2 months ago
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A Queensland racetrack has announced it will no longer allow electric cars on the drag strip because the safety risks are simply "too high", but EV enthusiasts have joked petrol car owners are simply "sick of getting beaten" at the venue.
Willowbank Raceway, located in Ipswich, Queensland, announced its EV stance in a press release, citing numerous concerns around the management of electric cars in an emergency setting.
"After careful consideration and investigation, Willowbank Raceway has decided that we can no longer allow road-registered Fully Electric Vehicles to race or test at Willowbank Raceway," the statement read.
"We have been reviewing the regulations from Motorsport Australia, NEDRA, as well as the emergency response procedures for specific vehicles and after information provided by these departments, we have determined that the risks associated with racing and testing Electric Vehicles are too high.
"This will take effect immediately and will only apply to Full Electric Vehicles at all events at Willowbank Raceway. We will continue to allow Hybrid Vehicles to run."
Willowbank Raceway's list of concerns included: The possibility of toxic and flammable gases being released after a collision, doors not unlocking from the outside, the chassis remaining electrified without an easy-access isolation switch on the outside, the specific fire suppression systems required to extinguish an EV fire, and electric vehicles not being able to roll with the power disconnected.
The announcement garnered a lot of attention on car enthusiast Facebook groups and pages, and reactions were mixed, to say the least.
"That's a shame, they got sick of getting beaten," wrote one user on Tesla Owners Australia.
"You beauty. Good riddance to racing electrical appliances," said another user in a V8 fan group.
"The bogans in their Commodores and Falcons were getting flogged," joked another user in the same V8 group.
Willowbank Raceway is not the first venue to ban electric vehicles from competing on a closed course. Summit Point Raceway in West Virginia, United States, made the news in 2023 for banning electric and hybrid vehicles, as did Anglesey Circuit in Wales, in the United Kingdom.
"It's not that we are anti-electric or anti-new technology, but you have to be prepared for it," an Aglesey Circuit spokesperson told Autosport in 2024.
"With electric and hybrid cars, we have no real way of telling what issues are going to come through," they added.
"As a circuit, we don't have the equipment or training at the moment to deal with that situation. I don't want to put participants, marshals and medics where they can't respond to an incident."
According to research from EV FireSafe, which provides free EV fire safety knowledge for emergency responders, electric vehicle fires are much rarer than internal combustion engine (ICE) vehicle fires (EVs have a 0.0012 per cent chance of catching fire compared to the 0.1 per cent chance of an ICE vehicle catching fire).
However, EV fires are much more difficult to extinguish than regular fires, as they are impervious to common fire suppressants and can release toxic gases with the risk of vapour cloud explosions.
Because lithium salts are self-oxidising, they cannot be starved of oxygen like a traditional fire, leaving CO2 and water-based firefighting methods useless against these types of fires.
Instead, firefighters will use copious amounts of water to cool the lithium fire as opposed to using the water to starve the fire. The fire will subside when the lithium salts are below their ignition point of 500 degrees Celsius.
In regards to the concerns about the ability to open an electric car's doors without power, this is also a potential issue. For something like a Tesla, the windows will either need to be smashed and the emergency latch on the inside of the door pulled, or the 12-volt battery jump-started under the bonnet.
This would be an issue for any car with electronic latch door handles and only an internal emergency opening. The heightened concern for EVs, however, is that the chassis could be live with high voltage, and high levels of human contact will need to be made with the car before a driver or passenger can be extracted.
Another concern raised by Willowbank Raceway was an electric car's inability to roll when the vehicle is powered down. Because electric cars do not have a gearbox but rather a direct drive to the wheels, when the car is powered off, they are unable to be rolled like you would with an ICE car in neutral.
Instead, the vehicle will need to be powered with a 12-volt battery and be put in a 'transport mode', which again opens the risk of rescue services making contact with a vehicle that is live with power.
Drive contacted Willowbank Raceway for a comment on the recent bans and will update the story with its reply.
Zane Dobie comes from a background of motorcycle journalism, working for notable titles such as Australian Motorcycle News Magazine, Just Bikes and BikeReview. Despite his fresh age, Zane brings a lifetime of racing and hands-on experience. His passion now resides on four wheels as an avid car collector, restorer, drift car pilot and weekend go-kart racer.
