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Australian Gp Is Back

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The 2015 FIM Speedway World Champion will be crowned Down Under after BSI Speedway, rights holders of the FIM Speedway Grand Prix (SGP) series, signed a five-year deal to stage the Australian FIM Speedway Grand Prix at Melbourne’s state-of-the-art Etihad Stadium.

The largest indoor motor racing spectacle in the Southern Hemisphere sees SGP action return to Australia on October 24, 2015; the first time it has featured Down Under for 13 years.

Tickets go on sale on Friday (10th October) at 9am Melbourne time*, and start at the bargain price of $49 AUD for adults and $24.50AUD for children, giving Aussie fans a fantastic opportunity to see their golden generation of stars, featuring 2012 world champion and five-time Australian champion Chris Holder and compatriot Jason Doyle, live and up close.

With everything from FIM Speedway World Championship medals to 2016 FIM Speedway Grand Prix qualification places set to be decided at Etihad Stadium, BSI Speedway managing director Paul Bellamy is delighted to be bringing the series home to the country where speedway was born in the early 20th century.

He said: “Australia is one of the true superpowers of world speedway and it has been a long-term goal of ours to take the FIM Speedway Grand Prix series back Down Under.

“The SGP series has visited some fabulous venues across the globe and Etihad Stadium is up there with the very, very best of them.

“Melbourne lives and breathes motor sport and sport in general. We hope Melburnians, Victorians and fans from all over Australia, New Zealand and the rest of the world embrace the event next year.

“Despite the retirement of triple world champion Jason Crump and record 10-time Aussie champ Leigh Adams in recent years, the production line of world-class Australian talent just keeps rolling.

“I’m sure the likes of Chris Holder and Jason Doyle, who has qualified for the 2015 series, will be absolutely elated to be racing in such a big meeting on home soil.

“Their fans spend most of the season getting up in the early hours of the morning to watch them in action live on the Speed channel. I hope they will enjoy the opportunity to support them at Etihad Stadium, and at a far more civilised hour!”

Etihad Stadium is situated in Melbourne’s CBD, surrounded by shops and restaurants and adjacent to Southern Cross Station –the city’s main transport hub. As well as hosting some of the world’s top music artists, the venue stages everything from AFL (Aussie Rules) and cricket to soccer and darts.

Paul Sergeant, chief executive officer of Melbourne Stadiums Ltd, owners of Etihad Stadium, looks forward to bringing more world-class sport to a world-class venue.

He said: “Bringing FIM Speedway Grand Prix racing to Etihad Stadium has been on our agenda for some time and is a tremendous coup for Melbourne. We’re looking forward to an exciting five years of SGP action and are in no doubt it will become a hugely popular event.

“We’re proud to be staging and promoting the Australian FIM Speedway Grand Prix, which will be privately funded.

“The SGP series is spectacular. It’s in an easy to follow format with fast and exciting racing. Here at Etihad Stadium, air horns will be more than welcome, so the noise will be something special under our roof!

“With adult tickets starting at $49 AUD, this is a fantastic opportunity to see the best riders in the world live, without spending the thousands of dollars needed to travel to Europe.

“We’re also looking forward to working with Australian Speedway legends Jason Crump and Leigh Adams, who will serve as Australian SGP ambassadors. It’s an honour to have them on board and we hope the event will help the current crop of Aussie stars become legends in their own right.”

Tickets for the Australian SGP are available via www.ticketmaster.com.au from 9am Melbourne time on Friday (11pm Thursday UK time and midnight Thursday CET).

For further information with regards to Melbourne’s Etihad Stadium, visit: www.etihadstadium.com.au. For further information on the SGP series visit: www.speedwaygp.com.

 

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Melbournes an unbelievable city - best i have been to. The ethiad is an incredible stadium there - have done scaffolding work outside there and got the chance to see inside. Wow

 

Will be in sydney by xmas for six months then back to melbourne for september 2015 so will definately be attending this. Superb news

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That should mean that Troy Batchelor will be trying extremely hard to qualify in this years top 8 by having an excellent meeting in just 3 days time at Torun.

Really looking forward to this Saturday.

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So any riders in GP will have best equipment packed up by first week in October. So stuff the EL play offs.

 

Not sure which annoys me most to be honest - BSI or the play offs!

Edited by Star Lady
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So any riders in GP will have best equipment packed up by first week in October. So stuff the EL play offs.

 

Not sure which annoys me most to be honest - BSI or the play offs!

I VERY much doubt that any GP riders racing in the EL use their GP equipment here.

 

Iversen, for example, as nine bikes. It always amuses me when people talk about "best equipment" which infers that they also have bad equipment. Why would they do that?

 

Assuming that the time scale for flying equipment to Melbourne is the same as it has been for NZ, bikes etc will go out in the middle of the month.

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Being in Melbourne as a Londoner this is the icing on the cake for me as a sports fan. I love Speedway and can't wait to see the Etihad with a track. The city will get behind this. This is a Tai dream and he's going to love lapping up the glory.

 

The PDC Darts was last year with MVG the star attraction. The same place had every single feel for the stuff in the UK, exactly the same atmosphere.

 

9am Australia ET on sale which is 11pm Thursday night in the UK and midnight Europe time

So any riders in GP will have best equipment packed up by first week in October. So stuff the EL play offs.

Not sure which annoys me most to be honest - BSI or the play offs!

Then start the Elite season earlier so that weather doesn't play such a bigger part come October.

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I VERY much doubt that any GP riders racing in the EL use their GP equipment here.

 

Iversen, for example, as nine bikes. It always amuses me when people talk about "best equipment" which infers that they also have bad equipment. Why would they do that?

 

Assuming that the time scale for flying equipment to Melbourne is the same as it has been for NZ, bikes etc will go out in the middle of the month.

So all the tweets and photos from riders showing their equipment packed and ready to go a week before shipping were wrong then? That's why I said first week in October, bikes etc don't get packed overnight. Credit us with some intelligence.

 

As for best bikes - that's a matter of opinion. I've seen riders quoted as saying they are bringing their GP bikes to GB cos they are better and conversely Bomber took his EL bikes to a GB.

 

I would apologise for saying something negative about all this but I won't cos I can be objective. It's great for BSI and possibly all 16 riders, they get a nice break in Oz after the European season, but for the vast majority of British and possibly other European fans it's not good.

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Great news and I don't see how it could interfere with the EL. The playoffs should be easily done by middle of October so bikes and equipment will have planty of time to be shipped out even if they do want to use EL machinery.The Gp series needs events outside of Europe for speedway as a whole to grow. Europe can't hog the series especially with Aussies and Greg competing year in year out.

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I agree it should not be all in Europe, would love a USA GP, I do think they should have the Aussie GP at the start rather than the end though

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So all the tweets and photos from riders showing their equipment packed and ready to go a week before shipping were wrong then? That's why I said first week in October, bikes etc don't get packed overnight. Credit us with some intelligence.

 

As for best bikes - that's a matter of opinion. I've seen riders quoted as saying they are bringing their GP bikes to GB cos they are better and conversely Bomber took his EL bikes to a GB.

 

I would apologise for saying something negative about all this but I won't cos I can be objective. It's great for BSI and possibly all 16 riders, they get a nice break in Oz after the European season, but for the vast majority of British and possibly other European fans it's not good.

With fewer EL teams next year and therefore fewer fixtures plus no NZ GP in March - perhaps the BSPA will finally arrange the play-offs in late August/Early September when theres at least a reasonable chance for decent weather.

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Knew about this a while and not really sure about it. Will the crowds turn up to make it profitable ? As i have always said, its too far away.

 

Time will tell as in NZ but one i wont be visiting.


With fewer EL teams next year and therefore fewer fixtures plus no NZ GP in March - perhaps the BSPA will finally arrange the play-offs in late August/Early September when theres at least a reasonable chance for decent weather.

Dont think the BSPA and a good idea can be used in the same sentance :D

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Any chance of a US GP piggy backing onto this in the next few seasons? Also seems really odd to have a NZ GP for years and when that ends have an Aus one. The two should have been done together.

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