Sign up now!!! <\/a><\/p>\n‘Had to get away from it all’ Feeney | 07:34<\/p>\n
The MotoGP and World Superbike race winner said the sport would also get a boost from racing at updated facilities after decades working with decades-old Phillip Island circuit infrastructure, though he admitted riders would miss the iconic circuit.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think in 1989 and 1990 the facilities were state of the art \u2014 that\u2019s one way of putting it,\u201d Vermeulen says.<\/p>\n
\u201cMotoGP now is big business, especially after being taken over by Liberty. If we\u2019re going to follow in the footsteps even slightly of Formula 1, it is it is about big business and big numbers.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe facilities need to be upgraded at Phillip Island. At the track, for a high-end sport, it needs to be more comfortable.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a beautiful area, a beautiful part of the world, but it will struggle to grow a grand prix down there.<\/p>\n
\u201cI hope Adelaide becomes a fantastic event and that it\u2019s something that everyone enjoys, but needless to say, even if that happens, everyone\u2019s going to miss Philip Island, I think.\u201d<\/p>\n
Bikes at the Adelaide Motorsport Festival at Victoria ParkSource: News Corp Australia<\/p>\n
Vermeulen said his first reaction to hearing plans for a street track was caution, though he acknowledged that motorcycle racing governing body FIM had strict safety standards that would bring the circuit up to scratch.<\/p>\n
\u201cFrom a street circuit point of view, as a rider, initially when you hear that, it scares me,\u201d he said. \u201cI\u2019m still sceptical about safety and riding close to streets, because these bikes are fast.<\/p>\n
\u201cI know Formula 1 cars are very fast and they corner very fast, but nothing accelerates like a MotoGP bike, and you\u2019ve got no safety.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf you go down, if it\u2019s wet, if there\u2019s a little bit of a lack of grip, in a car you slide and you slide into the barriers. On a bike you\u2019re down and you slide off.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s a lot that needs to be taken into consideration, but we do have very good safety guidelines from FIM, the governing body of our sport, so I\u2019m sure it\u2019s all going to be taken into account.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m sure nothing\u2019s going to be approved until it\u2019s made safe enough.\u201d<\/p>\n
Miller, however, said the street-circuit element was being overblown and encouraged sceptics to see it as a permanent track laid out in the middle of the city.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s not a street circuit really in the big scheme of things,\u201d he said. \u201cI mean, it\u2019s a race circuit that\u2019s put in the middle of the city. I think the words \u2018street circuit\u2019 get misconstrued a little bit. I think it\u2019s going to be an amazing event.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere won\u2019t be a concrete barrier and an air fence in touching distance. I fully trust Carlos [Ezpeleta, MotoGP chief sporting officer] and the calculations.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey have an incredible array of knowledge when it comes to crashing and how much time you need to stop and all of the different data from the g-force sensors, the airbag leather suits and so on.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe majority of the new tracks that we\u2019ve gone to have been designed with that in mind.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe worry of hitting a wall is always there when your brakes go or whatever, but in terms of a normal day-to-day crash, no.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Australian MotoGP ace Jack Miller has praised the \u201ctough\u201d proposed layout for Adelaide\u2019s world-first motorcycle street circuit. South…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":489430,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[573],"tags":[64,63,689,2492,247359,247352,90950,817,813,816,247353,99086,247361,99091,95585,647,247356,39356,247358,120031,677,247350,247351,43359,246238,247357,104312,247355,247354,1124,85,100051,247251,247349,247360,660,38790,3439],"class_list":{"0":"post-489429","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-formula-1","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-australia-and-new-zealand","11":"tag-australian-government","12":"tag-chris-vermeulen","13":"tag-city-street","14":"tag-cycling-race","15":"tag-f1","16":"tag-formula-1","17":"tag-formula1","18":"tag-four-wheel-equivalent-categories","19":"tag-governing-body","20":"tag-headline-acts","21":"tag-international-sporting-events","22":"tag-jamie-whincup","23":"tag-melbourne","24":"tag-motorcycle-races","25":"tag-motorcycle-racing","26":"tag-motorsport-governing-body","27":"tag-motorsport-news","28":"tag-oceania","29":"tag-permanent-parklands-section","30":"tag-population-centres","31":"tag-race-winner","32":"tag-rates-supercars","33":"tag-rider-reaction","34":"tag-rider-safety","35":"tag-safety-guidelines","36":"tag-seismic-announcement","37":"tag-south-australia","38":"tag-sports","39":"tag-street-circuit","40":"tag-street-track","41":"tag-strict-safety-standards","42":"tag-title-twists","43":"tag-victoria","44":"tag-victoria-park","45":"tag-western-australia"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/489429","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=489429"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/489429\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/489430"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=489429"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=489429"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=489429"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/poster-fallback.png\"\/)
<\/p>\n