By Ian Ransom
MELBOURNE, Oct 22 (Reuters) - Emotions are running high ahead of MotoGP's final Australian Grand Prix at Phillip Island on Sunday, with riders to bid a reluctant farewell to one of the championship's most beloved circuits before the race moves to the streets of Adelaide.
Barring two years lost to the COVID-19 pandemic, the seaside track south of Melbourne has been a fixture on the world championship calendar for 30 years and produced some of Australian motorcycling's most memorable moments.
Australian twice world champion Casey Stoner celebrated six wins in succession from 2007 to 2012, while compatriot Mick Doohan sealed his fifth and final world title with victory in the 1998 race.
Both riders have sections of the track named after them, along with the country's first premier class world champion Wayne Gardner, who won back-to-back in 1989-90 in the grand prix's first two races in the global series.
The island's combination of high-speed corners and fickle weather has often produced drama, and millions of fans have attended race weekends over the decades.
Hundreds of local residents gathered at roadsides on Thursday to greet the racers as they crossed San Remo bridge to the island on a processional ride to the track.
"Phillip Island is an extraordinary circuit. Racing here for the last time will be emotional,” said Ducati’s Marc Marquez, who has won five races at the circuit including four MotoGP events.
“It is a track with a unique, breathtaking layout."
ADELAIDE STREET CIRCUIT
However, it is also a far-flung track with ageing facilities long overdue for an upgrade.
With the 2026 race marking the end of a long-term contract with the Victorian state government, MotoGP organisers Dorna pushed to move the grand prix to Albert Park, which hosts a Formula One race in central Melbourne in the autumn.
With the two sides failing to reach agreement on renewing the contract, the South Australian government stepped in to cut a deal with Dorna and will host the race in Adelaide on MotoGP's first street circuit in 2027.
Stoner said local organisers had not tried hard enough to keep the race at Phillip Island or build a festival atmosphere around it as seen every year at the buzzing F1 grand prix.
"I think it’s a lot to do with the Victorian government that’s dropped the ball with it and maybe they wanted to, I’m not sure," he told Melbourne's Herald Sun newspaper.
The Victorian government said in a statement it had declined Dorna's request to move the race to Albert Park.
Aprilia rider Jorge Martin leads the championship by two points from Ducati's Marquez.
Last year's winner Raul Fernandez said he would "cry a little" on the final weekend at Phillip Island.
"Not because I got my first MotoGP victory here but also because I always enjoy it a lot coming here to Phillip Island - it is super nice," the Trackhouse rider said in quotes published by motor racing website Crash.net.
“It's a track that everybody will miss a little bit.”
After a week of sunshine at the island, rain is forecast for qualifying on Saturday, and a storm may even disrupt Sunday's race.
Home racer Jack Miller, a decent performer in the wet, was not complaining ahead of his final Australian Grand Prix.
"Phillip Island's giving itself a proper send-off," he told reporters at the circuit on Thursday.
"I'm not angry about that."
(Reporting by Ian Ransom; Editing by Peter Rutherford)
