‘Why would MotoGP leave Phillip Island?’: Aussie great
Steve Larkin |
Casey Stoner is questioning the decision to move the Australian Motorcycle Grand Prix from Phillip Island to South Australia.
The Australian great, who won six consecutive MotoGP’s on Phillip Island from 2007, is querying why the fabled island circuit is being pushed off the calendar.
The SA government is expected on Thursday to announce it will host the Australian MotoGP from next year.
Victoria’s government has confirmed it has lost hosting rights, with this year’s edition in October the last at Phillip Island.
Stoner, a dual world champion, queried the reasons for the move.
“MotoGP to take Phillip Island off the calendar!!!,” Stoner posted on Instagram.
“One of the greatest Motorcycle circuits in the entire 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…
“Why would MotoGP take possibly their best circuit off the calendar … I’ll let everyone decide.”
The Victorian government wanted to keep the grand prix at Phillip Island, opposing demands from organisers to move to the event to Melbourne’s Albert Park.
Officials from race organisers, the MotoGP Sports Entertainment Group, formerly known as Dorna Sports, flew into Adelaide on Wednesday night ahead of the official announcement of a move.
The group wanted a shift to Albert Park to boost mainstream appeal.
But 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.
“The foreign private owners of the MotoGP have demanded that we move the MotoGP to Albert Park,” Victoria’s major events minister Steve Dimopoulos said.
“We said no. We were never willing to sell out Phillip Island.”
The loss of the grand prix is a massive economic blow to Phillip Island, the site of the race since 1997 after previously hosting in 1989 and 1990.
Last year’s MotoGP attracted 93,000 spectators to the island with an economic benefit of more than $54 million.
The island struck a 10-year deal to host the grand prix in 2016, intended to underwrite investment that never fully materialised and 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.
Until that street circuit was ready, an initial race in SA could be staged at The Bend Motorsport Park at Tailem Bend, about 100km south-east of Adelaide.
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.
AAP