Air race 2022: Lake Macquarie locks in $8 million drawcard for November

Parliamentary Secretary for the Hunter Taylor Martin said $2.5 million in funding would allow the event to take off over the region from November 18 to 20 this year.

"This will be a fantastic event and a great opportunity for locals to get out and see some of the best pilots in the world compete against the clock racing through inflatable airgates at more than 400 kilometres per hour," Mr Martin said.

IN THE NEWS:

"One of those pilots is the Lake Macquarie local and reigning world champion Matt Hall, who will be competing in front of a home crowd."

Hall, who was on hand for Wednesday's announcement, said he was keen to soar over familiar territory.

"I'm super excited but I'm already nervous about it, you've got the home advantage but every single person I'll see will be saying, 'You can do this Matt'," he said.

"You have to keep your head in gear, I'm just going to try my hardest, do my best and make myself proud.

"I'm going to look at it regardless of how my performance is in the race it's a massive win for the local economy."

More than 24 million people have watched the series' 94 races spanning 21 countries.

A Lake Macquarie fixture to estimated to add more than $8 million to the local economy, the government said.

Dantia chief executive Josh Sattler said it would deliver a commercial and tourism boost, while Lake Macquarie mayor Kay Fraser said the boost would be more than economic.

"This is a global event that will showcase our city and lake to the world and bring significant economic benefit to local businesses," Cr Fraser said.

"This is going to showcase to tens of millions of people around the world our beautiful lake, beautiful beaches and tell the world what Lake Macquarie is all about.

"I think Lake Macquarie lends itself to adventure tourism we already have the super boats here, we have so much activity around our activity and our beautiful lake 2.5 times the size of Sydney Harbour.

"Why wouldnt you want to fly planes really fast and do stupid things over our lake? Its the ideal thing to do really.

"We know as a city with our economic development board how important it is to bring this event to our city, how much of an economic boost it will give our city and put Lake Macquarie on the map not only for the Hunter region but the world.

"Were very focused on events and weve been doing that for some time now but this will be one of the events that will bring a lot of people to our city and obviously they will spend money in our city and our small businesses will benefit from that."

The race announcement comes with support from the Regional Events Acceleration Fund, which NSW Deputy Premier Paul Toole said was designed to bring major domestic and international drawcards into regional areas.

"Helping organisers host world-class events in their own backyard showcases our great regional towns to national and international audiences," he said.

Applications for the $40 million fund's second round close on October 4.

Our journalists work hard to provide local, up-to-date news to the community. This is how you can continue to access our trusted content: