Adelaide Motorsport Festival

The Hon. T.J. STEPHENS (14:50): My question is to the Minister for Tourism, Trade and Investment. Can the minister please tell the chamber about South Australia's wonderful motorsport culture and history that was on display at Victoria Park and throughout the regions over the weekend?

The Hon. D.W. RIDGWAY (Minister for Trade, Tourism and Investment) (14:51): I thank the honourable member for his ongoing interest and love of motorsport in South Australia. A few weeks ago, I was very pleased to be involved in the launch of the Adelaide Motorsport Festival, I think back in October. It was great to see the anticipation for that event and I then had the opportunity, after spending a couple of days on Kangaroo Island with some constituents and tourism operators, to come back on Sunday to attend the event.

It was the first time I had actually had a chance to have a good look around the event, and I was not disappointed. We don't have final numbers for last year's event but it attracted over 43,000 visitors and generated more than $5 million to the state's economy. The event is now in its fifth year and by all accounts it just keeps getting better. We are yet to see the figures for this year but the crowd was out in force with spectacles for the whole family both on and off the track. There were many families there with lots of small children and mums and dads.

Victoria Park hosted two days of on-track competition, including the attraction of seven Adelaide era Formula One cars. Star drivers included crowd favourites Ivan Capelli, who raced here in 1989, seven-time Bathurst winner, Jim Richards, and this year's Bathurst King of the Mountain winner, Craig Lowndes. The Shannons Adelaide Rally and Victoria Park Sprint featured more action and an expanded schedule, due to both fan and competitor demand.

Porsche celebrated its 70^th year anniversary at the event with three rare and valuable Le Mans Porsches on show. The Shannons Adelaide Rally again wound its way through many parts of the Adelaide Hills, the Fleurieu Peninsula and the Murray Mallee, providing an opportunity to showcase South Australia's stunning regions and its world-class food and wine, which is fantastic for our local regional businesses.

The festival was the place to be for premium manufacturers, including Ferrari, Audi, BMW, Mercedes and Porsche, and it was wonderful to see some of these manufacturers entered in the rally as well as having their own corporate areas on display trackside. It was also great to see the event gain an international reputation as a place for manufacturers to launch new cars in the Australian market.

The Brabham supercar is being built here about a kilometre from the former Holden plant, with the first of its cars sold for $1.8 million. A highlight for me, although it was a fair bit of a squeeze, was that I was able to get into the passenger seat of the Brabham. It weighs about 900-odd kilos and has 750 horsepower. I would have pushed it over a tonne, and would have probably needed a few more of those horses to push me along; however, it was a highlight of mine to get into that particular vehicle.

Probably one of the biggest highlights was watching the Australian Red Bull Air Race pilot Matt Hall take on three drivers. He defeated David Brabham in the Adelaide-built Brabham BT62 and Porsche's Jim Richards, but came second best in his race against the Leyton House Formula One driver, Ivan Capelli. Then followed one of the best aerobatic displays I have seen, and the entire crowd was captivated.

The Adelaide Motorsport Festival was an action-packed weekend with many free community events, including the Gouger Street Party and Parade and the Stirling Street Party. South Australia has a reputation as the place to be for motorsport events and it hosts some of the best motorsport events in the country, including the historic Bay to Birdwood, the Superloop Adelaide 500 and the biennial Bridgestone World Solar Challenge.

The Adelaide 500 continues to grow as Australia's largest ticketed domestic motorsport event, while the new Bend Motorsport Park has just held the state's second supercar race. These events attract fans and competitors from across Australia and overseas and inject huge dollars into our local economy, putting us on track to achieve our goal of an $8 billion visitor economy by 2020.

The Sporting Car Club of South Australia and all involved in the Adelaide Motorsport Festival have done a wonderful job. I am really looking forward to watching this event grow and see what's in store for next year.