Taiwan’s Penbay International Circuit Announces It’s Closing Indefinitely | Asia Motorsports Network
Grass Roots Racing Takes A Hit With The Closing of Penbay
Taiwan has always had a passionate performance and enthusiasts culture, but up until Penbay International Circuit (大鵬灣國際賽車場) opened in October 2011 there was no proper circuit in Taiwan for them to exercise their passion. Sometimes refered to as Dapeng Bay International Circuit due to where it is located, the FIA Grade 2 track on the South West coast of Taiwan just outside of Kaohsiung City made an immediate impact within the performance community and was widely embraced. Their plan was to act as a Motorsports Hub for Taiwan and to become a regular stop for some of the international series like Super GT. They nailed the first part of the mission with the creation of the Taiwan Speed Festival in 2013 which attracted domestic racers as well as participants from all over South East Asia. Unfortunately attracting top international series didn’t go as well. Other than stops in 2015 / 16 by the Audi R8 LMS Cup, Penbay was never able to establish it’s foothold in any of the top international series. You can read more about the history of the circuit at Penbay – RacingCircuits.info.
When Lihpao International Circuit opened in 2018 with it’s close proximity Taipei, the challenges for Penbay grew even bigger. In 2019, the company that operated the circuit was negotiating with the government for a new contract while facing what they claimed were financial losses. With the government seemingly unwilling to make concessions, the operating company was left with few alternatives and announced on July 3, 2019 they were closing down. You can read more about the closure in this article from Taiwan News Penbay International Circuit ends operations in S. Taiwan | Taiwan News | 2019/07/03.
AMN’s Take:
While there are a few well established circuits and series in Asia, Motorsport remains in it’s infancy stage outside of Japan in part due to the lack of grass roots racing. When venue’s like Penbay are forced to close it further limits the opportunities for grass roots racing to flourish and creates a drag on Motorsports throughout Asia. Optimistically, despite being “indefinitely closed”, all hope isn’t lost for the future of Penbay International Circuit. With talk the government would seek a new tender to find new operator for the circuit and surrounding Leisure Area there is a chance the circuit could reopen. However, realistically speaking while Taiwan does have one of the higher GDP’s per capita in Asia it’s small population of just over 23M and lack of an independent domestic car manufacturing it’s probably unlikely the new operator would be interested in continuing the circuit.
