Tenders to open this week for supply of key Adelaide 500 infrastructure and services ahead of the return of the race in December

SA is another step closer to the return of the Adelaide 500 supercars race, with the state government about to open tenders for key infrastructure and services.

The race to hold the Adelaide 500 this December has moved up a gear, with tenders opening this week for the supply of key infrastructure and services, such as grandstands and catering.

It comes as Thursday’s state budget sets aside $18m in 2022-23 to run the event, which was axed by the Liberals in 2020 and will be revived under Labor as part of a key election commitment.

The new government has set aside an extra $3m to buy infrastructure that was recently sold off by the former government in what Labor branded a “fire sale” designed to sabotage plans to return the race to Adelaide.

Tenders set to open this week will also include ticketing, security, hospitality platforms, portable toilet hire, pedestrian overpasses, marquees as well as fit-outs and furniture, site fencing, greenery, hospitality airconditioning and fridge hire, temporary shade sails, track resurfacing and civil works, cleaning and waste management services, pit pavilion air-conditioning and grounds maintenance.

The Adelaide 500 will be held from December 1-4 this year. Picture: Sarah Reed

The Adelaide 500 was axed by the Liberals in 2020 and will return under Labor as part of a key election commitment. Peter Malinauskas joins drivers, musicians and fans at Civic Park, Modbury, in the lead-up to the March election. Picture: Emma Brasier

Premier Peter Malinauskas said momentum was building for the return of the race, and the issue of tenders was “yet another tangible sign the race is coming back”.

“This is also a great opportunity for local businesses to tender for work, which will help support jobs and generate local economic activity,” he said.

“That’s why this event is so much more than a car race – it’s a generator of jobs and a driver of economic activity.”

SA Motorsport Board chief executive Mark Warren said “it’s hard to believe it’s only six months until the great race returns”.

“We’re working to a tight time frame and we can’t afford to waste a second, which is why it’s exciting to begin the process of issuing tenders,” he said.

“This also presents a massive boost to the local events industry, who has been starved of major events over the past couple of years.”

Other milestones yet to be announced ahead of the race, which will be held from December 1-4, include the musical acts for the event and the launch of ticket sales.

Last year, SA Tourism Commission boss Rodney Harrex told a parliamentary committee that items such as portable buildings and toilets had been donated to various organisations and government agencies, and overpasses, barriers and scaffolding were provided or sold to The Bend racetrack at Tailem Bend.

But he said a “significant amount of assets” were to be sold at public auction, including pit buildings, shade structures, track infrastructure and operational infrastructure.

In 2019, the Adelaide 500 supported 435 full-time jobs and injected $46m into the economy, but in 2020 that figure fell to $38m before then-premier Steven Marshall announced the race had been scrapped.

At the time, he blamed the event’s demise on rising costs, falling crowds, declining commercial interest and the Covid pandemic.