Jeff Kennett praises SA Premier for snatching motorcycle grand prix from Vics
Straight from “the Jeff Kennett bible” – former Victorian Liberal Premier doffs his hat as Premier snatches MotoGP from Phillip Island. The event will be held on the Adelaide Street Circuit in the city centre.
South Australia has pinched the Australian Motorcycle Grand Prix from Victoria – and the former Premier who stole the Formula One Grand Prix from Adelaide in the 1990s has praise for its execution.
Premier Peter Malinauskas announced on Thursday morning that the event would be held on the city’s street circuit from 2027.
“I’m crying and I’m laughing”, Jeff Kennett told ABC Radio this morning, saying Malinauskas’ audacious move to take the grand prix from Victoria was “a stroke of genius”.
“I’ve got a feeling in my bones that we’ll get it back,” Kennett said, adding that he knew the SA media and public “will love it” as payback from his government’s taking Adelaide’s race in the ’90s.
“We never stole the grand prix, we borrowed it and forgot to give it back,” he said.
Malinauskas announced the deal alongside MotoGP Sports Entertainment Group sporting director Carlos Ezpeleta – who flew into Adelaide late on Wednesday night.
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It would be held at the city circuit that is currently used for the BP Adelaide Grand Final supercars event – and was once used by the Formula One Grand Prix.
Kennett saying it would have cost “millions upon millions upon millions” of taxpayers’ dollars to lure the event to SA but guaranteed the Premier would not share the dollar figure.
Victoria’s government wanted to keep the grand prix at Phillip Island, where it has been held since 1997, having previously played host in 1989 and 1990.
The Allan government opposed a demand from race organisers, the MotoGP Sports Entertainment Group, formerly known as Dorna Sports, for a shift to Melbourne’s Albert Park to boost mainstream appeal.
Malinauskas said the deal was a “major coup” saying “we are now competing with the rest of the nation for the world’s best events –and winning”.
Any move to Albert Park – the venue of Melbourne’s Formula One grand prix – would have required track expansion and likely removal of trees to cater for motorcycling’s larger run-off areas.
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“The foreign private owners of the MotoGP have demanded that we move the MotoGP to Albert Park. We said no,” Major Events Minister Steve Dimopoulos told the ABC.
“We were never willing to sell out Phillip Island.”
Phillip Island’s final Australian MotoGP will be held from October 23-25 this year, with the loss of the event a major blow for the island’s tourism and economy.
Last year’s event at Phillip Island attracted 93,000 spectators. The grand prix was estimated to generate more than $54 million a year in economic benefit to Victoria.
The island has become synonymous with the MotoGP world championship round, particularly given a sustained stretch of local and big-name success.
Australia’s Casey Stoner won the MotoGP race at Phillip Island in six consecutive years from 2007, while Italian legend Valentino Rossi has the most wins on the track – six in the premier class (500cc then MotoGP) and two in 250cc.
Fellow Aussie greats Mick Doohan (1998) and Wayne Gardner (1989, 1990) were also 500cc race winners at the circuit.
The island struck a 10-year deal to host the grand prix in 2016, intended to underwrite investment that never fully materialised which left infrastructure lagging behind MotoGP’s ambitions.
As the Victorian government’s impasse with organisers over Phillip Island continued, SA’s government swooped, seemingly with a promise to stage the grand prix on an Adelaide street circuit.
Malinauskas was instrumental in Adelaide and surrounds being given hosting rights for the AFL’s Gather Round, when all 18 clubs play in SA, and also LIV Golf, which has held an Australian tournament in Adelaide for the past four years.
SA hosted the Formula One grand prix at an Adelaide street circuit from 1985 to 1995 before losing the race to Melbourne’s Albert Park.
-with AAP
