Crusher, Cochrane had
IT may well be the sweetesttasting beer Brett “Crusher” Murray has ever put to his lips.
“We got to the Sunday night and had a party at a house I had hired at Main Beach,” the motorsport identity recalled of the year the Gold Coast’s annual festival of speed teetered on the edge of oblivion.
“I remember going out on to the balcony. It was about 11pm and I had a beer and was looking out at the track and said to myself out loud: ‘How the (expletive) did we pull that off?’
“It was the most frustrating, emotional and ultimately satisfying thing I’ve done in my career.”
As the city gears up for another massive weekend of motorsport, key players have shared exclusive insights into the debacle of 2009 that saw A1GP, the much-hyped replacement for IndyCars, fail to show for the event.
The explosive news followed months of lies from A1GP bosses, blind acceptance of those lies from the State Government’s event organisers and exasperation from those who knew the sport best.
“We knew through our international motorsport connections that A1 Grand Prix was in an immense amount of trouble and it was highly unlikely they would come,” recalled then V8 Supercars boss, Tony Cochrane.
“But (the event organisers) kept listening to the bullshit being spouted by the A1 Grand Prix people. It was a complete farce … and if we hadn’t saved the event that year, it would have been lost for ever.”
GOODBYE INDY, HELLO A1GP The fact many locals continue to refer to the event as ‘Indy’ highlights how ingrained the American IndyCar Series was on the Gold Coast.
For 18 years, the mighty machines roared through the streets of Surfers Paradise. Then, in the wake of the 2008 race, IndyCar bosses confirmed they would not be returning.
“The management of the event became convinced A1GP was where they needed to go and if everything had happened as it was meant to, it was probably the right option,” Murray said.
“Unfortunately, it quickly became the wrong option.”
Headed by South African diamond entrepreneur Tony Teixeira, A1 Grand Prix signed a deal to launch its fifth global season on the Gold Coast. Boasting open-wheel cars and glamour aplenty, it seemed the perfect fit for the city.
Nothing could have been further from the truth.
LIAR LIAR Murray’s official role from the birth of the Gold Coast Indy 300 was media manager. In reality, he was much more – adviser, middle man, confidant – and he had concerns about their new bedfellows a long way out from the 2009 race.
“As early as the year before I was saying, ‘We need a Plan B because everything’s telling me this isn’t as right as it needs to be’,” Murray said.
So it proved when, three months before the event, Teixeira advised organisers that the UK-arm of A1GP had been placed in liquidation. However, he assured them its 20 cars would still be on the start line and the State Government agreed to pay his company its first sanction fee of $1.8 million. And so the deception began.
“The amount of lies was amazing,” Murray said.
“I had a myriad sources telling me they weren’t going to come, yet we were doing conference calls with the A1GP people in England about or-