The $7.8 million plan, which requires NSW government funding, is for broadcast-quality floodlighting that would be suitable for televised V8 night racing.

Following a V8-sanctioned secret test under lights, SMP operator, the Australian Racing Drivers Club, prepared a feasibility study with the help of sports lighting experts.

The verdict was that lighting part of the multi-configuration circuit at Eastern Creek in western Sydney was viable technically and would boost business.

Sydney Motorsport Park is owned by the NSW government and run by the ARDC on a long-term lease.

As well as V8 night racing, lighting would enable SMP to extend its operating hours for corporate and public track events, which are now at daylight capacity all year.

Permanent floodlights would also make feasible a 24-hour sports car endurance race, which track executives want to run within five years.

ARDC chief executive Glenn Matthews confirmed that a submission had been made to the state government to finance the track lighting project.

"We're quite serious about it," Matthews said. "We've completed the feasibility study and have put in a submission to the government, and I'm waiting to hear from them."

If funding is approved, the club is targeting 2016 to begin night operations at SMP, aiming to secure as soon as possible V8's first after-dark event in nearly two decades.

V8 Supercars is backing the SMP lighting proposal because it would boost the appeal of the series' appearance at the track, which struggles to attract large daytime crowds.

There is also the potential for staging a family-friendly weeknight event lasting no more than a few hours, which is a goal of V8 chief executive James Warburton.

The V8s have not raced under lights since the inaugural event under the V8 Supercars branding at Melbourne's Calder Park in March 1997.

The proposed lighting at SMP, revealed in the latest issue of Auto Action magazine, would be installed around the 2.8-kilometre Druitt circuit, the second shortest of the complex's four track layouts.

The course is a truncated version of the traditional 3.93-kilometre Gardner circuit that the V8s use for its championship event – scheduled this year for August 22-23.

"For a number of reasons, we were motivated to look at lighting that course," Matthews said. "To be able to put on V8 Supercars under lights would be fantastic. The lighting would also extend our trading period for both racing and non-racing.

"It certainly makes good sense for the state government to keep investing in Sydney Motorsport Park."

Temporary lighting was tried on the Druitt course a year ago in a secret test by Todd Kelly in his Nissan Altima V8 racer, with the results confirming the need for high-intensity lamps suitable for TV coverage of night racing.

"To do it to a standard good enough for broadcast, it would cost around $7.8 million," Matthews said.

According to V8's Warburton, the test showed that night racing at SMP was "almost viable" with the temporary set-up that was tried.

"There are two components - obviously the lighting at an acceptable level for broadcast and then there's the suitability for our cars of the short[er] circuit," he said. "So we got some feedback on that and we've been passionately working with Glenn [Matthews] and his team.

"It's probably not as we would want it in its current configuration, but it's not far away – and probably only further served to whet the appetite to push even harder to find a solution."

Both the ARDC and V8 Supercars see the potential for Big Bash-style Thursday or Friday night – or even midweek – events under lights lasting just two to three hours.

"The absolute preference is to get a night-at-the-speedway-style family entertainment package together in a two- or three-hour window," Warburton said.

"Put on some real good content in a really compressed format. That's probably still the preference [for night racing]."

He added: "You have to continually push. Look at the Big Bash league in terms of attracting young families and their engagement, let alone television ratings for Ten across the course of the summer.

"So I think from that perspective we have to keep on generating new formats and really ensuring that you're freshening things for the fans."