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I’ve been watching motor racing for more than a decade, I’ve attended the Australian Formula 1 Grand Prix three years running, the Bathurst 1000, Bathurst 12 Hour, etc. Still, nothing could have prepared me for what I saw with my own eyes at the Australian Motorcycle Grand Prix this past weekend.
Held each year at the Phillip Island Grand Prix Circuit in Victoria, it’s been a highlight of the MotoGP calendar since racing began here in 1989. The greatest to ever do it, Valentino Rossi, has won here a record eight times, and the greatest Australian rider, Casey Stoner, led every single lap of this race from 2007 to 2012 (except for lap one of the 2012 race, but we’ll ignore that one). We have a horse in the race with Prima Pramac Yamaha MotoGP rider, Jack Miller, and the greats love racing here. When you see a rider crack 350km/h under the bridge before backing it into turn one, the hairs on your arms stand. So how come no one I spoke to in the lead-up to this event knew what it was?
I could answer that fairly simply and say “Netflix,” but that could foreshadow what will likely occur now that the MotoGP has been purchased (July 2025) by the same people who own Formula 1, Liberty Media. So before it becomes the next sporting phenomenon, I want to talk about my experience, and why this sport deserves all the attention it’s about to (hopefully) receive globally. If you want to hop on the bandwagon, now’s a good time.
We have two major international motorsport events here in Australia every year, but one is significantly larger than the other. More than 465,498 fans visited the 2025 Formula 1 Australia Grand Prix across the four-day event, including race day, which was miserable and rainy. Meanwhile, race day at the Australian Motorcycle Grand Prix attracted a mere 38,645, and a record 91,245 people came to watch over the course of the three-day event.
The race-day crowd is half the size of the crowd at this year’s NRL Grand Final, but those numbers will only continue to increase now that Liberty Media is involved. Still, I was left wondering where everyone was. Could this be Australia’s best-kept sporting secret?
The MotoGP runs from Friday to Sunday, with Moto3 and Moto2 supporting MotoGP. Scheduling is similar to Formula 1, with practice for each category on Friday before qualifying on Saturday and races on Sunday. Throughout the event, hospitality guests can participate in grid walks, pit lane walks, garage tours, and walk through the Paddock with the chance of spotting a rider or celebrity. It’s a near 1:1 recreation of the Albert Park event for attendees, and then you start watching what’s happening on the track.
While I had preconceptions about what to expect because I’d watched it on TV and driven around the track at speed in race-bred Lamborghinis, Porsches, and more, nothing could have prepared me for what I was about to witness.
You feel it in your chest, your eyes struggle to see them, and your brain can barely process what happened as the MotoGP bikes fly past you at more than 350km/h down the Gardner Straight. When the riders get to the turn one, they pull the bike up by sliding the back tyre out, balancing the brake, and downshifting simultaneously, before leaning the entire bike over onto their knee, sometimes arm, at around a 60-degree lean angle, before they stand it back up and do it all over again.
The mental and physical commitment of these riders is hard to comprehend, and it simply doesn’t make sense why someone who weighs 70 kg and is dripping wet would strap themselves to a motorbike with a higher power-to-weight ratio than a modern Formula 1 car and race it.
F1 drivers get plenty of credit for putting their lives on the line in the name of speed, but the MotoGP riders are the ones who carry the most considerable risk. They are the crash test dummies.
It seems like we’re only a year away from the MotoGP getting the local recognition that it deserves.
Still, I feel a responsibility as a motor racing fan to sing its praise as young up-and-coming riders like Senna Agius (Moto2 winner) and Joel Kelso (2nd in Moto3) carve out their careers in the sport, following in Jack Miller and Casey Stoner’s footsteps.
With three races left in the MotoGP calendar (Malaysia, Portimão, and Valencia), there has never been a better time to board the hype train.
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