One Raceway owner Steve Shelley at the wheel of the 2024 Hyundai IONIQ 5 N. Photo: James Coleman.
Cameron Hill and I share something in common now – Canberra’s very own V8 Supercars legend and I are among the first to have laid tyre marks on the fresh tarmac at Goulburn’s new racetrack.
Yeah, that’s about it. The new Hyundai IONIQ 5 N is a very forgiving car – turning fists of hams into fingers of milk and honey – and it has to be when I’m at the wheel.
One Raceway officially opens this weekend (4 to 6 October) for the sixth round of the Australian Superbikes Championship, but it’s been a hectic few weeks for owner Steve Shelley and his team trying to get everything finished in time.
“We’re all working around the clock for the next day and half to be ready,” he told Region .
“We’re still doing the line-marking, we’re still building catch fences and tire barriers, and putting the rubber belting around. There’s still an enormous amount of work to do, but we’ll get there.”
You probably know the saga of the track.
The 2.2 km circuit, located off Braidwood Road, opened in 1994 as Wakefield Park Raceway. Neighbors began to complain about the noise, which reached a crescendo when the Victoria-based owners, the Benalla Auto Club, lodged a DA with the Goulburn-Mulwaree Council to upgrade the facilities. It was knocked back. It went to court. The track was limited to four days of action per month. The club deemed this “unworkable” and walked away. The place was shuttered indefinitely on 31 August 2022.
A few months later, however, Steve, also owner of the Pheasant Wood Circuit in Marulan, came along with a plan to rescue it.
The first order of business was to restore relationships with the neighbours.
“We’re trying to really bring the whole noise-emitting scenario right down across everything that we do,” he explained.
“Obviously, there will be some competition events like we’re experiencing this weekend – that’ll be pretty noisy – but then we’ll have a week off later in the month when we’re not making any noise. That was our commitment to the neighbours – when we make some noise, we’ll shut up for a while and give them a lot of respite.”
There are also two new enormous sound walls at either end of the track, and to make sure these are doing their best job, the layout has also been adjusted.
One Raceway, unlike any other track in Australia, is also approved to run motorsports events in either direction, which requires modifications such as a wider tarmac and a new banked corner coming off the straight dubbed ‘Slingshot’ because, “it doesn’t matter which way you go into the turn, you come out faster”.
Cameron Hill delivered his expert verdict on the track when he brought his V8-powered Camaro for a test run in early August. “Unreal” and “incredible” were among the words he used.
That was the last time a car hit the track in anger, until this week when Steve graciously let us in for an hour, armed with the latest weapon from Hyundai’s sporty ‘N’ division.
Fittingly, along with lap timers and torque distribution charts, the IONIQ 5 N’s touchscreen also includes maps for every single circuit in Australia, including Wakefield Park, although it doesn’t include the changes, yet.
So far, all the media reports on the rest of the package have been glowing, proclaiming it the first EV that’s an absolute ball to drive. Largely because it brings back all the heart-warming, spine-tingling, bottom-quivering stuff of internal combustion.
Its ‘N Active Sound +’ feature pumps out noise, including one very good impression of an engine (complete with the rumble at traffic lights). Another, ‘N e-shift’, simulates gear changes, and yes, with an actual shudder through the drivetrain and brap from the ‘exhaust’ each time.
There’s a blistering amount of power and grip, and in the hands of an expert like Steve Shelley, and on a track, it’s like being inside a meteorite.
The only downside is that it doesn’t last long, with the battery shedding two to three percentage points of charge with every lap. And it’s not like Goulburn is particularly helpful here, because a decade or so into the EV movement, more than half of the town’s fast charging stations are broken.
But don’t take any of this from me. Listen to Steve.
“I didn’t know what to expect coming to this, but this little car absolutely blew me away.”
‘Performance Blue’ is the colour to go for. Photo: James Coleman.
2024 Hyundai IONIQ 5 N
- $110,383 (plus on-road costs)
- 84 kWh battery, two electric motors, 478 kW / 770 Nm
- All-wheel drive (AWD)
- 0-100 km/h in 3.5 seconds
- 448 km estimated driving range
- 2230 kg
- Not yet rated for safety
Thanks to Hyundai Australia for providing this car for testing, and allowing for its use on track. Thanks also to Steve Shelley and the One Raceway team. Region has no commercial arrangement with either Hyundai Australia or One Raceway.
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