MOTOGP

BY DAVID BRAITHWAITE AND BLAKE METCALF-HOLT

 

A DAY after the state government pledged to support keeping the Australian Motorcycle Grand Prix at Phillip Island, Victoria lost the event to South Australia.

The current contract to host the race expired after this October’s staging, but the state government was unable to secure a new agreement with MotoGP championship organiser Dorna Sports.

After hosting the event twice in the late 1980s to early 1990s, Phillip Island has held the grand prix annually since 1997, with the exception of pandemic-hit 2020 and 2021.

The government last week confirmed it had ruled out a request from Dorna to move the event from Phillip Island to Albert Park, home of the Australian Formula 1 Grand Prix.

The government also announced it would “contribute additional funding” to help Dorna boost the Australian grand prix beyond 2026.

However, the event will move to Adelaide in 2027, racing on a street circuit which hosted the F1 GP from 1985 to 1995.

It would be a reversal of fortunes for Adelaide, after the F1 moved to Melbourne in 1996.

Talk of having a city MotoGP race began after Liberty Media, owner of F1, took over Dorna last last year.

The loss of the motorcycle grand prix strips $54.6 million in economic impact from Victoria, including $29.4 million in direct local spending in Bass Coast Shire.

The event, the biggest in Gippsland, also supported 284 full-time jobs.

State Tourism, Sport and Major Events Minister Steve Dimopoulos said Victoria remained the “major events capital”, while wishing “organisers all the best with their second choice” of grand prix venue.

“The private foreign owners of the MotoGP demanded we move the event to the city, and we said no,” the Minister said.

“We know we could have kept the MotoGP in Victoria if we sold out Philip Island, but we never will.”

According to its media release, the government is working on “securing a new major event for the region and will invest to drive more visitation, supporting local businesses and tourism”.

Opposition leader Jess Wilson said the decision was emblematic of Victoria’s decline under the current government and a “huge blow to the local businesses of Phillip Island”.

Frustration was also felt from the sport’s top names, including former Grand Prix winner and Sports Australia Hall of Fame inductee Wayne Gardner.

Gardner, who is commemorated with a statue at the Phillip Island circuit due to his achievements including winning the 500cc Phillip Island event in back-to-back years (1989 and 1990), issued a blunt statement when asked about the future of his likeness.

“I might jam it up their (state government and Dorna) arses, actually,” he told ABC Melbourne Radio.

The main straight of the circuit is also named after Gardner.

Fellow MotoGP great, Casey Stoner also issued a statement on social media, deeply upset about the announcement.

“One of the greatest motorcycle circuits in the world that has produced some of the greatest and most entertaining races we have witnessed, and continues to do so year after year, is being pushed to the side in place of a race in Adelaide and supposedly a street circuit,” the two-time world champion said.

Stoner secured six consecutive wins at Phillip Island from 2007 to 2012, the second-longest premier-class record in the sport’s history.

Bass Coast Coast Shire Mayor, Councillor Rochelle Halstead said that they will work with the state government to secure certain replacement for local business and tourism in the area.