F.1godfather

The former Australian Grand Prix venue regularly hosted F1 title deciders between 1985 and 1995, before being revived as the home of the Adelaide 500 Supercars event from 1999 onwards.

The circuit last hosted Supercars in March 2020 before the Adelaide 500 was axed by the South Australian government last October.

Adelaide City councillor Greg Mackie is reportedly backing a residents’ group that wants to see the now unused parklands part of the old Adelaide circuit torn up.

According to Mackie, the bitumen turns Victoria Park into an “urban heat island” in the summer months, as the councillor looking for support for a new community and management plan for the area.

Victoria Park is home to the purpose-built, 1200 metre section of the famous circuit that housed the pit area and was connected to city streets to create the full layout.

The Adelaide City Council will hear Mackie’s motion tomorrow night.

“I am asking that council administration prepares a report outlining the steps to achieve a new landscape solution that will eventually provide natural shade amenity for park users now that horse and car racing has concluded,” Mackie told the Adelaide Advertiser.

“A new landscape plan need not assume removal of all hard surfaces, but I would hope that a reduction could eventually be achieved.”

Following the decision to cancel the Adelaide 500, opposition leader Peter Malinauskas quickly signed a deal with Supercars to revive the event if elected next March.

However that plan has already been complicated by circuit infrastructure being sold off, and would be further hampered should this circuit removal plan come to fruition.

Malinauskas slammed Mackie’s plan in an interview with Adelaide radio station FiveAA earlier today.

“What Greg is coming up with is harebrained ideas to basically take the single biggest attraction in Victoria Park out of it,” said Malinauskas.

“I’ve made a crystal clear commitment, and I’ve signed an agreement with Supercars, that if Labor wins the next state election we are bringing that race back.

“I’m not doing it because I’m a motorsport fan, I’m doing that because I believe the jobs it brings and we want our city to be alive again, particularly post-COVID.

“We’re going to bring it back if we win, so we hope the track stays for the short-term for that reason.

“I take my kids to practice riding their bikes there. We’re teaching my son at the moment to ride the bike and it’s the best place in Adelaide to do it. There’s cafes there that are dependent on that foot trade. It’s actually fantastic.

Jamie Whincup, Triple Eight Race Engineering Holden

Photo by: Dirk Klynsmith / Motorsport Images

“I think Greg needs to spend a Saturday morning hanging out at Victoria Park and see what people are using before he starts ripping up that infrastructure.

“I don’t understand why people are so obsessed [with] turning Victoria Park into an area that South Australians can’t enjoy.

“I mean, this is an amazing location. It’s an amazing part of our parkland, we should be trying to get people to use it, rather than the opposite.”