English
Italiano
The Phillip Island GP sees a reunion with Fergus Cameron, who brought the motorcycle GP to the state of Victoria in Australia in 1989. The 74-year-old was Managing Director of the Phillip Island Circuit until 2022 and has now retired.
In an interview with GPone.com, the Australian describes how he brought the GP circus to this remote part of the world and the efforts it took to keep pace with the new GP venues from Sepang to Doha, Qatar, where money was not a major factor. “It is great to hear some GP riders still are saying that Phillip Island is the most beautiful race track in the world,” beamed Cameron, whose Grand Prix event had fallen victim to the coronavirus pandemic for two years in 2020 and 2021.
The first races were held on Phillip Island as early as March 31st, 1928, on an unpaved road course that was 10,4 km long. It was extended to 19,3 km in 1935. But after 1941, the course was closed due to the intense dust.
In 1952, a few enthusiasts began designing the permanent Phillip Island Circuit, but it was not until March 1956 that it opened. Later that year, the first motorcycle club meeting was held. However, the track was primarily used for car racing, with the biggest draw being a touring car event called the Armstrong 500.
However, the Victoria GP for motorcycles was held on New Year's Day every year. The later Motorcycle World Champion Tom Phillis won twelve races there on Honda and Norton from 1959 to 1961 and was named “King of Phillip Island”.
Reconstruction in 1962
The track changed hands in 1962 when it was bought by Len Lukey, who started a reconstruction program together with PIARC. In 1967, racing started again.
A new golden era was dawning, but Lukey died in 1978 and the circuit fell into disrepair again, with only sporadic race meetings.
To this day, the picturesque “Lukey Heights” curve is a reminder of the former owner.
The first Phillip Island GP in 1989 remains unforgettable, with a group of five riders including Gardner, Schwantz, Rainey, Magee and Christian Sarron and Co. at the front. The narrow access roads attracted 90,000 spectators to the island, so that the return trip to Melbourne took until 5 a.m. on Monday instead of the usual two hours due to the huge traffic jam.
The Grand Prix was held again in 1990, once more in the 125, 250 and 500 cc classes. After that, the World Championship race moved to Eastern Creek near Sydney because tobacco advertising was already banned in the state of Victoria at the time and in New South Wales it was still permitted to advertise the smokes.
This was appealing, because at that time there was hardly a top team without a cigarette sponsor - from Marlboro, Rothmans, Barclay, Lucky Strike, HB, Parisienne, Chesterfield, West, Ducados, Fortuna and Cabin to Camel.
Eastern Creek then remained the venue for the Australian GP for six years from 1991 to 1996.
With the support of the Victorian government, the GP event returned to Phillip Island in 1997. In the meantime, money had been invested in a new pit facility and from 1992, Dorna, rather than the FIM, was responsible for awarding the hosting rights.
The 30th anniversary of the GP was celebrated in 2019.
The Superbike World Championship was held at Phillip Island for the first time in 1990 and the SBK has been held there every year since then - with the exception of 1993 and 2021.
While large parts of the paddock were not asphalted at the beginning because the rural owners of the property did not want to keep investing fresh money, Dorna insisted on an improved infrastructure in the paddock. The teams no longer wanted to be housed in tents. At the time, more and more modern new circuits were being built in Europe, from Jerez to Catalunya and Brno, while others were being adapted, such as Misano and later Mugello or the Red Bull Ring or Aragón.
“Significant investments were therefore also necessary in Phillip Island,” recalls Fergus Cameron. “But most of the owners were at an age where they didn't want to invest money in a racetrack.”
In 2004, the track became the property of Lindsay Fox
So in 2004, the popular billionaire and ex-footballer Lindsay Fox became an investor with his company “Linfox Property Group Pty Ltd”. He acquired the racetrack for a reported purchase price of 13 million Australian dollars. Today, his son Andrew Fox looks after the circuit.
Under the new owner, an “AUS $2 million safety upgrade” was carried out immediately, the racetrack was modernized and a new pit facility was built.
The Australian Grand Prix Corporation (AGPC), which also organizes the Formula 1 GP in Melbourne, has been the MotoGP promoter for years.
There have been repeated discussions in recent years about who will pay for the investments at the racetrack, for example the new surface for 2013.
After all, the Australians were awarded a 10-year contract up to and including 2026.
At the beginning, the politicians didn't want to know much about the Phillip Island Circuit, the owners were on their own. They were local farmers who had laboriously raised the necessary 700,000 dollars in the 1980s. Fergus Cameron only had 60 days to raise the purchase price with this syndicate.
“The racetrack was a ruin. The buildings were run-down, the windows were broken, sheep were grazing everywhere,” he recalls.
The racetrack area covered an incredible 121,000 hectares. Most of it was agricultural land at the time and the racetrack was completely run down.
Fergus Cameron, who himself came from a farming background, raised enough money within the required 60 days and took over the Phillip Island GP Circuit in 1985 with the newly founded consortium called Placetac Pty Ltd.
When Wayne Gardner became the first Australian to win the 500cc World Championship in 1987, a huge motorcycling euphoria arose in Australia. It reached its peak when Mick Doohan won five 500cc World Championship titles in a row. “Quick Mick” is also the only GP rider to win at Eastern Creek (1992, 1995) and Phillip Island (1998). Casey Stoner then triumphed six times in a row on Phillip Island from 2007 to 2012.
The clever businessman Fergus Cameron had heard in good time that the FIM World Motorcycling Federation (FIM) would grant the Australian federation a Grand Prix in 1989.
Engineer and race promoter Bob Barnard and his Barfield Company chose Phillip Island as the venue. The track was shortened by 0.5 km to 4.445 km and upgraded to the tune of A$5 million. This is how Bob Barnard spruced up the facility for the first motorcycle GP in 1989.
Ferguson: “We were awarded the contract for 1989, then the renovation of the Phillip Island circuit began immediately. But the weather was so bad in July, August and September 1988 that we had to stop work, everything was muddy. We were very worried about whether we would be ready for the Grand Prix in April 1989, because we only had limited financial resources. But we were able to finish everything on time.”
Indeed, the Phillip Island Circuit reopened on time on December 4, 1988.
Fergus Cameron's wife Chris was a key person responsible for administration and logistics throughout the GP years and a valuable part of the Grand Prix.
At the 2022 Motorcycle Grand Prix, the Camerons arrived in the paddock on Saturday accompanied by Craig Hemsworth, the father of world-famous actors Liam and Chris Hemsworth, who grew up two kilometers from the circuit. Chris Hemsworth (who was in a relationship with Miley Cyrus) also came back to the Grand Prix for a visit.
For the first time since 1989, Fergus and Chris Cameron didn't make it to the circuit on Sunday in 2022, watching the races on TV at home with a bit of melancholy.
They live just 10 minutes from the circuit, in the same street as Craig Hemsworth.
“Until 2022, we've always had an evening at our house for all the Grand Prix and Superbike World Championship races. We've invited friendly team managers and Dorna CEO Carmelo Ezpeleta, Race Director Mike Webb, Franco Uncini and so on over for dinner,” said Fergus and Chris Cameron. “There was usually a singing competition between Australians, Spaniards and Italians. They were entertaining evenings.”
