The Marulan Driver Training Centre, located roughly 20 minutes east of Goulburn, has approached council with a development application (DA) requesting permission to build additional driver training facilities with a pit lane extension.
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The school, owned by Garry and Natalie Willmington, has been a source of contention in the past due to noise complaints from neighbouring residences.
However, Mr Willmington is confident that the same issue will not be a problem this time, as the updates will have no capacity to add to the noise.
“It’s basically pit lane garages and driver’s rooms and stuff just to make it more comfortable for the people that come,” he said.
“It just means that with our school groups and things we’ll have better facilities than we’ve currently got. It’s not going to increase business or noise or anything.”
The total costs of the renovations, Mr Willmington estimated, would be $3.78 million dollars, and will include a two-story building with 24 garages on the lower level and 24 matching drivers amenity rooms on the upper.
The school, which was founded in 2009, has grown to include more than just learner drivers among its clientele.
Motorsport enthusiasts come from far and wide for the opportunity to tune up their race cars for competition, partake in races, train, and even compete on the speedway.
These activities, said Mr Willmington, were always on the agenda for the school.
“We’ve always intended to do as much as we could,” he said. “It grew basically as we expected it would.”
Despite his success and the growth of the business, Mr Willmington is still unsatisfied with the number of locals who visit the track.
“The biggest disappointment about the whole thing is that our driver training is not from locals,” he said.
“It’s from down the coast, Sydney and Canberra and that kind of thing.
“That’s good, but you’d still like to think that you do Goulburn schools and stuff like that, whereas we don’t.”
But Mr Willmington remains positive, and believes that the “huge potential” he sees for motorsports in Goulburn works in his favour.
“A lot of people will come to Goulburn because there’s the speedway and the race track and us.”
The primary difference that Mr Willmington’s business offers, in his opinion, is the opportunity for locals to exercise their racing urge in a controlled environment.
“We do a lot of stuff that actually gets people into motorsport as opposed to hooning around on the street,” Mr Willmington said.
For more information on the Marulan Driver Training Centre, visit http://www.mdtc.com.au/ or call (02) 4841 1422.