Labor's MotoGP plan hits a familiar park wall

Topic:Motor Sports

Earlier this year, Peter Malinauskas revealed the state was set to host the Australian MotoGP from 2027. (ABC News: Che Chorley)

A triumphant premier snatches a marquee motorsport event off an interstate rival.

He announces the race will take place on an upgraded street circuit around a popular inner-city park, which will have to be modified to meet international standards.

A protest movement forms, blasting the government over a lack of transparency and public consultation.

They wrap yellow ribbons around trees facing the axe, and more than 10,000 people gather in the parklands to protest.

"Send your circus to our existing circuits," one placard reads.

"I'm in favour of the Grand Prix but certainly not in Albert Park — it's not a suitable venue," a protester tells a reporter.

While their numbers have dwindled and their methods have changed, Save Albert Park say they "will never give up" on the fight to have Melbourne's Formula 1 Grand Prix relocated.

Victorian Premier Jeff Kennett says he's not surprised by the turnout, but people will be reassured once they see the final track design.

"Until people see the plans, then they remain confused. I understand that," he says.

The Labor opposition, which supports the protest movement against Formula One in Albert Park, grills Kennett in parliament.

The Liberal Premier snaps back: "We're for it, they're against it. We're for everything, they're against everything."

The Jeff Kennett bible

History doesn't repeat itself, but it often rhymes.

When Peter Malinauskas snatched MotoGP hosting rights from Victoria in February, it was cast as sweet revenge against Melbourne for nicking the F1 Grand Prix 33-years earlier.

Kennett said he laughed upon hearing the news because the South Australian premier had "just taken another page from the Jeff Kennett bible".

Since then, Malinauskas seems to have ripped out Kennett's entire Old Testament.

The SA premier is ploughing ahead with his plan to build a MotoGP circuit through Adelaide's eastern parklands in the face of resistance.

More than 43,000 people have signed a petition calling for a halt to works — roughly 3 per cent of Adelaide's population.

Hundreds, more likely thousands, of those marched through Adelaide's CBD last weekend in another "stop the chop" rally.

Protesters rallied in Adelaide on August 23 opposing the removal of trees for the North Adelaide golf course and city MotoGP track. (ABC News: Daniel Taylor)

The rebuttals from Kennett and Malinauskas are nearly identical, 30 years apart.

"The park itself is not the possession of a few, it is for the enjoyment of all," Kennett said in 1994 to the Save Albert Park movement.

"I am fervently of the opinion," Malinauskas told 891 ABC Adelaide on Thursday, "that everybody should have the opportunity to be able to enjoy the parklands."

"That even includes, frankly, people from outer suburban communities, regional communities, that might be interested in motorsport."

Kennett accused Victorian Labor of being anti-events for joining the protests; Malinauskas is charging the SA Liberals with the same after their inner-city MP Jack Batty spoke at Sunday's rally.

Kennett also flatly rejected calls from protesters to move the F1 from Albert Park to an existing track at Sandown, 30 minutes away.

Malinauskas has a similar reply to shifting MotoGP to Tailem Bend, arguing SA would never have got the event without a city circuit — a view motorsport journalists agree with.

Protesters camped this week at the site of the proposed MotoGP track. (ABC News: Brant Cumming)

What lies ahead?

One day, likely in November 2027, Malinauskas might bask in the glory of bringing MotoGP to Adelaide, just like he has with AFL Gather Round and the return of the Adelaide 500.

The Kennett bible certainly indicates he will.

By 1996, Labor's support for the Albert Park protests had evaporated and the new Melbourne circuit was completed, albeit with the arrests of nearly 700 protesters for civil disobedience.

Formula One has since been held in Melbourne 29 times with bi-partisan support, its most recent iteration attracting a four-day attendance close to 500,000 people.

The Malinauskas government is clearly determined to get MotoGP over the line, and the political costs of changing course would be significant.

"I think the people in charge [of MotoGP] 100 per cent want to make this happen and I don't think they'll be worried about the protests and so on," said Mat Oxley, a former British motorcycle racer and veteran journalist of the sport.

One of the protests held in Adelaide against the removal of trees in the parklands. (ABC News: Daniel Taylor)

But for now, Malinauskas is stuck in the same gravel trap Kennett was in May 1994.

We are told to expect track designs imminently. Without them, speculation has filled the void about tree loss, traffic disruption, permanent buildings, $100 million budgets and a legislative takeover of the parklands.

There's also another question that is getting far less attention.

Will the Adelaide track be any good?

The full details of Adelaide's MotoGP street circuit have been highly anticipated after hosting rights were announced in February. (ABC News: Che Chorley)

MotoGP's new owners, Liberty Media, have made no secret of their ambition to bring motorcycle racing closer to cities, just as they have done with Formula One.

Shifting from isolated regional tracks to the big smoke brings enormous commercial opportunities and the chance to attract a new audience.

But there's a reason MotoGP hasn't raced on a street circuit since the early 1980s.

"In MotoGP, the first thing that hits the barrier half the time is the rider himself with no protection beyond what they're wearing," said Simon Patterson, a freelance sports journalist who follows MotoGP around the world.

Mr Patterson said he expected an "awful lot of work" — including tree removals — would be needed to make the Adelaide circuit safe, noting modern MotoGP circuits can have 50 to 60 metres of run-off space on fast corners.

"You have to presume they've [MotoGP] been given some sort of reassurance as to what work was going to be done in order to make it safe enough to deliver this event," he said.

"We've seen other races in the past where riders have deemed a circuit not safe enough to ride on and have not raced."

MotoGP circuits are subject to strict safety requirements. (AAP: Joel Carrett)

Clearly, there can be absolutely no compromise on rider safety. The SA Motorsport Board has said as much.

But it does beg the question: how much scope is there for changes as part of public consultation?

The track design will be the product of months of work and negotiations to meet the most stringent of international requirements.

Mr Malinauskas told parliament this month that changes would be made if there were "legitimate concerns" that can be "reasonably accommodated" without compromising the outcome the government wants.

"But are we going to cancel the whole thing at the first sign of resistance? No, we're not," he said.

Mr Oxley, meanwhile, believes the Adelaide circuit can be safe, but questions whether it will be entertaining.

"You've got a fairly confined amount of space in the parklands, so you can't build a massively fast track like Phillip Island — completely impossible," he said.

Adelaide's Victoria Park will host part of the MotoGP street circuit. (ABC News: Daniel Taylor)

"So far of what we've seen there's going to be a lot of slow corners, a lot of chicanes, because you need to keep the speeds down in the corners.

"That doesn't mean it won't be entertaining. We have a few slow tracks in MotoGP already like Balaton Park [in Hungary] and you can get good racing at them."

A dull track could be a particularly hard sell to MotoGP fans given the shift from Phillip Island, which Mr Oxley said is one of MotoGP's "jewels in the crown".

But the Adelaide GP, he added, will be something very few, if any, MotoGP fans have experienced in their lives, an experiment that will be closely watched by other cities.

"If they can make it work, I think it could be great," he said.

"But the people of Adelaide, they have to decide: is the pain is worth the gain?"

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