Supercars Championship has signed an agreement to work with Labor to revive the Adelaide 500 car race if the party wins the next South Australian election.
Liberal SA Premier Steven Marshall last week announced his government would not renew a contract with the Supercars to host the event next year, following a recommendation from the South Australian Tourism Commission (SATC).
The SATC said there had been a "long-term decline in the core motorsport fan" and that the race had its lowest attendance in 17 years in February.
Labor Leader Peter Malinauskas flew to Sydney today to speak with Supercars CEO Sean Seamer and sign a memorandum and make an election promise to bring the race back to Adelaide.
"We were able to sign a memorandum of understanding which puts me in a position to commit that a future Labor government will bring it back to the streets of Adelaide, where it belongs," Mr Malinauskas said.
He argued the race should be revived "not just for the state's cultural identity, but also for the sake of jobs in a key industry", and that it generated $45 million in economic activity and 400 full-time jobs last year.
"South Australians love it, the industry loves it, hospitality loves it, it generates real jobs, it's worthy of preservation," Mr Malinauskas said.
He declined to release the memorandum with Supercars, saying it was commercial-in-confidence.
Adelaide 500 'just not viable', Premier says
Speaking at a press conference earlier on Monday, Premier Steven Marshall accused the Labor leader of being "dangerously misinformed" about the economic realities of the Adelaide 500 event.
Mr Marshall said the race was simply not viable and Mr Malinauskas was engaging in "reckless policy development" by seeking to revive the race.
"The SATC board, representing the industry, looked at all of the data and they formed a unanimous recommendation and view that they presented to us in government," Mr Marshall said.
He said his government had reluctantly accepted the SATC's recommendation to cancel the event.
"We would love to keep this event going forward but we've looked at all that data," Mr Marshall said.
"It's just not viable, especially in this [coronavirus] situation that we're in at the moment."
