As we chronicled last year in our tale of the Gold Coast Indy Boeing 747 that nearly shunted, the inaugural visit by the Indycar series down under in 1991 was brim filled with classic stories.

The event was mired in controversy from day one, with the FISA (now: FIA) world upset at the prospect of Indycar branching out from their North American sandpit.

With threats of life bans for CAMS license holders who entered the undercard races, the supports were ultimately sanctioned by Bob Jane’s AUSCAR organisation.

By 1994, CAMS had come on board with the concept of the event, with CART, Champ Car, and the merged Indycar series making the journey south until 2008.

Below are some of the short stories, legends and the staggering stats, from the time Indycar first visited Australia…

Adelaide Grand Prix Barney

Jon Thomson, in his March 22, 1991, Weekend Motoring column for the Canberra Times, reported on a simmering feud between the Australian Grand Prix in Adelaide versus The Gold Coast Indycar Grand Prix, seemingly in a case of Mike Drewer against the state of Queensland.

The report in part read:

Queensland Treasurer Keith De Lacy reacted sharply to comments by Adelaide grand prix spokesperson Mike Drewer, who said the Indy Car race was no threat to Formula One racing in Adelaide.

But The Queensland Premier, Wayne Goss, said the Adelaide chiefs had attended the Gold Coast event, had been positive, and even made suggestions on how to improve the Indy event next year.

Mr Drewer said the Indy race was just a small local event which didn’t compare with the Adelaide event.

It had an unsure future in Australia and none of the traditional or international appeal of Formula One.

The Treasurer said, “If he wants to find out if the Gold Coast race was a success, he ought to ask those two million television viewers to start off with, he ought to ask all those people from Queensland or wherever who attended, he should ask the business community on the Gold Coast, he should ask the sponsors and the business people now lining up to sponsor the race, and he should ask the American visitors – the drivers and CART officials – whether or not it’s a first-class event.”

The article went on to detail that the Adelaide Grand Prix had approximately 10 spies on the ground at the event, while it was later revealed that the ongoing pressure from the FISA over the Indycar race might jeopardise Formula One’s future visits to Adelaide.

Also, the story stated that the Australian Grand Prix was gathering evidence on whether it should legally pursue the Gold Coast event for carrying the words “Grand Prix” in its event title.

Other interesting tidbits included the $6million payment to get Indycar to travel down under, while Channel 9 also received $1million from the Queensland Government to telecast the event, an unthinkable arrangement today for a program that attracted two million viewers.

Suggestions were also made that a second Australian Indycar race would make the trip more worthwhile for competitors and promoters alike, with the Calder Park Thunderdome named a candidate.

Could you have imagined that?

Keep in mind, all of this is from a single lone newspaper report – the whole tale of the build-up to the event is incredible, and a story for another day here on The Race Torque…

King Wally Lewis

Celebrities armed with Ford Lasers featured on the undercard, with Wally Lewis taking the win of the five-lap race, after captaining the Gold Coast Seagulls to an NSWRL opening round loss the previous night at Tweed Heads, going down 20 to 14 against the Western Suburbs Magpies.

The Seagulls, the NSWRL competition and Wests are no longer things.

That inaugural race was typically action-packed, with twice Iron Man Champion Dwayne Thuys having a couple of offs, before successfully inverting on the last corner of the last lap.

In an interesting twist, it appears that parity may have been an issue in the Gold Coast celebrity races, with each of the machines entrusted to a local Ford dealership for their conversion to a race car for the event, including the specified half-cage in 1991.

Legend has it that some entries may have been given the full royal treatment – with “performance” components not on the supplied checklist receiving a quantity of attention, love and fettling!

As for Wally, he wound up victorious from three attempts in celebrity races on the Gold Coast and in Adelaide, while he also raced HQ Holdens for a time at Lakeside, and also had a spin in speedway competition.

In 1999, Motorsport News ran a story entitled “King Wally for Bathurst?”, where it was flagged that he was a possibility to partner fellow Queenslander Shane Cruikshank in his VS Commodore at that year’s FAI 1000.

To this date, Wally Lewis is yet to make his Bathurst 1000 debut.

Getting Your Ducks (literally) in a Row

One of the possibly tall tales from the inaugural event revolved around the pond situated on Macintosh Island, right behind the pit lane.

With fears that the local duck population would be spooked by the loud racing cars, legend has it that the Army filled a truck with standby replacement ducks if the originals went MIA.

The native birds however stayed put, with the replacement ducks returned home.

A crisis seemingly averted… can anyone out there confirm or deny?

Other Fun Facts

• On Friday night, Zsa Zsa Gabor hosted a night at the Opera on the concert stage, situated in Palm Avenue, downtown Surfers Paradise. On the bill was American lyric-spinto soprano Leona Mitchell, and the stars of the Vienna State Opera. The event included a bicentennial celebration of Mozart, a performance by the Queensland Ballet and flautist Jane Rutter, backed up by the 72-piece Queensland Symphony Orchestra. Understandably the night was scheduled to appease those not interested in cars racing, but it no doubt added to the event’s staggering financial losses.
• Saturday night’s concert featured Dionne Warwick and a 26-piece orchestra, as well as Australian Country Music greats Slim Dusty, James Blundell, Anne Kirkpatrick, and “Australian country music’s Gold Guitar winner Keith Urban.” Whoever that is. These days we are blessed if an Aussie hip hop band plays…
• Local residents were upset when a wheel was stolen off one parked car, while petrol was siphoned out of another.
• One day tickets were $29.50 a pop, with a three-day pass being $49.50. Damn you, 30 years of inflation!
• The race day crowd was reported at over 50,000 punters trackside.
• John Andretti flew home with a winner’s purse of $118,625 from the only win of his Indycar career, although he did go on to win two races in NASCAR’s premier division.
• The top-seven finishers featured power plants provided by Chevrolet, Alfa Romeo, Judd, and Cosworth, with the sole Buick in the field, belonging to Mark Dismore classified 20^th due to engine issues.
• Disparity between Indycar competitors was alive and well: Michael Andretti’s pole time was a massive 12.855sec faster than tail-end Charlie Phil Krueger’s best effort, who was only marginally slower than future Indy 500 victor Buddy Lazier.
• The undercard featured the Gold Coast Sportscar Challenge (exclusively for Porsches), Superkarts, NASCAR and AUSCAR, plus the celebrity race, which was never mentioned once in the event program or insert, barring listings in the race schedule.
• You knew you were in 1991 when program advertising included promotions (in order) for Ken Done, The James Hardie 12 Hour, The winning taste of Power’s Bitter, Ahh! That’s better, Conrad Jupiters Casino (featuring five customer testimonials from Jerry, Nicole, June, David and Dan on how to win at the casino), Kmart’s auto department (with competitions to win a $19,000 Suzuki Vitara AND a Gold Coast house worth $109,000), Kodak Film (with processing available onsite at the event), and the 10th birthday celebrations at Dreamworld.