THE NEW South Australian Government is wasting no time in moving ahead with plans to return the Adelaide 500, Adelaide’s Sunday Mail Newspaper confirming that Premier Peter Malinauskas has appointed Andrew Daniels to head up a re-formed SA Motorsport Board.

The move comes just one week after Labor re-claimed power in South Australia via a comprehensive victory in last Saturday’s state election.

Returning the ‘500 was a key tenet of Labor’s re-election pledges and the new Government has clearly wasted no time in acting on it, securing the experienced administrator to Chair the returning event.

Daniels’ was Chief Executive of the Adelaide 500 for a decade, helping launch the event in 1998 and remaining in charge through to 2008.

After stepping away from the event, Daniels’ headed up the Adelaide Oval’s Stadium Management Authority following the $550m redevelopment of the ground in 2014.

He will head up the new SA Motorsport board, the entity returning to manage the event after it was disbanded in 2014 – ironically by former Labor premier, Jay Wetherill – and the event handed to South Australia Tourism.

There, the event lost its specialised focus and became another element of the department’s broad portfolio of events, a significant contributing factor to it’s ultimate stagnation and demise in 2020 at the hands of Liberal Premier, Steven Marshall.

In the Sunday Mail story, Daniels’ confirmed he has already commenced work on returning the event, including sourcing long-term infrastructure deals and planning for the headline concert at the event.

TRT understands that the Foo Fighters were already secured to headline the returned event, within their recently announced Australian Tour – however the tragic passing of drummer Taylor Hawkins yesterday while on tour in Columbia will likely leave that tour in doubt.

Daniels’ also confirmed that he would continue to advocate for South Australia to host a pair of Supercar rounds – with the ‘500 in December to complement The Bend’s event in late July.

“There’s no doubt that South Australia can stage two events and there is a following for V8’s,” he told the Sunday Mail.

“I think it would be the best thing for the sport on a national basis to maintain the two events, so I’ll certainly say that directly to V8 Supercars.”

PIT BUILDING SECURED?

ONE of the biggest challenges the new Motorsport Board chairman will have is to piece together the event’s infrastructure, however TRT understands that job may have become a whole lot easier in recent weeks.

Several sources have told TRT that the biggest single piece of kit needed to stage the event – the massive, three-level pit building – remains in Government hands.

We understand that a deal had been struck to sell the major structure, however it fell through within weeks of the state election, ensuring it remains safe and ready for use.

Several kilometres of concrete walling and a pedestrian overpass were placed at The Bend as part of a sponsorship deal with Tourism SA, however it is expected that they will remain in place at the permanent circuit.

Australia has a glut of street race infrastructure, with Supercars and major contractor IEDM owning all the equipment used to build the Gold Coast and Newcastle circuits – so it is unlikely to pose an issue for the event’s return this year.