HELP PREMIER REV UP INDY

PREMIER Annastacia Palaszczuk will do herself plenty of favours with her bid to bring back an IndyCars race to the streets of Surfers Paradise.

Ask any business owner – cafe, bar or restaurant in Main Beach and Surfers Paradise – about IndyCars race days, which suddenly halted in 2008, and they will go all dreamy eyed and speak wistfully of a time when international patrons queued up with credit cards ready to swipe.

Not only are the open wheelers an exciting brand of racing but the crowds and crews it draws are – by all accounts – much bigger spenders on post-race entertainment than the V8 Supercars fans.

Not that anyone begrudges the latter group; they pump plenty into the local economy. But calls for a revamp of the event have been mounting.

It is easy to be cynical about the timing of Ms Palaszczuk’s revelation that she has reached out to the IndyCars’ CEO and is inviting him for a tete-a-tete to talk turkey on the Gold Coast.

It comes hard on the heels of the release of the long-awaited master plan for how to enhance The Spit. It has been warmly received on many fronts but the Opposition is rightly critical of how long it is taking and the fact it puts a cruise ship terminal on the backburner while the plan is finalised.

That won’t happen until mid next year after further rounds of community consultation.

But on balance, the Premier should be congratulated for stepping in and using the power of her office to try to bring back the Indy. And Gold Coast Inc should be right behind her, helping with whatever she needs to pull it off.

This is not a Premier who has no runs on the board in this regard.

Her office and Government were critical in bringing the blockbuster Jeff Horn versus Manny Pacquiao fight to reality.

That alone means Gold Coast leaders and businesses should have every faith she can pull off an IndyCars race return.