F1 circuit designer warns public backlash and $100m-plus price tag could derail SA’s proposed MotoGP street race
The man who created Adelaide’s F1 circuit, Victoria’s Phillip Island and Sydney’s Eastern Creek doesn’t believe the MotoGP street circuit will be built.
Bob Barnard, now resident in Spain and running a business building private race tracks for multi-millionaires in Europe and the US, thinks public opposition and the sheer financial cost will be too much for the South Australian Government.
In a wide-ranging interview with the Oxley Bom MotoGP podcast (hosted by AMCN correspondents Mat Oxley and Peter Bom) Barnard said he expected public opposition similar to what happened when the Victorian Government started to build the Albert Park circuit.
“Protesters chained themselves to trees,” he said. “When I built Adelaide’s F1 circuit I wasn’t allowed to take even one tree out.”
Barnard said the proposed circuit was “a version of Albert Park” and “not related to what I built” (in Adelaide).
He also questioned if South Australia actually needed a round of MotoGP, considering it already hosted major sports events such as the AFL Gather Round, LIV golf and a sold-out annual Motorsport Festival. As well he asked the question “Who’s paying?”, pointing out that the circuit would cost “$100 million or more”.
However, Barnard said he understood the attraction of a street circuit: “It gives people a greater sense of the speed involved because they drive these streets themselves.
Main pic: Barnard during the building of the famed Phillip Island circuit
