Bob Barnard Track Engineering

We moved to Adelaide in early 1984 and I went to work as the Chief Estimator for Macmahon Construction. This meant I reviewed the bids being developed by the State branches, kept abreast of the market nationally to know what was coming, who had work, who needed it and would therefore be bidding strongly. I also worked on the larger and more complex bids wherever they were, and some of these were very interesting, such as the pricing of an iron ore mine for Lang Hancock. This involved a trip to the Pilbara with Lang and a couple of days flying around in his light plane looking at site after site of iron ore he had claims for. The brief for this project was pretty simple, there is the site which will have a rail line to the coast, there’s the hill and here is the geological report. Give me a price per ton for 67% pure iron ore crushed to 6mm and placed in rail cars.

So, planning, designing the mine layout, selecting and pricing equipment and working out the cost for a multiyear contract. Contract mining was something Macmahon wanted to get into as it involved longer term contracts and was actually simpler than building roads and railways, though like most things on earth, that was not how the miners saw it. We could never even get on the bid lists. Lang never did start this mine, his life was one long frustration, although he consoled himself with all the royalties he received for those who did mine his reserves.

Computers at this time still filled a room, the PC was to arrive shortly, but for now Macmahon had a batch ICL machine used mainly for accounts and payroll. One of the big drawbacks to our system of estimating was the time involved. Bids are only out for a limited time, and it was tough to come up with one number, let alone look at some alternatives, or play some “what If” games. We saw that using a computer would change that, but Brian Macmahon had built up a template of how we did things that was successful, and he was used to looking at, so whatever we did with a computer had to come out looking like that. There were a couple of commercial programs available, but none that suited our needs, so we decided to design our own between myself and a programmer. He produced a system using databases, something most of us had not even heard of, and we had it running in two weeks, amazing.

Almost its first use was a feasibility study for us taking over Mount Gunston, a silver/copper mine in the north of South Australia. The current operators could not make money on it and were going to mothball it. We saw this as a chance for Macmahon to prove themselves as miners and I worked up a number of scenarios based on the ore content of each type of ore, the price of the copper or silver, and the exchange rate as those prices were in US dollars. Even the worst case showed we made money, so we took it on and were successful, and today Macmahon are a significant contract miner.

Now what about the race? As most of you will know Alan Jones had won the Formula One World Championship in 1980. This increased the interest in F1 in Australia and Channel Nine were by now showing the races live. State Governments were showing interest in staging a GP, particularly in Sydney and Melbourne, our largest cities. Melbourne went so far as to upgrade Sandown and stage a round of the World Sportscar Championship, during which they had problems with the track surface, a common problem at the time. Dallas had staged its first and last F1 race in 1984 with the track disintegrating.

Unbeknown to me there were moves being made in Adelaide to win the rights to the Grand Prix. Now I should explain that a “Grand Prix” is the most important race in that country each year, and not necessarily a round of the World Championship. Australia had run a GP since Captain Arthur Waite won the first on Phillip Island in 1923 in an Austin Seven Special, but we had never run a World Championship round. It was to be the 150^th anniversary of the founding of the State of South Australia in 1986, and as usual a committee had been set up to arrange events to celebrate it. A member of that committee, Kym Bonython, apparently suggested a GP as long ago as 1980, but in 1984 it came to life between Bill O’Gorman and the then Lady Lord Mayor of Adelaide, Wendy Chapman, a lady of some drive and vision. Layouts were being looked at through the city itself, and the obvious problems resulted in the track moving east, until it finally came to the parklands and the terraces, which were the natural site for such a track.

Don Breedon was the designer for these early layouts, with the Lanyon brothers also involved as advisors as they had been trying to stage a street race in Geelong previously. At some point the Premier John Bannon and his office, Managed by Dr. Mal Hemmerling, must have decided that this was feasible, and not wanting to miss the opportunity took the gamble to fly to London to meet with Bernie Ecclestone who ran, and still runs, Formula One.  Now Bernie does not make appointments even for State Premiers, I know I have seen it in action and been kept in limbo myself. John Bannon could have come home with egg on his face, so politically it was a big risk, especially with an election due in a year or so. Bernie in his inimitable fashion agreed to a race in 1986, as long as South Australia staged one first in 1985. This was early October 1984, and a race was scheduled November 3, 1985, and there was nothing, no track, no staff, no sponsors, need I go on?    

My reaction to the news was “great, my favorite sport is coming to me, I will take a week off, but a ticket and watch the race.” How wrong could I be? The Government wasted no time and put out a request for proposals for a Project Manager to oversee the design and construction of the track and all the facilities needed to stage the race. One of Adelaide’s biggest consulting engineering groups, Pak Poy & Kneebone Group, approached us to joint venture with them to bid for the work, and as the Chief Estimator I was given the job of working with PP&K to develop a submission. This was early November and we had about three weeks to put it together. The contract was actually to be with the Public Works Department as the Grand Prix did not officially exist yet. Once we had the bulk of the submission done we set about drawing up a Project Organization Chart and assigning people, as this was the key point of this type of project. Now during the preparation of the submission the consultants had worked out that I grew up in England with F1, I had raced here in Australia, and knew all the right people in Adelaide to get things done from my time with the Highways Department. It was as if all the things I had done in my life came to a focus. So they said I needed to be the Project Manager as they felt that would make us certain to win the job. This was a surprise to me, I had not even considered it, but looking back I was the one person in Adelaide to do this. My Directors said that it was not possible, I was the Chief Estimator and made a lot more money for the company doing that than a salary for a year. Pak Poy said OK, then there is no point bidding. I was an interested spectator to this exchange, and finally my Directors said OK, put Bob in as PM.

And the rest is history as they say. How quickly your life can change, and how easily. So we submit the bid, and we are selected, Pak Poy were correct. December 3^rd we go to meet Dr. Hemmerling, Mal, to be awarded the job. His first words were “you’re not building a track for 24 prima donnas, you’re showing off Adelaide.” The race was to be a promotion for the State, the forerunner of the current Government run races so popular around the world, so it is us you need to blame as we succeeded beyond anyone’s wildest dreams. This was to shape almost everything we did and how we did it. In the end there was an election the Thursday following the race, and I was very conscious of potentially bringing the Government down if things did not go well.

I still have the original notes from that meeting and John Fargher from Public Works was also there with Chris Overland. We did receive a few more pieces of a brief.

• ·       No trees were to be removed of a heritage or substantial nature. This meant no trees to come out.
• ·       We needed to liaise with the South Australian Jockey Club about how to get the motor race track across the horse race track.
• ·       30 to 50,000 temporary grandstand seats were required.
• ·       200 Corporate boxes.
• ·       Capital cost estimated at $3 million.

This last was to be considerable underestimate, but in the life of this project the income also increased way beyond expectations, so the all important net cost of staging this event would be contained.

We started straight away on key elements, after all none of us really knew what we were doing and we only had eleven months to work it out, build what we needed, and put it all in place. Grandstands were to be a major problem, there were only about 4000 decent seats in Australia at the time, as the events needing more than that number were yet to happen. Track surface we knew would be a real problem as we had seen what happened at Sandown and Dallas, and was to happen at Spa not long from now. Phase one of our contract was to identify what would be required to stage the race, come up with some preliminary design, provide an estimate of what that was all going to cost, and provide a program for making it all happen. For this we had four weeks, and no Mal did not care that it included Christmas and I was going back to Alice for the holidays.

Although I had raced I had actually no idea of what happened behind the scenes, so to speak, of a race. To provide me with some clues I arranged to meet with the officials at the Sporting Car Club almost immediately to let them tell me what a race control tower needed to be, communications, medical, scrutineering etc. While this was all a long way from what a Grand Prix needs it did at least point me in the right direction. The Chief National Timekeeper, Barrie Frost, was also an Adelaide guy, so he was available to advise as well. Although the sport was pretty stunned that little old Adelaide had stolen the prize we were to receive a lot of help from individuals with lots of experience.   

We actually had the answer to our paving problem from Ralph Dunn at Emoleum, use a Mobilplast binder and reduce the air voids, but it would take a bit of research by the Highways Department Asphalt Engineer, John Potter, to make sure of that.

So we toiled away through December on the report, and I worked through Christmas on the critical path network for the design and manufacture of all the parts and pieces. When we had finished the cost had increased to $5 million with another $1.5 for installation and removal. To that was added a further $0.75 million for operations necessary to run the race. Now most of this was a “guesstimate” as we did not have designs for most of this stuff, and we were not even into how we put it all together, but our report was accepted and we set to work. When we ran the critical path network we were using a computer, even though I had done most of it by hand, and as usual for programming we ran it on “early start.” This means tell us the earliest date we can start on each item. It told us we could start on all of them about now, not very useful, especially as we did not know what we were doing with most of this. So we ran it on “late start,” risky as we would have no time to lose based on this, but it did highlight those items like the concrete barrier that had to start production immediately.

Now I should mention that I effectively had four bosses for this project, plus some interested parties including the local councils. I worked for Macmahon and managed this project for them and Pak Poy, which meant making money on it and especially making us look good for future clients. I would update Brian Macmahon and Doug Kneebone once a month over lunch. Our contract was with the Public Works Department and I reported to John Fargher with a written report every two weeks. As a lot of the track ran on Highways Department roads, and we would use their technical advice, I met with Morry Benvaniste from the Department on a regular basis. I really worked for the Grand Prix Office, yet to be established, and Dr. Mal Hemmerling who was to be the Executive Director. I was to report to the Grand Prix Board at each of their meetings. Lastly there was CAMS, Confederation of Australian Motorsport, the representative of the FIA, the International Controlling body for motorsport. I guess you could add in Bernie to that group.

 At this stage of the project most of the work was being done by the consulting engineers under my leadership, and one of that team was Mick Porter, an electrical and communications specialist, and computer geek. Mick liked them better than people, but would mellow and would eventually become the fourth member of Barnard project management, BPM. My philosophy about design is that it is good to have the people who are going to build it involved in the process and the solution, which is why I loved design/build later in life. So when it came to working out what to do with 9000 tons of concrete barriers I went to the precast industry for advice. We had the basic design parameters dictated by the FIA as far as height, weight and strength, which was to be determined by the heaviest car at its maximum speed, which turned out to be Z28 Camaro being run in the support races. I wanted the industry’s input into the most economical way of producing them and handling, particularly joining them together. We worked with Humes primarily, but excluded no one and being a Government project had to go out to bid anyway. A key decision was how to install the debris fence, the fence that catches a car or parts of a car if it goes above the fence? This could be free standing behind the wall, or on top of it, which was my preference.

The most important factor in this decision was the need to make this all look good on worldwide TV. The parklands are beautiful, and all I had to work with was concrete and wire, it could look like Alcatraz. My thought was that the human eye is drawn to an object that is out of place, or badly aligned, so it was a key factor for us that this block and fence was dead straight, especially down the long back straight, Dequetteville Terrace. Debris fences were up till now a combination of chain wire with a tensioned wire cable at several levels up the fence to give it strength. This would eventually look terrible after it had been erected and taken down a few times, and we also would want to remove a few blocks to reopen roads at times, and did not want the hassle of rolling up hundreds of feet of wire and rehanging it each time. So, what we needed was a fence that had the required hole size and strength, could be installed in panels to match the block length of twelve feet, and would lock into the blocks to form a nice straight line.

Again we worked with a division of Humes that made fencing and looked at several options for panels involving chain wire, but all of them had the problem of tying them together to have the continuity of strength, until someone in Humes thought of their other arm, ARC, who made reinforcing mesh for concrete. This had the hole size and strength, and a design was arrived at that wrapped around an extension of the post holding the blocks in place, a beautiful concept. It took some convincing of CAMS and the FIA that this would work, but our engineers proved the concept which is now standard for street tracks. It was to have many more advantages, but for us the appearance and the ease of installation were the key. Original cost to produce was higher, but that was more than recouped by the ease and lower cost of installation over the next couple of years.

So now we had the block and fence, two key elements, so we went out to bid. I told my designer to be very sure he counted how many we needed, allowing for overlaps and some spares if they were damaged. He assured me he had that in hand, but it almost bit us when time came to install the wall.  

Early on we met with CAMS, John Keefe and Tim Schenken, who were both great to work with. John actually gave me a direction that would be a major factor in what makes Adelaide to this day so special. He told me I was not designing a street circuit, but a circuit in the street, and there is a big difference. What he meant was we were to design this as if we had a blank sheet, and where we could not meet the rules for width or run-off we could ask for an exception, but we were not being given a blank check to ignore the rules. We were fortunate that Colonel Light laid us out some nice streets to work with. They told us that the original design was not acceptable, so we had to rework the layout around Victoria Park Racecourse particularly, and the entry and exit from there onto Wakefield Road. This was made all the more difficult because of the restriction on removing trees, so much of the layout was dictated by that. Actual placement of the barrier was also crucial, and most was fine tuned by me when actually being put into position.

The placement of the barrier wall in relation to the actual track is I believe what makes Adelaide so special. Too often you see the wall parallel the track edge with no relief from the tunnel effect. As a driver I felt that I needed to do two things, move the inside wall at corners back to rear of the sidewalk to open up the view through the corner, and where possible move the wall back away from the track itself. Now, the second of these was not always possible as I had to fit some grandstands in somewhere, so down Rundle Road and Dequetteville Terrace I only had the track width plus a verge on each side. Elsewhere, such as on Wakefield Road and Hutt Street, I could leave the barrier back at the road edge and use curb to keep drivers from using all of it. That left a safety zone if they misjudged the corner, they could jump the curb and recover. Up East Terrace, “Banana Bend,” so called for the banana wholesaler on the corner of the fruit and veg market rather than the shape of the road, I placed the wall on the far side of the other carriageway to really open it up.

This was not done solely for the drivers, but as a result of that direction to “show off Adelaide.” That meant to me not just the physical look of the track, but how it would operate. It did us no good if it looked lovely but did not produce good racing and was constantly under a caution, or worse a red flag. The actual management of the race would of course be in the hands of CAMS and its officials and volunteers, so we had to give them what they needed to do their job properly, but beyond that I needed to consider what would happen in the event of a car breaking down or crashing. Where do we put it, and how do we respond? So, a combination of providing verges, proper run off straight ahead at each corner, regulation gaps to pull cars through at strategic and sufficient points, and cranes to lift cars out quickly if required. Finding cranes is not difficult, the companies love to have their equipment on show, and the operators loved to be part of the show, working well with the marshals.

Apart from the years when rain has adversely impacted the race I believe I achieved the objective.

Some of the roads were already due for reconstruction, such as Wakefield Road, which was in the City Council area, and the track actually abutted four council areas, all of which had to be involved somehow. It was agreed that any resurfacing would be done by the Highways Department, a historic piece of bipartisanship, and the new track in Victoria Park would be let out for contract. The rude awakening for Macmahon was as Project Managers we were excluded from bidding! We had agreed with CAMS that the high speed on the back straight, turbo cars would exceed 200 mph down there, required that the center median and street lights would have to come out and be relocated to each side, along with most of the islands and traffic signals at the intersections. This is another key point for the success of Adelaide, instead of design the track around the obstacles we devised ways of taking them out and putting them back simply for each race. We see all too often street tracks that have been running for thirty years and they still build the track around some light pole that should have been moved long ago.

Many of the design successes that were to solve these problems were developed by the staff of the Highways Department, such as traffic signals that could be removed by unplugging them and a lid placed on the box they were bolted to. Similarly with “frangible,” or in layman’s language easily movable if hit, light poles. It was a true team effort, identifying the problems and finding great solutions.

To solve the problem of crossing the horse race track it was decided that we would depress the road course there and a nine inch layer of Jarah Fiber laid on it for the horses. There was some concern about the long term effects on the asphalt, but a good drain either side and plastic to cover it has kept it just fine.    

The Grand Prix Act had been passed in late December 1984, and staff were coming on board including Glen Jones who was to be the main spokesman for the event, and Terry Plane, the media relations person. Glen was out beating the bushes for a lot of the rental equipment that would be required, and the Government was obviously keen to see as many local businesses used as possible. Glen was finding out that South Australia, SA, was a small pond and there were very limited supplies, and to make matters worse we were competing with the Melbourne Cup. Even Australia was a small resource in those days, and the GP was the catalyst to change that and make many more events possible. Terry was busy doing what he did best and that was to get us in the newspaper every day. I would not appreciate Terry until I started my own events, but like many media and PR people his idea of organizing something was to get people to turn up. Now this is still a good ability to have, but it would lead to some conflict about what to do with them once he had them there walking all over my construction site. Terry’s big thing was that we should not put the media in a tent, that would make them unhappy and they would write nasty things about us. That was a problem as we expected around 500 journalists and there was no building large enough to accommodate them so we had planned on a tent, albeit a European style aluminium frame tent.

The Grand Prix Board were also established by the Act, with Tim Marcus-Clark, the head of the State Bank as Chairman, and the owner of that gull wing Mercedes, Ian Cox, as the Deputy. Bill O’Gorman got a seat as did Wendy Chapman, and the City Engineer for Kensington & Norwood, Geoff Whitbread, was also included. John Large, the President of CAMS also had a seat.

One of the big problems remaining was with finding enough grandstand seats. We had identified where we thought they could go, how many etc, and classified them as gold, silver and bronze to identify the best viewing and therefore the price. But where to find them? There were scaffold seats, i.e. planks, but they were not cheap and took time to erect. There were some smaller operators with specialist systems, but most were not certifiable for safety. Our solution came in the form of John Commerford of Australian Seating Systems, a company that now provides seats to overseas events. John arranged to come over to show me his system, and we met one very hot Sunday in early February in the park with John in a black silk shirt. Not something one forgets. His system was very good, easy to erect, safe and could be set up in different ways to suit the site and the needs. From memory John only had about 4000 seats at the time, but was willing to commit to build more if we gave him a three year contract. The Board agreed and we also set John up as the overall coordinator for our stands, so he committed to meet our needs using his stands, some scaffold, and eventually circus seating and some local seats.

One of the features of the Grand Prix Act was that it basically gave us carte blanche to do anything inside the perimeter fence, and indeed put up a perimeter fence in a public park, for five days. Drive cars in excess of the speed limit in any direction we wanted. Remove people from a public place or deny them entry, and make all those nasty Government Regulations go away. This in reality meant that if there were a problem with a grandstand collapsing or a car going through or over a wall it was my problem. To make sure of this the local councils got together and set up a court appearance to have the judge determine that the Grand Prix Office was in fact “The Crown.” i.e. a State Government body outside of their jurisdiction and so they did not have to approve anything we did, like building regulations, and so were protected from liability. Made my life easy, but fraught with risk. The Chief Justice of South Australia lived on the circuit, and when I went to visit him to discuss his access during the event he told me he thought it “the most draconian legislation he had ever seen, and just wished someone would bring it into his court!”

It is impossible sitting here writing this and looking in my notebook and diary not to be overwhelmed with the task of conveying just how much was going on in such a short span of time. The sheer volume of detail and the large number of groups that had to be met and coordinated or placated. To name but a few they were as diverse as the adjoining Councils, The Highway Department, the Department of Labor and Industry, power, water and sewer Authorities, Telecom, CAMS, Channel Nine, The Jockey Club, The Adelaide Fruit and Vegetable Wholesale Market, the ambulance service, police and fire, the State Medical Authority and three hospitals, including the Royal Adelaide Hospital, Prince Alfred and Christian Brothers Colleges, The Adelaide Bowls Club, and the Country Women’s Assn. It would expand to include the contractors, unions, residents, and the Air Traffic Control and Federal Communications Authority. 

The track design had to be submitted to the FIA through CAMS in early February and we finalized what we thought would work. There was an extremely large gum tree in the middle of Victoria Park which dictated where the start straight and pit building had to go. There was no question of it coming down, and someone actually chained themselves to it to make sure we didn’t. Shades of Albert Park. The first set of corners was problematic, a left-right chicane leading out through the trees via a very quick corner onto Wakefield Street. The discussion went on about the exact layout into 1986, so in the end I just built a large area of asphalt that encompassed all the options so that we could at least get the asphalt down and sort it out later. While the plans would be approved in May, the track was not to be finally given the OK until the Inspector, Derek Ongarro, could physically see it completed.

The Grand Prix Office was coming to life in late January with an actual office on the corner of Greenhill Road and Dequetteville Terrace overlooking my roundabout and the end of the back straight. Staff were coming on and would include Rod Paech who handled the accounts and Judith Griggs, a bright young lawyer who would handle our contracts outside of construction. Anne Gowlett was one of the receptionists, now a successful event specialist herself, Kay Rigby came on as Mal’s Personal Secretary, and Anne Murray as an Assistant to Terry Plane. I was given an office in the GP Office so I was in the thick of things. Ian Cox took a personal interest in my activities being a construction guy anyway and into management theory in a big way. He asked me what my Mission Statement was, and I must have given him a blank look as it had not entered my head to get into that stuff, I was just out there making it happen.     

I was by this time co-opted onto the on-track organizing committee as I was one of very few who knew what a GP was, and nothing happened on track without me being involved anyway. This was to be an event, not just a race, and was the forerunner and model for others to copy, so a whole host of activities were to be planned around the weekend, both on and off course. So committees were set up to manage various parts of this whole extravaganza. The racing program was expanding to beyond just the F1 cars, Touring cars and some historics, so the issue of where to put the support paddock became a real problem. There was no more space where the F1 paddock was located and initially we had thought of the Adelaide Bowls Club parking lot on the corner of Rundle Street and Dequetteville Terrace, which was now way too small, and access was always going to be a problem. This was not a problem to be solved until much later.

As always I am the party pooper, and made myself unpopular by saying no to a few of the ideas. Like having the army run some tanks around the track, on their rubber pads of course, until one threw a tread! Or diverting the John Martins Christmas Parade to be held that Saturday through the track. Over my dead body and I am the one moving the barriers. The parade will never run to time, we have no time, and who cleans up the mess?

A major concern from the start had been the problem of an emergency inside the track, how would we access vehicles? We had looked at a bailey bridge, but the span due to the width of our track and verges made it impossible, and the army said they were not certified anyway. We arranged for the Fire Department to stage a pumper truck inside, and hydrants were to be checked and the number increased, but we still needed to get an ambulance in and out if need be. Remember we did not want to have to stop the race to get across the track. The solution came in the form of a culvert that was needed under Turn One to carry a stream in the parklands. We increased the size to a box culvert just large enough to accommodate an ambulance, and made a channel to one side for the creek to flow in during normal times. Other times people got their feet wet. This was to be the main access to the F1 paddock during the event, but actually worked quite well.

Pedestrian access was another difficult issue. We knew where we wanted them, we just did not know how to do it. The spans were long as I said, over 100 feet by the time you crossed the track, verges, barrier, and the gap to the spectator fence. We looked at scaffold and bailey bridging again, but the cost was prohibitive, and they were ugly! When we met with David Hill, the Channel Nine Producer and now Head of Fox in the US, David asked why we couldn’t install underpasses as the bridges blocked his camera sight lines. I pointed out it was impossible to hang advertising on an underpass, an answer he understood. This was one of those items that would plague us for a solution almost until it was too late, but which in the end was another elegant one. During the meeting with Channel Nine we went over their needs for the telecast, including their studio, commentary and the nineteen overseas broadcasters’ commentary positions, all of which had to face the pits above the grandstand. They needed power of course, and lots of it, none of which existed in the middle of the park. Fortunately the power authority, ETSA, was very cooperative and installed a transformer for them and our other needs. The rear of the grandstand was to be the major corporate food and beverage area and was intensely utilized.

By now the marketing team for the event had been assembled. I say assembled as it brought together some of the best in the business in their respective sphere. PBL, a branch of the Packer Organization along with Channel Nine were the lead marketers with Tony Skelton, Bob Pritchard, and Mike Kennedy.  These guys had been responsible for the promotion of the cricket which by now was run by Kerry Packer. To do the creative MOJO was brought on board, and very creative they were too. The first GP TV commercial made your blood run and I wish I still had a copy, but their first suggestion of a slogan for the race, “Streets of Fire” was not a success. Toohey Allen were responsible for the corporate sales and catering arrangements. Bob Toohey and Brian Allen had been responsible for setting up major golf tournaments in Australia, and that was the model for the marketing of corporate facilities for everyone to copy.

They set up a range of corporate boxes and platforms. The corporate boxes were made by using the rear rows of seats in the main grandstands in Victoria Park around the pits. These were covered and had nice padded cushions and CCTV. Platforms were forty feet square raised scaffold platforms with tents for dining in arranged along the fence at selected points around the track. Sales were so good that by year two there was not an empty space anywhere. The Premier was to have his own box/suite in the grandstand opposite the pits in prime position. I was receiving an education on all these aspects as they could not exist without my organizing them, and the cost had to be geared to what we could build them for. John Commerford and his suppliers did a great job of putting all this together, but as I was to realize later, each contractor was working in isolation and really only had an idea about what he was doing, his part in the play so to speak, whereas I was the one person who had the complete picture. I only hoped it would all go together at the end.

We needed to coordinate with the SA Jockey Club in a number of areas. We needed access to their facilities and would use their horse race grandstand despite their distance from the track, and some of the offices. They also solved the problem of the media center, at least until the media decided in later years they could not walk across a bridge to the pits. They had a large covered concrete floored betting ring, that with an exhibition system we could enclose and divide up and accommodate in 1986 over 1000 journalists. Another problem solved. We also needed to have control of the infield while we built the track, and of course when we ran the race, so they arranged their race program in coordination with the other two tracks in Adelaide to accommodate us. One sticking point though was that we could not have anything standing up permanently in the infield. That would block the race-goers view of the far side of the course. As that was where the pit building was going that gave us a new challenge, the teams definitely would not like a tent.

All the time this was going on John Potter the Highways Asphalt Engineer had been to Sandown to look at their track problem and had sent enquiries around the world asking for advice. The response was that we were unique in our extremes of temperature where tracks were concerned. Even South Africa who we thought would have the same problem told us that Kyalami, their F1 track, was so high in elevation that their temperatures did not approach ours. So John had to work it out for himself, and came up with using the Mobilplast binder, probably the first chemically modified binder, and a very tightly knit surface produced by a 10mm stone and reduced air voids. The mix was given a test laying at Grand Junction Road in late February. Just to be sure we actually received permission for the Highways to repave a corner at Bob Jane’s Adelaide International Raceway just prior to a Touring Car race in April. It stood up fine despite not having the mandatory FIA 60 day curing period in force in those days. John lead an inspection of the existing road pavement which was to result in a fateful decision not to repave Dequetteville Terrace as it looked in such good condition.  

CAMS had started organizing their own side of the race management which in the end would include 1000 course workers and the best of their race control, timing, scrutineering and emergency staff from around Australia. I was liaising with Dr. Edwards from the SA Medical Council about access to the Royal Adelaide Hospital, its’ capabilities in respect of burns etc, which of course were world class. There were also potential issues with out of state doctors working at the event which needed some resolution. I was also working with Brigadier McGreevy from the St. John’s Ambulance Brigade about ambulances around the course for the race, and for crowd first aid. An F1 race does not just double what you would see at a normal national race, it increases it exponentially and we would finally have 45 doctors on site, two helicopters, a full army surgical unit, despite the Royal Adelaide being on the corner of the track, and several fast first intervention vehicles each with a race car driver, doctor, and fireman, with equipment on board stationed around the track.       

Now a race meeting is not run democratically, it has an autocratic structure for fast decision making. The Clerk of Course was the main man in those days, and eventually we had an American, “Burdy” Martin, Head of ACCUS, assigned to that position. Tim Schenken was to be his Deputy with the rest of the key positions filled by experienced CAMS people. The Chief Medical Officer was Dr. David Vissenga, another Englishman with experience in the sport from the old country. David’s role is managing the medical response resources from Race Control where he can advise Burdy of situations with an injured driver on course. The decision on treatment is ultimately his, unlike the normal doctor patient relationship. My first memory of David is one Saturday morning when he had assembled the would-be race doctors in the theaterette at the Royal Adelaide Hospital. The first thing he said was to explain that was how it was going to work, and if anyone had a problem with that then it was OK if they left now. A couple did, and no one thought the worse of them, but most stayed. I would go on to become good friends with David and work with him to improve the motorcycle medical response for the MotoGP.

We had written to all the authorities with underground utilities under the track to make sure that none represent a risk of braking during the event. The Gas Company has an old main in Wakefield Street which they will replace and/or sleeve before the road is repaved. The E&WS, who look after the water and sewer tell us they do not wish to have the manholes welded down to prevent them lifting during the race, these cars will lift manhole covers, but agreed to come up with a way of bolting them down. The E&WS also agree to raise their manholes to accommodate the new finished asphalt level prior to us laying the final coat, instead of digging them up after paving and leaving a patch, their usual practice. Everyone said that will not work, but it did, so why do they still continue to do it the old way for other roads? The power authority, ETSA, agreed that a main fuse blowing during the race would be embarrassing and so they would basically put a bolt in instead of the fuse. We still made sure we had back-up power at strategic points such as the Control Tower, and just as well we did.

Communications were to be a key element in staging the event and I was fortunate to have Mick Porter as part of the team as he was ex-Telecom. One part of the puzzle was the communication around the track for the Race Control to talk to the corner stations. We had intended just laying a line on the ground behind the wall, but that was vulnerable if the wall moved after a car hit it, or at the many openings. Telecom came and made us an offer we could not refuse. They would use their underground system to provide the link for an annual rental, a perfect solution. They would also provide 200 lines into the event, which had to be doubled for the second year.

Radios would be used to back up the land line and for the numerous other systems required to manage a race; fire and rescue, medical, housekeeping, (I still have the chart so we could include it). We also had to design, build and install lapboards at strategic points around the track, mainly on the overpasses, which had to be connected back to timing. We needed a Public Address system for the crowd and the pit area, and CCTV to all the corporate suites, Race Control, Commentary positions and various offices. This latter would be solved by deciding to purchase a low-powered TV broadcast station rather than wire all the over 200 sets. Then there was the problem of finding that many rental TV’s that were worth having, a problem again solved by buying our own. All these problems Mick resolved, but in addition he was my computer guru and helped me set up a spreadsheet to track costs. We worked on the basis of committed costs so we knew where we were at all times and reported to the Board monthly. Tracking all of the over 800 identifiable spaces, offices, tents, corporate suites etc., their furniture needs, power, TV, and phone requirements was a mammoth task, so Mick wrote a program for that which even aggregated the power for defined areas.  

I had the job of coordinating with the police, Sgt Jennings, about where we would close roads off and to start to plan detours. One of the problems we perceived was that the surrounding residential streets would be clogged with parked vehicles if we did not restrict access to residents, so zones were drawn up and color coded with car passes hand delivered to residents in those areas. Parking was never really a problem. The great advantage of a street race in the center of the city is that there are probably less people coming to the event than come to work each day, so the public transport and parking garages are all in place to deal with a large crowd.

The Adelaide Fruit and Vegetable Market remained a big issue, mainly for them, but that reflected back on us. It was one city block with a short side facing the track, so only a few of the wholesalers were affected directly. Now the market is a private cooperative from memory, so it took a few meetings to finalize the arrangements. The market worked every night to early morning except Saturday, so it was only Thursday and Friday we had to worry about, and we guaranteed to have them back open Sunday night so we made them first priority for moving blocks. I think the other stall holders offered to help the impacted guys out as they could access from the inside of the market. There was also a grandstand right at the mouth of Rundle Street and a commentary box to move, so we were in for a busy night after a very busy day.

The market also operated a parking garage in which took spaces along with other downtown garages to house the cars of those residents that were going to be blocked out when the barriers went up. We had a lovely lady handling the relations with the residents and businesses, I did not envy her that job, but I still had to get involved with meeting every one as I was the one blocking them in, so I could tell them when and for how long and what options we had for access. We obviously tried to minimize the time that they would be affected by timing those areas last for block installation.

It is the 16^th of February and we finally have a confirmed date for the race, November 3^rd. There were dates in October mentioned earlier, but this gave us a couple of extra weeks. We would need all of them as there were still many and significant problems to solve. I met with the photographer from the local newspaper, The Advertiser, to discuss the special needs of photographers as opposed to print journalists. Lockers to store their gear, and platforms designed for them at strategic locations such as the first corner for the start. I learned that Kodak would assist with a mobile lab, no digital in those days, and Nikon would run a lens lending service if we gave them a building. The print media were not forgotten, and no word processors here or the internet. Desks, typewriters, including ones with French, Italian and German keyboards! I guess they did not lug around portables either. Fax lines were recent and most of the work was still done on telex, so lots of those, and phone lines of course. We set up a hotel billing system so that we could recoup the cost of all those long overseas calls, and no one minded as long as we could guarantee they were only billed for their own and the billing system gave them a pin to punch in to any phone to ensure that. Again Mick Porter to the rescue.

We had to provide a fence to keep spectators back from the barrier, which was usually a chain wire fence for permanent tracks, but we needed something cheaper and quicker. Our friends at Humes came up trumps again with a version of the orange safety fence you see at roadworks. They could produce in our corporate and national colors of green and gold, and white stripes, and erected with the steel posts and top and bottom wires to give them the strength to hold the spectators. Worked a treat and looked good too.    

Arrangements were being made apace, and to get over our potential problem with hire and rental equipment we appointed Pat Pearse of Renniks Hire, who was also head of the local hire association, and John Kroeger of Abbey Rents from Melbourne to jointly be our agents to acquire what we needed.

There were also meetings with the two colleges on the track, Prince Alfred who had a playing field facing Dequetteville Terrace and wanted to build their own grandstand and make money, and Christian Brothers whose junior school fronted the track and had a playground that they could exploit. Now the GP office were very protective of others piggy backing on their event, we had a paid a lot for the rights, not by today’s standards maybe, but we had to stop everyone or we could never prevent anyone. That was part of Judith Griggs job, to safeguard our logo and rights from exploitation. We did work with the colleges though as we needed their goodwill. They had major playing fields inside the track and at the south end of the pit complex, and we would need that space, plus it would interfere with their scheduled sports fixtures. Furthermore the noise levels from the race would make classes impossible, so both were looking to shut down on the Thursday and Friday. The area south of the pits became prime turf as I found out in another meeting, this time with the Department of Aviation and helicopter operators who used the area to shuttle VIP’s in and out. This was just the start of what was to become a major air show as part of the event.

Noise was an issue, and there were some dire predictions of its impact especially among older people, but it never became an issue for us, no suggestion of noise mounds or walls. An F1 race is horrendously noisy, and it is just an accepted part of staging the event. “Noise Shelters” were proposed and some were opened, but even though the race could be heard down at the beach, miles away, no one used the shelters that I know of and they did not reappear for later events. It did pose problems for us running the event though, and we designed portable buildings with lead lined walls and double glazing to provide sound proof buildings for race control, TV studio and other key locations. Neat trick. We also used noise cancelling microphones with the headsets we wore, otherwise you could hear nothing, even if there was not a car directly on the track in front of you, the opposite of “the cone of silence.”

We had called for bids on the concrete barriers in late January and they were received just in time for our first major media event. Alfa Romeo was launching a new car in Australia and decided to do it in Adelaide to use the publicity of the GP. They had a local bus service bus dressed up with the car on the side and a display in Victoria Park. Alan Jones was on hand to help us, and Alan and I took the journalists around the track in the bus. We had a police escort to control the traffic as we needed to go the wrong way in some places and I talked them around the first lap to show where it went and Alan talked them around the second to give a driver’s perspective. Alan is very good at this, and when we arrived at the end of Dequetteville Terrace and the bus could not make the hairpin and had back up, he quipped “it handles like a Surtees!” Sorry John, his quote not mine.

Later back at the office for drinks and interviews I was talking to Will Hagon and mentioned that we had just let the contract for the barriers, $1 million or so. Will’s eyes sort of glazed over and he said “you guys are serious about this aren’t you?” It was as if the rest of Australia could still not believe little old Adelaide was going to pull this off. This contract was a big step, one of the largest contracts and one which would take the longest to fill. Humes won it and made the first prototypes for us to see to make sure it would all go together as we had planned.

Around this time I received some help on the construction front with Ian Grey coming on board from Macmahon. I was to give Ian a hard time, but he made up for some inexperience in roadwork with enthusiasm and perseverance, and was to be an invaluable asset during the event. We were putting together the contract documents for the construction of the track inside Victoria Park which of course was not in either the Highways or the City’s road system. We were also looking at how to set up the pit building and service the area with water and sewer, being a park there was little to none of either. As I said the area at the rear of the pit straight grandstand was to be a highly developed one with corporate dining, TV compound and lots of food and beverage concessions. We had a layout we had produced with Toohey Allen, so we designed and had installed a water ring main and sewer to go under the track and around the pit building and grandstand area. Toilets were a big issue, no one liking to use portables, especially women, so we planned to install connected transportable blocks in key corporate areas, and high quality self contained blocks elsewhere. Fortunately Australia had a good supply of those which came manned and serviced regularly during the day.

We still were not sure what to do with the pit building, but had decided whatever we did it would bolt to a slab so we poured a base for the building and the work lane in pit lane. That and the track itself is basically all that remains between races. We installed conduits for power and communications under the track at selected points as well, a practice I always do to this day.

So, eight months to the race and still a lot to be decided, let alone manufactured and installed. The installation was not high on my agenda at the moment, but it was on others. The Builders Laborers Federation wanted to meet and discuss the project and the involvement of their members in areas such as the grandstands. The Government was a socialist one which meant the unions had a strong hand. In fact I was told that basically I had no chance, they knew I had a deadline and Government backing, so give up now. It did not work like that. The Government provided Doug Melvin to liaise with the unions and I cannot speak highly enough of their cooperation. Without the dedication of their members this could not have happened, but then I have found race events stir the soul of the workers to great achievements. In the end we negotiated a site allowance that was commensurate with other sites in town, and the usual problem of inter-union disputes over who does what were amicably resolved.

March begins and more meetings with residents and businesses. I met the Lord Mayor at the Bowls Club to discuss their access during the event, especially ground staff for the greens. Access was to be a big issue for all those I met, and despite my warnings about having too easy an access to their property, I think they were more concerned with having their family and friends have a free ticket. That was to change dramatically. I later met with diverse groups such as the Blood Bank, a pretty vital operation which was actually just outside the track on east Terrace, and Ultrasound clinic on Dequetteville Terrace, and Max O’Neil from Southern Quarries who had an office on Dequetteville Terrace. The O’Neils were to play a major role in my later venture at Eastern Creek, and Bill O’Gorman was a son-in-law of Laurie O’Neil. Small world.   

Others were concerned with access too, but access of a different kind, access for the handicapped. This is always a difficult and touchy subject. If we provide special places then there will always be those who say I should be able to choose to go anywhere, but life does not always let us do everything we want, even without handicaps or disabilities. We did provide wheelchair access with partner’s seats alongside, and water available to keep them cool. The aluminium decks of the stands made them pretty glary though, and hot. Being mainly grass surfaces in the parklands also presented challenges for access.

We were finalizing layouts for race control and timing, and for the on-course commentary and Channel Nine requirements. We would soon be able to go out to tender for those buildings. We had met with the Police Special Ops and the other emergency services and decided to build a large office to be the race secretary’s office and the emergency command center where all the forces could be represented with their own communications and where they could swap information and formulate responses. The only wrong decision here was not to soundproof it.

Bullen’s Circus contacted us about us using their seating, and as we still were in dire need we connected them to John Commerford to incorporate in his seating layout. This was being finalized so we could start to advertise and selling tickets.

Tim Schenken came over from Melbourne with Peter Nelson to discuss the race organization, particularly the fire and rescue. One of our key requirements was lots and lots of fire extinguishers of all shapes and sizes. We had been talking to a few suppliers but the cost to purchase was high, and we would need to service them every year, and rental was just as bad. FFE approached us with the perfect solution. They would loan them to us, we would pay for any lost or damaged and for recharging any that were discharged. To make sure we always had what we needed they would place a unit on site to recharge them as they were used. Perfect. This introduced me to “Big Chris” who was to volunteer for all my future events, even flying himself to Laguna Seca to spend two weeks humping and carrying. Without such people I would not have succeeded.

On that note I should introduce Bill Crouch. Bill was a South Australian Motorcycle Policeman and an avid motor race fan and volunteer marshal. Bill had paid his own way to overseas F1 races in the US and Europe, and probably had more knowledge than almost anyone about how it was done. Bill started to “stop by” on his way past the GP Office to come and ask how it was going. So began a great friendship and adventure. Bill was to be the first and last BPM employee, and would come to the US with me for the US Motorcycle GP at Laguna Seca.

The bids were in by now for the work inside Victoria Park, and Roche Bros were successful at a cost of $555,000. Work was due to completed by the end of May, and a decision had been made to delay the laying of the top course on the rest of the track until then. We had 60 days from November 3, so there was time. The main problem would be laying in what would be the winter, and keeping the mix hot was a real concern. Laying this mix was a problem anyway as had been found in the test sections. The chemical nature of the binder meant it did not harden as it cooled like most asphalt, it set up fast as the reaction happens. Timing of compaction was critical to achieve what we knew we needed to withstand the stress from these tires.

So started April, seven months to the race and Roche Bros commenced work in Victoria Park. Goodyear and Champion both came to see the track and the paddock area to see what they had as a working space. We were still trying to convince CAMS about the debris fence design, and had to make a slight addition to the design to obtain approval before we could go to contract. The manufacture of this was to be done at the reinforcing plant, which is a bit of a “hell’s kitchen” with multiple lanes of mesh being welded at once. During the manufacture I was invited to lunch at a board meeting of the parent company that was being held in Adelaide. The Managing Director proceeded to tell me that during the tour of the plant the guys on the line producing our fence were proud to tell him how far ahead of schedule they were. He was astonished as he had never heard a workman care if they were ahead or behind, such was the power of the GP. These guys were doing nothing different than all the other lines, but this was for the GP!

Security for the event was a big task, both maintaining the perimeter and crowd control, and preserving all the equipment we and the teams had at the track. There were also some people who would do us harm if allowed, so it was big deal. The main two security companies, Wormald and MSS agreed that neither had the manpower to do it alone and approached us about a combined operation, which was a remarkable show of bipartisanship and worked well. Chris Reed was one of the key guys at MSS, and would later work with me and BPM’s own security company, Festival State Security. Fencing the perimeter was a major task, and a temporary fence was not going to cut it in most places. We had no option in some areas, but elsewhere installed a chain link fence with barbed wire. To make reinstallation easy in future years we sleeved the post holes and capped them when not being used. Defining the actual line the fence would take was a painstaking job, and one Ian Grey did a fine job on. Around the residential areas we had to think about their access and about our crowd circulation. People do not like walking to find their path a dead end and have to retrace their steps.

Residents and businesses continued to contact me for information. Sir Walter Crocker, at one time Lieutenant Governor of the State, and Justice Walters were just two dignitaries who lived in this up market area. Another hospital, Parkwynd, was fronting Wakefield Road and while it was mainly a residential hospital they wanted to know what to expect. During the race they actually had their residents out on the balcony watching, so they were not too concerned. A significant group was to contact me, the Country Women’s Association, CWA, a strong lobby group for women and families living in remote areas, who’s State Headquarters was an impressive bluestone mansion on Dequetteville Terrace. Their State Council meeting was coming up in June, and would I come and tell them what was going to happen during the race.

Now I mentioned Peter Nelson, the Race Secretary. His job was to coordinate the officials for the race, among many other things, and he arranged a meeting of all the senior officials in Adelaide. The race was so large it drew the best from all over Australia. Peter opened the meeting by describing a race like an oil painting. I am sitting at the back thinking this guy's lost it. But no, he went on to explain that one small flaw will immediately draw attention and spoil the whole. He is absolutely correct as I was to find out. When I did attend the CWA meeting and stood up in front of 200 impressive ladies I was in a quandary how to approach it. Do I assume they know nothing and “talk down” to them, after all it was safe to assume most of them did not get Channel Nine and the GP telecasts, let alone be interested enough to watch. Or treat them as informed individuals and talk as I would at say the Sporting Car Club? Thankfully I decided on the latter as after I had finished a lady stood up at the rear and asked what I was going to do to prevent a recurrence of that terrible response by the marshals to the accident involving Keke Rosberg’s car at the final corner at Estoril last year when they left it in the middle of the track for ten laps! Date, driver, track and place, she had it all, and what was I going to do about it. I had lots of similar phone calls about the track surface from concerned citizens. I was definitely in the line of fire. The paranoia over the track was only to get worse with the Belgium GP at Spa cancelled after the track broke up after just one practice.

We had a couple of scares on that score, when the newly rebuilt Wakefield Road, not yet to have its GP surface course, started to shows signs of breaking up. It was later traced to an old tram line buried under the old road, but it did not help with the public’s concerns.

April rolled on and we were getting precise with the grandstand locations, identifying which trees need to be lopped, and which power lines sleeved. The back of the stands were so high the back rows could reach out and grab the wires. Channel Nine were finalizing their camera positions and what they would need to support them including a position on top of some overpasses, which we still did not know how to provide. The Government airline, TAA, started to talk to us about the cars being flown in, which would be in two or three 747’s, which there was some doubt about being able to land in Adelaide, or at least take off again. Material handling of another kind started to be a topic of discussion, how to move and place 9000 tons of concrete, and an old friend from my road transport days, Rex Chown of Fleetexpress, came to discuss it, another fateful day. His sidekick was one Noel Lindner, soon to be the final partner of BPM, and husband of Christine.

Power was obviously going to be a big issue, but we did not have anywhere enough data to get a handle on it at the moment, and did not get resolved until almost too late, despite several companies talking to us about being involved.

Other issues raised their heads but were easier to solve. KESAB, the Government litter control group started talking to us about how to handle the tons of trash we would inevitably accumulate, after all this was a tourist promotion and appearance was important. Signage was also a key issue. We had all seen the large billboards around F1 tracks and the overhead signs, and we needed a way to have them made and installed here, when we would not know almost to the last minute where to put them and what to put on them. Terry Slattery of Signs Incorporated would do a great job on this, and it was a real pleasure to work with Patrick McNally who controlled the signage for F1, and still does, and see how to site signs for best advantage. Contrary to popular opinion the TV Company does not film the signs, you have to put the signs where you know they will be filming, and not be moving to blur the sign. A true art.

And so to May, and Mal said “get your passport, you’re going to Detroit.” Six months to the race.

John Blanden, the man who sold me the Elfin, was coordinating the historic portion of the event with static displays while the cars were not on the track. We arranged for a garage adjacent to the track but available to the public to be rented for the weekend for their paddock space and display area.

I was continuing to meet with residents, particularly in that short section of East Terrace where it does a left-right and space is at a premium. One gentleman who lived on the corner was a worry and hard to satisfy, and the hardest to get to once the fence was up, but he had to have foot access. The Unions continued to want to be involved, and Doug Melvin arranged for me to address a joint meeting of all interested unions at their headquarters. I was getting a lot of practice at public speaking, and not always to friendly crowds. One night I recall Gel Jones was due to go to Murray Bridge, about an hour through the hills, and at the last minute cried off. So I got the job, and Rod Paech came too so he could hear what we were presenting so he could handle some in future. We were late so I put my racer’s face on and hit the Mt Barker Road, in those days a series of steep sweeping corners, and about halfway up Rod turned to me and said “I’ve never been around corners like this before.”

Lindsay Burgess who worked for John Commerford at ASS as their site installation man came over to start discussing the erection program. He needed to start on September 1^st to get it done, leaving the stands that would block access ways and roads till last. This started us thinking about the installation program. Up till now it was all about making the parts and pieces, now we had to think about how and when to put them together with another critical path program. It was good that we had finalized the stands as tickets went on sale on May 20^th.

Paving started the very next day with Rundle Road. The Highways had wrapped the rollers with skirts to try and keep the heat in, and had devised a “heater” for the joints to keep them warm. Placing the pavement is actually more important to me than the mix itself, as even the best mix laid poorly will fail. John Potter had foreseen this and arranged to pave the track full width using two or three pavers in echelon so that there was one seamless mat. The weather was colder than ideal for this operation, hence the heaters, which they had made up on lawn mower chassis’ and propane burners, but forgot the plastic wheels which quickly caught fire and were equally quickly replaced with steel ones.  

To keep the diversity going for me the next day was the first major meeting with the catering companies that would somehow feed and serve drinks to all the corporates in fine dining, and the crowd with hot dogs, pizza and beer. My role was to be able to arrange access, power, and water to all their locations and somehow handle things like grey water from washing up and trash disposal.

And then, just to make life even more insane I moved house! I know I have not mentioned a private life, that is because I did not have one, this job was insane and I was starting to swear I would not do it again. To show how insane it was our internal bookkeeping was showing we were going to lose money on this project. The scope and responsibilities had grown beyond all proportion, which thankfully the Public Works Department recognized, and we started to prepare a submission to virtually double our fee.  

Ticket sales were going great, so great in fact that Mal told me to go and find some more seats and fit them in down at the hairpin onto the pit straight on the Prince Alfred College soccer pitches. Now I knew we were struggling to find the seats we already had on the plans, especially bleachers, so I recommended we buy these. We had been contacted by a representative of a Sydney company that had an American designed system, Stadiums Unlimited that was not strictly demountable, but was structural steel so we could put it up and take it down each year. It needed piers to support, but we put them in low enough that we could put turf back over the top. We added more corporate boxes in the back and a handicapped platform on the front.

All the while Roche Bros had been working away in Victoria Park, which as we discovered had at some earlier date been used as a rubbish dump. Not the best ground for a race track. Roche were struggling and the weather was not helping. The Highways staff who would be paving the track were expressing grave concerns about the finish and strength, and it looked like we were going to be late finishing it. Not a good situation to be going away to Detroit.

Before I went though there was a most important date, the official launch of the GP to the media on June 12th. Media were being brought from all over Australia to attend this function and it was our first real test. The slogan was now “Adelaide Alive” and it would be spot on to how the city and the people reacted. Adelaide did come alive, not the city of churches any more. We all did our part for the launch, and Bob Pritchard from PBL had one thing to arrange. We were to make a present of a very nice zip up windcheater, a race jacket, to all of the media as part of their “kit” and Bob’s job was to have them made. He not only failed in that task, to add insult to injury he wore the only example in captivity to the lunch! Not a popular boy. I was actually made a present of it to wear in Detroit to represent the Grand Prix. This was my first trip outside of Australia since arriving, and my first trip to the US. 

While I was away we put out the bid documents for the garage structure, the pit building. We had been working on how to provide a pit building and race control tower all of which had to be demountable, and reusable. We were aware that a colored steel cladding would be required for appearance, but were concerned how it would look after a couple of years of going up and coming down and being transported. We knew the basic dimensions and the number of bays required, but teams in those days were one or two cars, and the order in which they were laid out along pit lane varies depending on where they finished in last year’s championship. Now a one car team gets less space than a two, so we came up with a system of mesh dividers that could be moved each year to suit. Roller doors front and rear supplied in a deal with Gliderroll. The control tower was a steel girder structure into which we would slide the transportable buildings. Race Control above the garages, Timing above that and commentary on top, with the TV broadcast aerial for CCTV on that. Contract documents were prepared to be issued in mid-June, with bids due the end of June.

We had also finally worked out what to do about overpasses. The spans we needed to cross made the cost of rental prohibitive on an ongoing basis, they would look nasty in scaffold or Bailey bridge, and the need to absorb wind load would need piles in the roadways, a no-no. One of our design team, Kevin Lee or Ken Ineson, hit on the idea of using the stairs to absorb the wind load by turning them at right angles to the bridge. They would have to be a structural part of the bridge to do that, so we would have to build our own, but that turned out to be an economical answer that would look good, only need a large concrete spread footing sitting on the ground, and could be erected with the minimum of traffic delays. We had it down to about 20 minutes to close the road to place each span. Another beautiful solution.

Detroit was a culture shock and an experience. I was sent to see how to run a street race, especially how to close off the streets and put the last pieces together. Detroit had been doing it for four years already, so we thought they must have it sorted by now. It’s true I learned a lot, I wrote a 20 page report after I got home, most of the others that went to races came home with a bunch of photos and not many of the race! Detroit’s race was run around the Renaissance Center, a multi tower development that was in a run-down area next to the river. As its name implies it is designed to try and rejuvenate the area and was developed by a consortium of the major companies, including the car companies. It was just one of whole raft of events that were staged almost every weekend, so it was really no big deal, just the next event. Like most events run in the US it was largely run by volunteers, and staged cheap and nasty. This was not about showing off a city. The commentary box was a highway box  trailer with a hole chopped in the side and carpet stuck to the wall, sitting at ground level, so good luck seeing anything. Race Control was just a portable office with no view, I guess the forerunner of todays?

I was staying up near the GM world headquarters and had to get a cab downtown which was a real adventure. The drivers were African-Americans and I obviously could not pronounce renaissance correctly, so it took about five minutes for them to work out where I wanted to go. One actually asked me if I said rhinoceros? Another was drinking Pina Colada out of the bottle in the cup holder. My life expectancy was not high. It was here that I discovered “foldable toast”, an American specialty.

I reported in to my opposite number, Michael, and set to walking the track. I was there from the Monday prior through to the Monday after, just walking, looking and making notes. Talking to anyone and everyone, asking questions, and they all soon knew of the crazy Australian and told me a lot. The paddock was in the underground garage of the expo building down the road, and the pits were just an open area behind pit wall. I saw the cars arrive and how they unloaded them, pretty scary, and useful for our preparations. I talked to the Longines timing team, and finally worked out why there wasn’t a load of cable running everywhere, they put out a low power broadcast TV signal. Try doing that in Australia without a license, so one more thing to arrange, and nice to know before they arrived.

So it went on, and we arrived at the evening they were going to close the roads down. Now the main tunnel to Canada came out on the inside, and we were closing freeway off ramps. I was expecting some major briefing with the city and police present, but I was just told to meet Mike at his office at 5 pm, rush hour. There were four trucks with sign and barriers and bunch of volunteers. Without any discussion we loaded up and set off and just started closing stuff, not a cop in sight. We would set up for an intersection by driving down the left lane and wheeling the trucks right across the traffic waiting at the light, including buses! They would set up the barriers while a few would hand out leaflets telling drivers where the detour was. If we tried that in Australia there would be a riot. As it was people were getting out of their cars and moving the barriers, so it took a few go rounds to finally get it shut down. So much for seeing how it is done.

Now on my walk around I noticed that fresh asphalt had been laid at all the corners, and was already being torn up by cars with power steering that had to turn around because the way was blocked. This was going to be interesting. Ian Cox had also come to Detroit along with his wife Sue, so I had some company, but spent all day on the track and most of the night writing up notes. Come first practice and we hear that the track is coming up at one corner, and the track crew was going to fix it, so Ian and I jumped on the truck to go see. Now there was 45 minutes until the next session, so a fix had to be done quickly. They were going to use quick setting concrete, and Ian was horrified when they threw a bucket into the river to get the water for it, Ian ran a ready-mix company remember. The crew then messed about, did not have any trowels etc., so Ian and I took over. We found a 4 x 4 timber and used it to screed off the patch and got it done in time. To no avail though, our patch was fine, it was the rest of the asphalt that progressively tore up here and elsewhere during the race, with a number of cars going off into the barrier on this corner.

The best thing about the week was meeting George Couzens who was an FIA track Inspector and would help me when I came to the US to live much later. He gave me a copy of their “minute by minute,” a great tool for planning and managing the event and one we adopted for Adelaide and all my events since. The young lady I met at the post race party was also a highlight of the weekend.

Monday morning came and as I walked around among the trash I asked myself what was that all about? A bunch of people come into town, rape the place, and then fly off and leave others to clean up the mess. I was starting to question whether this was all worth it, but when it is your event that question does not arise. I flew home via Albuquerque and Phoenix to look at some earthmoving equipment for Macmahon.

I came home to a mess in Victoria Park. Roche were still not finished and were claiming delays due to rain, the Highways were not at all happy about the finish and Roche saying they had done all they were about to. After a series of meeting with them and Ian Cox on site we agreed on a mix of measures they would do involving paying for asphalt to replace some of the base in bad areas and some cement stabilized areas. With that they continued and would complete in early July.

I had some good and bad news on return. Macmahon had made me a Director of Macmahon Construction, so I had made it, my life’s ambition at age 38. But so had my replacement in Alice Springs, so I had not had to leave after all. It felt like winning a medal and then finding out everyone got one too.

The work on the GP continued unabated, but by now I had some more help in Bruce Bate from Macmahon, and who would eventually take over from me there as Chief Estimator. Mick Porter was silly enough to tell me one day he had some spare time so I said go and find a way of making tire bundles, we need a lot of them. Somehow he learned of a Government “make work” scheme putting tires together for artificial reefs and talked them into making them in a different shape for a couple of months.

Sales of tickets and corporate boxes were going great, and Mal announced one day that he had just sold the Premier’s box, now we needed to put him one on the pit roof. Now that was a trick as the roof was not designed for that, but another of those bright ideas that my team kept coming up with solved the problem. Hang the roof panels below the structure and then build another deck on top of that to place suites on. Mal had agreed that we should design all the pit building to support this load and deck it all, even though we would only use a short section for the Premier. This was a very smart decision as we went on to fill the pit roof in later years and basically paid for the pit building every year on the proceeds. The forerunner of the “Corporate Club” on all pit roofs these days. As with so much about Adelaide it set new standards.

We needed a suite for the Premier on the roof, and we worked with an Architect who Macmahon used, Peter Milne, for advice. He came up with the idea of using a “Beehive” wooden structure made in SA from local timber so a big plus. It was also prefabricated and could be put together in a variety of ways and taken apart which what was what we needed. Each module was six sided, and interconnected, like a beehive, and we set them up with a central bar area and a lounge on each side with six sided green and gold awnings outside.

So the bids for the pit building came in and a local company, Hallweld won it with some very clever ideas. I mentioned we were concerned about damage to the finish, and they solved that by wrapping each panel with a “C” channel, so when you stacked them the channels were the only pieces touching and they were galvanized.

July is here, four months to race day. We were finally getting a handle on power requirements and had brought on Steven Barrett of Lincoln Scott, an electrical consultant to put together the documents we needed for power supply and distribution. We were also to put out the bids for all the rental buildings we needed and starting to plan for the detours and signage we would need to direct traffic during erection and the event. We had National Exhibition on board to design the media center and the winners’ rostrum, the most important piece of the infrastructure as Patrick McNally was to tell me. The insurance brokers for the event, Sedgewicks, wanted details to go to Lloyds, and the Department of Aviation are now telling me to expect 200 helicopter movements a day and we needed another helipad, and a temporary air traffic control tower on top of the adjacent Queen Elizabeth Hospital. We were finalizing the contract documents for installing the barrier and fence on top. Availability of road sweepers was being checked and arranged, and the gravel ordered for the gravel traps.

Then we had our first piece of sabotage. Someone uncoupled a water standpipe in the racecourse and allowed the pavement to get wet, just what we needed. We asked the CIB to increase security, we could not secure the site yet, it was a public park. Then we were warned that C.A.N.E. were threatening to disrupt the event, and I was asked to identify potential targets and vulnerable points on the track. You have to plan for this stuff I guess. Not everyone was happy with the GP, and it was a high profile vehicle to obtain publicity for your cause. My scope of duties kept increasing, and we had a planning session with Mal, Ian Cox and Bob Toohey about who was to do what in these last months leading up to and during the event. It was becoming obvious that as a temporary circuit there was no maintenance crew, so my construction team were going to have to be it, with me as Operations Manager.  

Roche Bros finally laid their base course of asphalt by the 22^nd, and we started on the final course on the 23^rd, and by the 27^th we were done with the entire track that was to be paved. The final piece in Victoria Park using an impressive three pavers in echelon. We had made it with a month to spare, at least we had a track, or so we thought. The month ended as it was to go on with meetings with the Fire Fighters Union, working with Tim Schenken of CAMS on track details, receiving the prices for the rental buildings, dealing with the Adelaide City Council and Goodyear.

The latter along with Pirelli were the tire suppliers for the F1 cars and so had a lot of tires coming and would need a lot of working space. Shell were also talking to us about all the drums of fuel they would be bringing so arranging the layout of the paddock at the rear of the pits and managing them is a job in itself. I had been approached earlier by Malcolm Ramsey about being involved. Malcolm had raced successfully in F2 in Australia and Asia, building his own cars, and now ran his own engineering company. He said he knew how frustrating it was to be in a foreign country and not be able to have a problem with the car fixed. He was offering to set up machinery to provide that service in the paddock. Now I had been approached by all sorts of people offering to help, especially if it meant a free ticket, so I was pretty suspicious by now and put Malcolm off at first, but thankfully he persisted and was to provide an invaluable service to the teams at his own expense. His guys were really good craftsmen and would be put upon in later years, but in 1985 it is fair to say that at least the Ligier team would not have made the race without Malcolm’s guys repairing the parts for Ligier after hitting the walls on more than one occasion in practice. Malcolm not only provided this service but ran the paddock, and was assisted by Glen Dix who would be the Starter and flagman at start/finish in his inimitable fashion. Would not happen these days.   CIG were talking to us about compressed air and nitrogen for the teams, telling us that although we had put in a compressor and air line to each garage, the teams would not trust it to work. Just part of the F1 approach.

 My relationship with Mal Hemmerling was becoming stronger all the time as one of the key people on the team even though I was strictly not part of the staff, and I was moved into the office next door to his with a connecting door. By race day this was a strong partnership. Occupying a lot of our time was making sure the Premier’s Suite was built the way he wanted it and catered suitably, but there again he was paying for this race.

The worst fears of an inter-union dispute about who does what raised its head over setting the concrete barriers. I personally did not care and told them to sort it out between themselves, which they did and the Construction Workers got the work. Similarly I was not overly concerned with what we were going to do with all this stuff afterwards, I had enough problems building it in the first place. Luckily John Fargher of Public Works did, and found an ETSA yard in the northern suburbs that could accommodate it all, even though we had yet to work out what “all” was. It would be the day after the race before I worried about how to take it all to pieces.

Toohey Allen wanted to rearrange the corporate area behind the main stand. They wanted to flip it all north-south and said it would work better. I said it probably would, but too late now, all the water and sewer was in the ground for the original layout. I did not make myself popular.

One person who did like me though was Tim Schenken. Tim and I were talking a lot about the fine details of the track, and he paid me the ultimate compliment one day when we were down at the hairpin at the end of the main straight. There was some problem that was not obvious to solve, and Tim turned to me and said “you’ve driven, you understand what we are trying to do, and you’re the engineer so I’ll leave it to you to sort it out.” Coming from an ex-F1 driver that was nice.

We were into the fine details now, line marking and curbs being two small but key details. We could install some of the race curb, the old FISA curb in those days, in the water table of existing curbs, but some of it was actually in the road as I explained and could not go in until we shut them down on the Wednesday before the race. That was when the GP Act kicked in. That would not be enough to time gain the required strength, so we devised a bolt-down curb in sections made of glass fiber reinforced concrete. We cored holes about 6 inches diameter in the road and concreted in female couplings to accept the bolts holding down the curb sections.

On the 19^th August we let the barrier installation contract to Fleetexpress, Noel Lindner and crew. We also called for the contracts for electrical work, which in the end was handled like the security by a consortium of Mayfield, Nielsen, and O’Donnell Griffin.

A rude awakening was to follow, things were going too well. The new pavement outside the Market started to come up. Hysteria in the media, and some bad moments for me. I was the one shoved in front of the cameras to explain and defend. It came down to some bad old pavement and the water the market used all the time. We planed it out and replaced a section to make sure we did not have a joint in a high stress spot, and John Potter did a highly visible walk around to assure everyone that this was an isolated problem. It was back in by September 11, inside the 60 day window, but only just. A nasty few days though and shades of what was to follow when dealing with the media.

Australian Seating, ASS, were due to start so we arranged for a small local earthmover, Wig Willoughby, to come in and trim up the area they were going to start on the pit straight. This was another fateful moment as Wig was the South Australian Councilor for the Auto Cycle Council of Australia, ACCA, the governing body for motorcycle racing in Australia. ASS were still wrestling with how to build all the stands at the best price and how to find the timber for the bleachers as scaffold planks were expensive to rent and rough to sit on. We had a hole in Rundle Road Stand that we would not fill until literally the last week.

Sir Jack Brabham paid us a visit at the end of the month and was to do a lap a couple of weeks later in his Championship winning car. Excitement was growing, and it became real when both ASS started erecting stands and Hallweld started putting the pit building up in Victoria Park. So started September, two months to go. We had been planning the detours with the Highways Department, including making sure the roads could handle the truck traffic, and the first traffic move was made on Dequetteville Terrace on Sunday 15^th so that the barrier placement could start. We needed the barrier to be perfectly straight so we painted a thin grey line with a line marking machine to guide the blocks, and Fleetexpress used a large container fork with a side shift so that they could set them exactly and quickly. We needed the barrier in place this early so that the scaffold stands could be built behind them safe from the traffic. It also impacted the least amount of residential and businesses which were scheduled as late as possible.

When I look through my diary at the endless meetings I wonder how anything was getting done, but that was down to my staff, and the contractors. From the beginning we had involved the contractors and looked upon their supervision as part of our team, not an adversarial attitude as usually exists. This was the only way this could be done without a huge team of inspectors on our side. I still made time to walk the track each day as the only way to really see it and think about what was to be done. This has always been my practice and it has served me well. It also meant I was available, if someone had a problem or needed a decision on exactly what to do at some particular point then they could just stop me and ask me. There were meetings on furniture, signs for grid girls, bunting and signs for the historic garage, and it goes on.

As part of the sweetener for messing up their playing fields we agreed to install an irrigation system for Prince Alfred College, just another thing to do. There were ongoing meetings on security, where they needed lighting, their base, where the fence was and when. I met with the Board of Health about the number and type of toilets and the catering arrangements. I briefed the Fire Brigade, and on Sunday met with the medical team and the army who had their mobile surgical unit set up for us to see. There were still administrative difficulties with the local Medical Authorities, and we had to worry about insurance cover and secondment for South Australian medical staff for the race. Most of this had to go eventually to State Cabinet to get sorted. I was still struggling with finding an emergency helicopter at a price that was not outrageous, and Keith Williams, a motor racing guy who owned Hamilton Island offered to bring his chopper down which could take one stretcher and that solved the problem.

Somehow in the midst of this I escaped for a Macmahon Board meeting in Alice Springs.

CAMS were getting serious about their organization now and brought their officials and fire and rescue crews for a briefing on site, and Bill Crouch, who was to be the Senior for Fire and Rescue arranged for training with Noel Lindner at their depot. This consisted of the usual tray fires to be put out, but Noel and his guys made an F1 car out of cut up oil drums so they could pour petrol on it and set it alight to simulate the real thing. We would go on to close off portions of the track in Victoria Park and set up mock accidents for the FIV’s and ambulances to respond to so they could learn where to position themselves for safety. The event was getting so popular that crowds were starting to walk the track on weekends, and we had to set up a security point for vehicles entering and leaving the site, with individual passes for workers, which included the workers dogs, just for fun.

To join in the fun the Jockey Club, with whom I was still having regular meetings over details, staged a Grand Prix race meeting, the last horse races before the GP as the wood fiber was to be pulled off the track straight after. Each of the races was sponsored by a GP Sponsor and it was a great day out we all needed by now. One problem we did have for a long time was the lack of an event sponsor. I guess it was a big ask moneywise for an unknown quantity and it was quite late before the Government talked Mitsubishi, who had a car plant in South Australia, into coming on board.

The first overpass section turned up on site on the 24^th, and the next day the FIA Inspector, Derek Ongarro, made his first visit with Tim and the rest of the guys from CAMS. He was very happy with what he saw and therefore so were we, not to say much relieved. I asked Derek about where to cut the escape holes in the debris fence. In a street race it is hard for drivers to get off the track if they are in an incident or their car breaks down, so holes are cut at intervals in the mesh for them to climb through. Derek looked aghast and said you can’t cut holes in that beautiful fence. He suggested lifting a panel at appropriate points, which could be done easily as the fence looped around the main post and would just interlock higher up. This left a gap between the top of the concrete and bottom of the fence that a driver could roll through. Better still the top of the fence would stick up so the driver could find it easily. This solution was to have unfortunate unforeseeable consequences in Melbourne later, but for now everyone loved it. The fire guys said they could put the spare extinguishers behind the wall at those points and the raised top of the fence would show where they were. The TV guys loved it as they could stick the lens of the camera through the slot, as could the still photographers, and both could remain protected behind the fence.

In another of those fateful meetings the Frickers came to see us about the Gawler Three Day Equestrian Event which was to be a World Championship in 1986 for the 150^th Birthday celebrations. They came to ask about grandstands mainly, but little did either of us know what fate had in store.

One month to race day, and it is a blur of final details, placing the block in ever more difficult places and sometimes having two or three goes at placing a corner right. We arranged to have an aerial photo taken of the whole layout on race day so we knew where everything ended up after fine tuning during the event. I have no more diary entries, I am obviously out in the field all day. Our receptionist at one point wanted to put through a phone call, so I asked her who it was, what they want to talk about and how long will it take. She said “I can’t ask him that,” so I said fine I’m not taking the call. I had every man and his dog wanting to talk to me, mainly about how I was going to ensure the track would not come up.

I had another problem. Bill Crouch, my flag waving policeman, walked in and announced he had taken two weeks leave and he was all mine! I knew that if I did not find something for him to do then he would be standing talking to me all day, so I gave him a list of all the miscellaneous stuff we needed. Buckets, brooms etc for the marshals, and Bill was great sorting all that out. We had finally sorted out the support paddock. It suddenly occurred to me that the piece of Wakefield Road cut off by the track would be perfect. We could get the cars in and out quickly, and put the team trucks up on the grass under the trees. Worked fine except CAMS in the shape of Gordon Cowley came in at the last minute with a list of things he needed, and all the competitors had to be inside by 8 am before we closed the gates to the track.

The BLF were still a concern as they were having a dispute over some of their officials going to jail in Victoria and a stop work meeting was called. The shop steward told me it was OK, they were not going to go from the GP site. That worried me more as I did not want the site black banned, so I told them to go, just make sure you come back, it was a two hour meeting. The Organizer showed up and assured me they would all be back, he would make sure that the meeting did not drag on, and he was true to his word. The workers were all great and I know I would never get any of these projects done without them, so I look after them. Lindsay Burgess and I squeezed an extra block of seats in that were not on the sales plan, and no one else knew, but we made it the workers’ stand. Most of them would be on call in case of a problem anyway and I figured they had earned a seat. Mal and a few others did not quite see it that way when they inevitably found out.

It was all finally coming together, and the interesting thing for me was that all the individual contractors thought that they had the biggest piece of the job, but like John Commerford, when they finally saw it all then they understood. John was classic, we walked up the back of his pit straight grandstand, he had not been over for months, and took one look at the pit building and said “I thought I had a big job!” Thankfully for me it was all fitting and we were getting down to the really tough block areas. I knew from past experience how politicians reacted when a constituent called to complain, it is “oh I’ll see what I can do to fix that.” So I told Mal, next week is going to start to hurt the businesses and the residents, I do not want a phone call from the Premier telling me to take blocks back out. He came back later and assured me the Premier told him just keep putting them in.

We had a scare with the block though. The Friday of the week before the race Noel Lindner said let’s go somewhere quiet and have a cup of coffee. He had added up what we needed to finish the block to close the track, and he told me we were sixty short! Somewhat stunned by this piece of news I called my engineer who had so carefully calculated how many we needed, who said he would check. He called me back to say that was wrong, we should be only 30 short! It was a good job he was on the other end of the phone. Next call was to Humes, and yes they still had the moulds and yes they can make sixty more by Wednesday, they would be a bit “green” though. I told Ian Cox who gave the go ahead to make them, and Noel and I worked out the best place to put them where they were not likely to be hit. 

There was to be another scare in store for us. Someone set off a car bomb at the rear of the TAA offices on North Terrace in the city, and left a message to say we were next. More meetings with the Police and other security organizations to ask what could be damaged that would stop the race? I was pretty confident that we could fix just about anything given time, but if the damage was race morning for instance it would probably be impossible.

Despite the few crazies the interest in the race was off the charts. We had so many people walking the track on the weekends we started putting Coke vans and food outlets out there. The weekend before we must have had 20,000 people. Making it hard to get things done though. Patrick McNally turned up early in race week and we could start finalizing signage, including the winners’ rostrum. As I said, Patrick considered this the most important part of the event as it would be the photo that would go around the world. He wanted me to spend a lot of time on it for that reason, so I told him if he did not leave me alone he would not have a track to have a race and a winner on. Terry Slattery and his crew did an incredible job of painting and staging signs. It really annoyed me. Here we had been working our butts off for months to get this place ready, but it was mainly grey, and then in one week he had it looking colorful and great!

The cars finally arrived and I met Bill Gibson for the first time. Bill was handling the in and outbound freight in Australia and had experience from when Moffat and some of the other guys had gone overseas to race. We used some of the info I had brought back from Detroit about how to handle the cars and it all went fine. Glen Dix came in the week prior and swept out all the garages and generally made himself useful, and as he said, get to know the place.   

We finally arrived at Wednesday and we could close down the roads, finish the curb, line marking, and erect those stands in the roadways. Finish placing tire bundles, and the million other details that make a race. So I had all the gates closed, and would then wonder where all the people were coming from, we were not getting it done. Others in the GP office thought we should let all those visitors have a look, some of whom were being very rude about not being let in. I finally told everyone there would not be a race to watch if they did not leave us alone to finish, I still had the final track inspection to get through which was scheduled for 5 o’clock that evening. Being a street circuit it is not licensed until it is done. Now the Grand Prix Ball was scheduled for that evening and I was commanded to attend, against my better judgment. We were to host tables for the teams, who I knew were very unlikely to turn up being the night before they were on the track. In those days a new track had a session on Thursday, not simulation here to tell them how to set up the car.

At five o’clock Derek set off on his walk, and no he did not want me to come with him thank you. So I had a very nervous couple of hours waiting for him to come back, but when he did he just said “I’ll go and cable Paris you have a track license.”  It had not been perfect, but he felt comfortable talking to my guys out on the course to have the little things he saw corrected on the spot. So I could happily and tiredly go to the ball, where I announced to Mal we had a track license. He looked a bit stunned, I don’t think he had realized that we still had to go through that hurdle. My table was of course empty, I think it was to be the Lotus team, but soon a couple of derelicts wandered over with camera crews all over them, and sat down. They did not introduce themselves, but it turned out it was Barry Sheene and his buddy George Harrison, and no I did not get either autograph. It did start a friendship with Barry though.  

Thursday was pretty amazing as you can imagine. I think we had about 30,000 spectators that day, a bit different than most GP’s you watch these days when no one is there until Sunday. Burdy Martin, Clerk of Course, wanted me in Race Control for my intimate knowledge of the track and as I was handling all the maintenance crews. The group in Race Control was the best of what Australia had and it was incredible how perfectly they worked together. I guess when you all know your job and trust the other guy to do his it just works. The F1 cars were due out after lunch and we wanted our World Champion, Alan Jones, to have the honor of the first lap on his own, so we asked Bernie. In his inimitable style Bernie said that was not possible according to the rules, pit lane opened and all the cars had the same opportunity to go out, but he said “some of them might be late.” And so they were and Alan got his lap and there was not a dry eye in the house. We had waited since 1923 for this moment. I had said I would never do this again, but when Alan hit that track, I mentally said “take me I’m yours,” this is worth all the heartache sweat and tears.

Bernie approached me later and said that some of the boys, the drivers, were concerned about the run-off at the end of the main straight by the roundabout. He said we know it meets the rules, but it looks like where Clay Regazzoni broke his legs at Long Beach, could I make it longer? I said yes, I had some more blocks, but I also had a track licensed as it is, so can he get the FIA to ask me? He agreed and they did and at the end of the days racing we added more distance, which Nigel Mansell would be very grateful for the following year. Later that night, after an engineering and management debrief, I was at home watching the Channel Nine highlight show and listening to Jackie Stewart saying he loved the track, but was worried about the run-off at the end of the straight. I felt very smug as I knew it was already fixed, and when Jackie came up and thanked me the next day, “you’re the only promoter that has ever listened to me,” I did not disabuse him of that thought.

That block work was to cause me some grief the next day though. We had road sweepers booked to come in early each morning to pick up all the tire “marbles” and trash that gets caught between the blocks. I told Bruce to make sure that they cleaned up the concrete debris that came off from handling the blocks down in that run-off. We get the roads closed on time and at 8:45 am I hand the track to Burdy who then lets the first race group out, Formula Fords from memory, and forms them up on the grid in front of our Race Control. He then turns around and tells me that the marshals are reporting that I still have a street sweeper out there. I had forgotten all about them, I had presumed them long gone. I called Bruce on the radio and asked what was going on. He said they were just finishing up the run-off as I had asked. I told him just to stop and get them out of the way, hide them, I’ll pay for the day. Bruce says, “no worries, we are just finishing, we’ll send them around and out of the gate on the east side.” All this time Burdy is continuing the countdown, not cutting me any slack, and just giving me nasty looks.  I tell Bruce that no, he is not going to run them around the track as I had a field of cars sitting out here. Things were getting pretty fraught by now, me telling Bruce just bury them in an emergency gap and Bruce telling me no, he could get them out. I could see Glen Dix out of the window and we were down to about the two minute board by now. All of my team could hear what was going on of course, and someone cut in and said “paint a number on it and let it race.” That just cracked everyone up and cut the tension. The sweeper made it out the gate with seconds to spare, and I do not know to this day who that was on the radio. 

Friday passed successfully, feedback from my team and the other parts of the organization resulting in fine tuning. The lap time was a bit slower than we had calculated, the hard surface giving some traction problems. Ligier were hitting walls, but the only drama was to their cars. Saturday comes and we have around 70,000 at the track. This is getting huge. Now I told you we said the support race people had to be in before 8 am, but some of them did not believe us, so were stuck outside. Against out better judgment we agreed to open the east side gate to let them in at lunch time. 12:45 pm Burdy goes out to do a “closing” lap and make sure we are ready to start at 1 pm. Bernie is an absolute stickler for time. Burdy called back to Race Control and said that we have a car with a support race sticker on it parked in the run off at Turn Four and it is locked. I said no problem, I have a forklift just down the road and we will pick it up and dump it somewhere. Don’t worry said Burdy, “I just put my foot through the window and broke the steering lock.” We wanted that person to come back and complain so badly but they never did.

The next little drama was the celebrity race, which was in the form of a pro-am, driving Mitsubishi Cordias. The celebrities had been practicing up at AIR all week, but just before the practice on our track one of them pulled out. Mal knew I had raced and so brought a driving suit etc to Race Control and said go and get in that car. I was in a car, a turbo, which I had never driven on a track I’d never driven. You could not drive it until it was closed on Wednesday and I’d been a bit busy since then. I know I designed and built it, but it still surprised me in places, especially the corner onto the main straight which was critical for a fast time. I knew that Mitsubishi had been having trouble getting the brakes to last as they had asked for time on the track at the end of each day to test different pads out.  So off we go and I did not do too bad. Put it in the run-off in front of the Macmahon corporate platform when the brakes finally gave out, but kept it off the wall and qualified eighth, so not too shabby, especially as some of the celebrities had raced before. That turn onto the main straight really messed with your mind. To make it work I had to turn the walls left before going right, and on approach it looked like the road narrowed, but it didn’t. My imaginative side of the brain did not like this corner at all and wanted to brake, while the logical side is going “we went around here at 2,700 revs last time, let’s try 2,800.”

Sunday dawned and as always I was at the track around 6 am. I discovered I was not alone in an early start, there were thousands waiting for the gates to open. I had a bad feeling about this, when I should have been happy. We really had not anticipated this many people, and the Ombudsmen would later accuse us of selling too many tickets. It was to be one of my most stressful days of my life, and I invented a personal mantra, “5 o’clock will come, I will still be alive, and it will be over.” It was an insane day, we were the victims of our own success. Overpasses were clogged and we had to let them cross the track at times between activity, and people were tearing down signs to get a view of the track. We probably had 120,000 there that day, and the one thing you cannot make or buy at a street race is more space.

I had the celebrity race to compete in with my Pro partner Kevin Bartlett. I raced the first stint and would hand over to him for a separate race with the results decided on aggregate positions. He told me in no uncertain terms to bring him back a car with some brakes left! I started eighth and quickly got by the first three in front of me, and then ran up behind Leonard Teele, the actor, for fourth. I could not get by him, which annoyed me no end, he was an actor for goodness sake. I would draft him down the main straight to the best overtaking spot, the hairpin, but I did not want to brake too hard and incur the wrath of Kevin, so could not quite get it done. About two laps from the end Leonard used up his brakes and went straight on at a corner and I was by into fourth, not bad in equal cars. I later found out that Leonard was a serious driver, so did not feel so bad, and my Pro buddy Kevin spun it at the first corner after telling me we were looking good to win this!  

We got through the day, fixing the problems before the outside world saw them. The power went off in the tower at one point in the race and thank goodness we had a generator running to switch over automatically. The crowd down at the Stag Hotel had been drinking all morning and got out of hand during the race and I was told by Burdy he was stopping the GP if I could not get it handled. I found the Police Officer in charge at the foot of the tower stairs but had a lot of trouble making him hear, which was when I decided to soundproof the emergency base next year. He sent the SWAT team down there and the race went on. Now due to the slower lap time we were up against the two hour race limit. We kept checking which was coming first, 82 laps or two hours. It would look good and then Rosberg, who was leading, would stop for more tires, the hard surface wearing them out with wheel spin. Every time he stopped it changed the equation and we were very close to throwing the checker on lap 81 when he went by with about twenty seconds to spare. It was a crazy race with people going off all over the place. Senna was a wild man, more off the track than on and racing without a front wing at one point. The two Ligiers ran into each other at the end and one finished the race with three wheels on the car. We finished it off with an F15 fighter blasting down pit straight as Rosberg went over the line, totally unannounced, scared everyone to death.

So ended an incredible saga, well almost. Bernie said in the post race press conference we had done a terrible thing. We were stunned, but then he added that it was because no one in Europe is going to be able to match it. The crowd filled pit straight and bought anything the teams wanted to sell, it was the last race after all, and the Customs guys went crazy as it all was supposed to leave, including the worn out tires. My guys started to strip the valuable stuff like the TV’s straight away, and attacked the barrier and stands down by the market. Mal had brought me down to the start line for the start of the race so we could be seen together, and now we would do a victory lap of our own. There was a “thank you” party at the Memorial Drive tennis courts for all the volunteers and we were cheered on stage with the Premier. Then off to an unknown destination, unknown to me that is, still in our stinking uniforms, and it turned out to be the McLaren Team party at the Hilton where we were again given a rousing reception by the teams. I could get used to this.

The next morning when I was trying to get my troops to focus on how we were going to take all this apart all they wanted to talk about was how they could make it better next year; they were as crazy as I was.

To top it off we won the trophy for the “Best Organized Formula One Race” in 1985. Mal and I were celebrities. It was to be the best it was going to get.