MotoGP relocates Australian GP to Adelaide from 2027

[p]MotoGP Sports Entertainment Group and ‌the South Australia state government on Thursday said they had signed ‌a six-year agreement, with the first Adelaide race to ‌be held in November, 2027.[/p][p]"[b]This landmark event will be the ‌first MotoGP Grand Prix to be held in a ‌city-centre location – with the uncompromised safety standards required in the modern era of the sport,[/b]" they said in a joint statement.[/p][p]Unlike ‌Formula One, MotoGP has never held a ⁠street race, primarily due ‌to safety concerns.[/p][p]The sports minister of neighbouring Victoria state, Steve Dimopoulos, ​said on Wednesday his government was unable to strike an agreement with MotoGP to keep the ​race at Phillip Island.[/p][p]Dimopoulos said the government had balked at the owner's preference for shifting the event to Melbourne's ⁠Albert Park, which hosts ​a Formula One race every year.[/p][p]"[b]We know that we could have kept[/b] (the race) [b]in Victoria, had we sold out Phillip Island. We were never willing to sell out Phillip ‌Island,[/b]" Dimopoulos said.[/p][embed guid="d4c16809-a835-4236-8af7-79a1a8cce610" url="https://x.com/DreHarrison101/status/2024442996721119556" social-type="twitter" /][p]Barring the pandemic-affected years of 2020-21, Phillip Island has hosted the Grand Prix every year since 1997. This year's race is scheduled for October.[/p][p]Retired Australian rider Casey Stoner, a two-times champion who won six times at Phillip Island, questioned why MotoGP would take "[b]possibly their best circuit[/b]" off the calendar.[/p][p]"[b]One of the greatest motorcycle circuits in the entire world that has produced some of ‌the greatest and most entertaining races we have witnessed, and ​continues to do so year after year, is ‌being pushed to the side in place of a race in Adelaide and supposedly a street circuit,[/b]" Stoner said.[/p][p]Among current riders, reigning champion Marc Marquez of Ducati has won four MotoGP titles at Phillip Island, with ⁠his last win coming ⁠in 2024.[/p][embed guid="e8ec5ad4-238c-4dca-a4e5-611307c45e34" url="https://x.com/MichaelSmyth_/status/2024067291621540067" social-type="twitter" /]