Insiders relive the lies and frustrations of the 2009 A1GP debacle

“I remember going out on to the balcony. It was about 11pm and I had a beer and was looking out at the track and said to myself out loud, ‘How the (expletive) did we pull that off?’.

A1GP racing driver Narain Karthikeyan’s crash in May 2009 was nothing compared to the damage the motorsport series’s reputation suffered on the Gold Coast a few months later. Photo: AFP/Shaun Curry

IT may well be the sweetest tasting beer Brett ‘Crusher’ Murray has ever put to his lips.

“We got to the Sunday night and had a party at a house I had hired at Main Beach,” the motorsport identity recalled of the year the Gold Coast’s annual festival of speed teetered on the edge of oblivion.

“I remember going out on to the balcony. It was about 11pm and I had a beer and was looking out at the track and said to myself out loud, ‘How the (expletive) did we pull that off?’.

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“It was the most frustrating, emotional and ultimately satisfying thing I’ve done in my career.”

As the city gears up for another massive weekend of motorsport, key players have shared exclusive insights into the debacle of 2009 that saw A1GP, the much-hyped replacement for IndyCars, fail to show for the event.

The explosive news followed months of lies from A1GP bosses, blind acceptance of those lies from the State Government’s event organisers and exasperation from those who knew the sport best.

“We knew through our international motorsport connections that A1 Grand Prix was in an immense amount of trouble and it was highly unlikely they would come,” recalled then V8 Supercars boss, Tony Cochrane.

“But (the event organisers) kept listening to the bullshit being sprouted by the A1 Grand Prix people. It was a complete farce … and if we hadn’t saved the event that year, it would have been lost for ever.”

Goodbye Indy. Hello A1GP

The fact many locals continue to refer to the event as ‘Indy’ highlights how ingrained the American IndyCar Series was on the Gold Coast.

For 18 years, the mighty machines roared through the streets of Surfers Paradise. Then, in the wake of the 2008 race, IndyCar bosses confirmed they would not be returning.

“The management of the event became convinced A1GP was where they needed to go and if everything had happened as it was meant to, it was probably the right option,” Murray said.

“Unfortunately, it quickly became the wrong option.”

Headed by South African diamond entrepreneur Tony Teixeira, A1 Grand Prix signed a deal to launch its fifth global season on the Gold Coast. Boasting open-wheel cars and glamour aplenty, it seemed the perfect fit for the city.

Nothing could have been further from the truth.

Liar Liar

Murray’s official role from the birth of the Gold Coast Indy 300 was media manager. In reality, he was much more – adviser, middle man, confidant – and he had concerns about their new bedfellows a long way out from the 2009 race.

“As early as the year before I was saying, ‘We need a Plan B because everything’s telling me this isn’t as right as it needs to be’,” Murray said.

So it proved when, three months before the event, Teixeira advised organisers that the UK-arm of A1GP had been placed in liquidation. However, he assured them its 20 cars would still be on the start line and the State Government agreed to pay his company its first sanction fee of $1.8 million.

And so the deception began.

Brett ‘Crusher’ Murray: “The amount of lies (from A1GP) was amazing.”

“The amount of lies was amazing,” Murray said.

“I had a myriad of sources telling me they weren’t going to come, yet we were doing conference calls with the A1GP people in England about organising test (drive) days. I was thinking why are we even having this conversation?

“(A1GP) later provided a list of 20 drivers who were coming for a test day. What they didn’t realise is 12 were in my phone, so I rang them and asked, ‘Are you coming to the test drive?’ and they said ‘What are you talking about?’.

“I kept going back to key people saying, ‘Now do you want to listen to me’.”

The answer, it would seem, was no.

Final Countdown

Two months out, then Sports Minister Phil Reeves expressed concern to Gold Coast Motor Events Company chairman Terry Mackenroth and general manager Greg Hooton, the men ultimately charged with running the event. They told him all was OK and continued to do so for weeks.

They put their faith in Teixeira and got burned.

“They were badly misled by A1GP, which made it very difficult for them to manage the operation,” Reeves told the Bulletin this week.

Fortunately, they were gifted a Plan B.

Ten days before the newly renamed SuperGP was due to start on the Gold Coast, Murray made a phone call as he drove away from another Bathurst 1000.

“I rang a mate and said, ‘You need to get me an introduction with the Bowden family’, who owned a collection of classic race cars on the Sunshine Coast,” he said.

Murray’s idea was to fill the void he knew was coming with a series of Legends races. Classic cars. Iconic drivers. The Bowdens said yes. Now he needed the drivers.

“I was ringing Colin Bond, Allan Moffatt, Dick Johnson, John French – all those legends,” Murray said.

“They said, ‘No worries, see you in 12 months’ and I said ‘Not next year, next week’.

“The organisers rejected my idea – ‘No, A1GP is still coming’ – and a week from the event I ended up personally writing a cheque for $25,000 to the Bowden family so they could start preparing the cars.

“I had to take that risk ... we needed to rescue the show.”

Reeves officially authorised that rescue mission on Saturday, October 17.

With A1GP finally confirming the inevitable, Murray’s Legends concept was given the green light and Cochrane brokered an agreement with his Supercars team bosses to run four 150km races over two days.

It was less than five days until the event.

Game Day

2009 would be the one and only Gold Coast SuperGP. It also ranks as one of the most important motorsport events in the city’s history.

“If we hadn’t performed how we did that year, that would have been the end of V8s on the Gold Coast,” Cochrane said.

“The TV network would have walked and it would have died on the vine ... but everybody did their sport proud. We had a full program that not only fulfilled the TV contract but actually rated quite well.”

Days out from the event, the A1GP logo was no longer needed - or wanted - on the Gold Coast.

Then there were the sport’s toughest critics.

“What really saved the event was the amount of people who came,” Reeves said of the 200,000 fans who attended.

“They loved it and the event just kept growing in the following years.”

A lot has changed since 2009.

The Gold Coast Motor Events Company is no more, disbanded in the wake of the A1GP fiasco with Mackenroth and Hooton among the casualties.

Reeves is no longer a politician. Cochrane is chairman of the Gold Coast Suns. Murray was jettisoned from his hands-on role after Supercars secured the rights to run the entire show.

As for the A1GP boss who happily accepted $1.8 million of taxpayer money and failed to deliver? “I don’t think anybody’s heard of him since,” Cochrane said of Teixiera.

One thing that hasn’t changed though is the Gold Coast continues to host a big-time motorsport event. It’s not Indy, it’s certainly not SuperGP, but it’s still standing.

As Cochrane declared: “Right at the death knock we stepped up and pulled it off at almost impossible odds.”