didn't know there was a lawsuit against the owner of Laguna Seca. There was a similar lawsuit against the owner of the Mont-Tremblant track north of Montreal, where the 1968 and 1970 Canadian GPs were held, and where Champ Car raced in 2007. The suit was settled out of court, with the owners of the circuit agreeing to curb the noise a bit.

Personally, I find these lawsuits ridiculous. The track has been there for decades and if you buy a house nearby, you should expect to hear the noise of the cars, just like people who buy houses near an airport should expect jet engine noise. If you can't stand the noise, don't buy there.
100 % agree with this statement.
People do it all the time (buy houses near track and airportss...then complain).
In this case some wealthy yo-yos bought or built on Harbor Bay Island...then started screaming about noise.
Oakland airport has been on the same piece of land since 1927.
If I had to do a high-power engine run on one of our Gulfstreams, I'd have to taxi the airplane two miles to the south side of the airport...but only after I called operations and scheduled a block of time.
It was nuts.
 
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What's needed for simracing in 2024?

  • More games, period

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