INDYCARS SET THE STANDARD, SO IT’S TIME TO SHINE
The Gold Coast is an undisputed champion at hosting major events, so it’s high time we doubled down to make the most of our city’s reputation
TWENTY years ago, motorsport fans saw the unmistakeable crunching of raw metal and carbon fibre as cars disintegrated in front of them as the Gold Coast Indycar race turned into a demolition derby during a storm that smashed into Surfers Paradise.
It had been a typical late October day on that scorching Sunday, the sticky, suffocating heat combining to create an atmosphere for a belter of a storm.
As the star-studded Indy field did their warm-up laps, right on cue at around 3pm, the storm cell lashed the 2.1km concrete canyon, as the drivers were flagged off in torrential rain.
Visibility was virtually zero and as the cars hit top speed in the home straight you could sense this was an incredibly dangerous situation.
Sure enough, it became mayhem as nine cars piled up, some having flipped, others were smouldering, smoking wrecks.
Adrian Fernandez and Tora Takagi were transported to hospital, but both released later that night.
Several cars were write-offs but two hours later, with the storm having swept out to sea, and the track now wet but visibility perfect, they cut the race back from 78 laps to 40 laps and the drivers saddled up for round two.
It was then that I realised
The Gold Coast has the charisma and chutzpah to pull off an event like the Gold Coast 500, while boring Brisbane is better off with a once a year fireworks display
that these drivers had the testicles of an elephant. They’d been through one of the most harrowing experiences you could ever imagine on a racetrack, but strapped themselves into their cars and went around again.
It was one of many crashes we’ve seen over the years at the Surfers Paradise circuit and next weekend, we do it all again, after a Covid-induced hiatus of three years.
It’s expected the crowds will flock to Surfers Paradise with race and tourism officials already predicting pre-covid level attendances.
Of course, the glamour Indy cars are gone, replaced by the V8s, the homegrown car series created by Suns chairman Tony Cochrane.
As an event, nothing compares on the Gold Coast to that motorsport festival, the last weekend in October.
For locals, the traffic dislocation has always been a pain, but the rewards for local tourism operators is significant.
It’s also an event that fits in nicely to the Gold Coast’s tourism calendar, two months out from Christmas-new Year and just before the annual Schoolies madness.
And as much as Brisbane has always coveted such a race, it just wouldn’t work in the state’s capital.
Like the Logies, the Gold Coast has the charisma and chutzpah to pull off an event like the Gold Coast 500, while boring Brisbane is better off with a once a year fireworks display.
It demonstrates the sheer lunacy of the city-centric Olympics board shutting out the Gold Coast as it plans the 2032 event.
How the International Olympic Committee can acquiesce to the Gold Coast and Sunshine Coast being kept out of the loop on Olympics planning is puzzling.
It’s even more baffling when you consider that the Gold Coast will host nine of the 30 odd sports in 2032.
If the IOC wants to establish how the Gold Coast runs a major event, they need look no further than the past 30 years and the motorsport spectacular which courses through Surfers Paradise, attracting tens of thousands of spectators.
However, it is increasingly clear that the Gold Coast has rested on its laurels when it comes to bringing the big events to the city.
Metricon is a fantastic stadium for big rock concerts, and we’re about to see Guns N Roses there in the next few weeks.
But where are the world class boxing bouts? Where are the world class golf tournaments?
This city needs a greater focus on bringing iconic sports and cultural drawcards to the region.
Why wouldn’t we host an NFL game?
Imagine the Green Bay Packers playing the LA Rams in an NFL game at Metricon Stadium, being beamed around the world?
Or an NBL fixture, the Detroit Pistons playing the Miami Heat? These types of major events take money, time and patience.
When people like Ron Richards, John Cowley, Geoff Jones, Brett Murray and Tony Cochrane began formulating the Gold Coast as an Indycar venue in the early 1990s, nobody knew how big it would become.
We became the toast of that Indycar circuit, and are now one of the hottest tickets on the V8s roster.
We’ve got the template. We now need to build on it.