MOTORCYCLING: Adelaide to host MotoGP's first street race from 2027

MELBOURNE – The Australian Motorcycle Grand Prix will move to a street circuit in Adelaide next year, ending Phillip Island’s nearly three-decade run as the host of the MotoGP event, organisers announced Thursday.

MotoGP Sports Entertainment Group and the South Australian government have signed a six-year agreement, with the first Adelaide race scheduled for November 2027.

“This landmark event will be the first MotoGP Grand Prix to be held in a city-center location – while maintaining the uncompromised safety standards required in modern motorsport,” the organizers said in a joint statement.

Unlike Formula One, MotoGP has never held a street race, mainly due to safety concerns.

Victoria state sports minister Steve Dimopoulos said Wednesday that his government could not reach an agreement with MotoGP to keep the race at Phillip Island. He added that officials had rejected MotoGP’s demand to move the event to Melbourne’s Albert Park, which hosts Australia’s Formula One race every year.

“We know we could have kept the race in Victoria if we sold out Phillip Island. We were never willing to do that,” Dimopoulos said.

Except for the pandemic-affected years of 2020 and 2021, Phillip Island has hosted the Grand Prix annually since 1997. The final race at the scenic seaside track is set for October 2026.

Retired Australian rider Casey Stoner, a two-time MotoGP champion who won six races at Phillip Island, questioned the decision to remove “possibly their best circuit” from the calendar.

“One of the greatest motorcycle circuits in the world, which has produced some of the most exciting races year after year, is being replaced by a street race in Adelaide,” Stoner said.

Among current riders, reigning champion Marc Marquez of Ducati has claimed four MotoGP wins at Phillip Island, with his most recent victory in 2024.

The Adelaide race will revive the street circuit used for the Australian Formula One Grand Prix from 1985 to 1995 before it moved to Albert Park. The government said the circuit will measure 4.195 km with 18 turns and allow top speeds exceeding 340 kph.

-Reporting by Ian Ransom in Melbourne and Rohith Nair in Bengaluru; Editing by Christopher Cushing and Peter Rutherford/Reuters