For me, it’s a frustrating weekend as a MotoGP fan. My filthy entitled European arse has it rough enough going through a 3am race start, combined with Daylight Savings kicking in on Race Day. But it’s always worth it because this is the Australian Grand Prix.
At least, for one last time as we know it. This weekend marks the final Aussie GP at what is for me, the greatest MotoGP track of them all. The one weekend on the flyaways you circle on the calendar.
It has everything you could ever need for a great circuit on two wheels. Blistering speed, over 210 miles per hour down the massive front stretch, heading downhill and blind into Doohan. But it’s the flowing, fast nature of the track that made Phillip Island truly great. The multiple-line Southern Loop. Stoner and those beautiful drifts he laid down, into the Miller hairpin. Lukey Heights into the heavy braking zone downhill into the Turn 10 hairpin, where so many great passes have been laid down.
It was a superb equalising track for all the different manufacturers, with said fast corners and the lack of aero allowing bikes to follow, and there was always a strength a brand could utilise. When I was growing up, Honda had that explosive power out of the slower corners and the grunt down the straights, as did Ducati, while Yamaha and Suzuki could use their better cornering ability to stay in range. No coincidence that as Mat Oxley shared earlier in the week, three of the 10 closest finishes in MotoGP history have been from here.
It was a dangerous place at the best of times. I still haven’t forgotten the terrifying crashes that Johann Zarco and Marco Bezzecchi have had in years past, getting clipped under braking or losing out in the aero wash. Combine that with an unpredictable micro-climate and excessive, sometimes gale force winds and you never quite knew what you were getting yourself into at Phillip Island.
And the most frustrating part of the circuit’s upcoming departure, is that it all felt so preventable. It’s not that MotoGP has outgrown the place, or even totally on Liberty Media’s new ownership that’s slammed the door shut. It’s always been a commercial nightmare for the series. Phillip Island is exactly that, on an island that’s difficult to access, so attendance has never been as good as the heavyweight European rounds that can now top out at over 100,000 on race days. It’s always been on the lower end of quality facilities too, with a barista being about the only highlight of covering a race weekend there, with other friends telling me nightmare stories about a lack of toilet cubicles and infrastructure issues.
In a sport that’s made it a very open secret it wants to make the race experience mean more, shoving the smaller classes out to the back of the paddock and wanting more VIP’s and brand activations at the track, have doomed Phillip Island to the bin. Not even World Superbikes wants it anymore. It gives off the impression that the track is no longer a World Championship level facility, which is saddening.
This could have been fixed if the Victorian government pulled its thumb out. It was given options. Improve the track’s infrastructure. No? Okay, how about we move the race to Melnourne’s Albert Park and make it a bit more bike friendly? No? You called Dorna’s bluff and now they’re off to friggin’ Adelaide?!
Adelaide and the upcoming move felt inevitable for the above reasons, combined with the business model of MotoGP’s new owners. Bring the racing directly to the people via street races, aiming for a local buzz, brand activations and local promotion, and to gather larger crowds. And that’s the problem that’s hard to argue – For Formula 1, it’s objectively worked. New races in Miami, Las Vegas (Which F1 now self-promotes) and the Madring (Yes, it was a sellout despite the track being dogshit), have brought in a younger audience that’s been the envy of a bunch of other sports, MotoGP included.
Even before the Liberty purchase, they were drinking from F1’s lukewarm coffee. And yes, while there’s been local backlash in Adelaide like there was for Vegas, and I think it sucks that both have cut down trees and harmed the environment to facilitate these tracks, it’s rarely ever enough to stop an investment of this size.
And it sucks because Adelaide feels like a soulless husk in the renders previewing the new track for next year. It looks bland. And there’s still big concerns about just how “safe” the new track will be for the riders and whether the installed runoff will be sufficient. I worry it’ll be another heart in mouth “Balaton Park” job.
But I refuse to end this piece on a sour note, and I ain’t leaving this place without reminiscing about some of my favourite Phillip Island moments of my lifetime. Including:
2003 – Valentino Rossi’s 10-second comeback. If you ever needed a reminder as to how 2003 Vale was on a different plane of existence compared to everyone else. Rossi took a 10-second time penalty for the Grand Prix after overtaking under yellow flags earlier in the weekend. He kept the lead from pole position early and never looked back. He had to win by 10 seconds to keep it. He won by 15. To this day, it’s the only Grand Prix that Rossi admitted he was at 100% right from the lights going out.
2015 – Lap of the Gods. Still my vote for the greatest MotoGP race, ever. Certainly one of the most important too. Jorge Lorenzo trying to break the tow and get away, Marc Marquez trying to nurse his overheating front tyre, Andrea Iannone just trying to get the best result possible for the embryonic new Ducati, and Valentino Rossi still desperate for his 10th World Title. Iannone’s double pass at the hairpin is still one of the sport’s greatest ever moves, and Marquez coming back from a second down on the final lap in one of the sport’s ultimate “I’m going to win this race or crash trying” mentality was… outrageous. The fastest lap of the race, at the flag. Oh, and Iannone rode into a seagull. What more do you need?
2017 – Bar Room Brawl. The other ridiculous MotoGP race that was really a punchup. Absolutely relentless action until the very end where Marquez got away, but before that, we had Jack Miller leading his home race, Zarco, Rossi, Maverick Vinales, Aleix Espargaro and others all beating the piss out of each other. Just a relentlessly brilliant race.
2022 – Thank you, Suzuki. One last dance for the third Japanese factory. Their final win in MotoGP’s premier class as of now, and Alex Rins at the peak of his powers to narrowly beat out Marc Marquez in one of the sport’s closest photo finishes. Jorge Martin was 0.884 seconds off the win. He finished seventh. Man.
2023 – Martin’s Survival. A weekend of chaos. A Grand Prix that was moved to Saturday due to a massive stormfront of rain and wind. Jorge Martin, battling for his first Championship, was on pole by half a second and looking like a landslide favourite until a gamble on choosing a softer rear tyre backfired right at the end of the race. It led one of the most startling finishes ever as Johann Zarco had to pass his teammate on the final lap of the race, with Zarco finally winning his first MotoGP race in his 120th attempt. Storytelling in racing matters, lemme tell you.
Goodbye Phillip Island. You were a wonderful, wonderful track. And man, am I going to miss you.
