Headlines

The Queensland Government has spent $100 million on Indy since coming to office.

Premier Peter Beattie says it is money well spent and the Government will continue to fund the Surfers Paradise race as long as it attracts huge crowds.

Mr Beattie gave his seal of approval to the event again yesterday, saying he was happy that the Government had persevered with the race when it hit troubled times during the late 1990s and was $80 million in the red.

Mr Beattie's upbeat assessment on the future of the race came as Australian driver Will Power posted the fastest time in yesterday's first day of Champ Car qualifying.

Power's Team Australia colleague Alex Tagliani also showed genuine speed, sparking fresh hope that tomorrow's race could create history by delivering the first Aussie win in the US-dominated series.

No Australian team or driver has ever won a Champ Car race, but Team Australia owner Craig Gore believes the Aussies are ready to join the winner's circle. "So far so good," he said.

Power now becomes the first Australian driver to start in the front row for a race on the Gold Coast.

Ten thousand green-and-gold flags will be handed out tomorrow to race fans, guaranteeing a sea of patriotism for the Aussies.

The Bureau of Meteorology is predicting rain, possibly a storm, today with a strong chance of showers tomorrow.

Yesterday's Indy crowd figure was 65,061, up on last year's Friday attendance of 64,111.

Mr Beattie said Indy 'just gets better every year'.

"I am delighted because when we first came to office this was a political scratch match," he said.

"It's not any more. The politics are out of it because it's a success.

"The locals have to put up with it, the traffic problems. I thank them for putting up with it.

"I have mates here and some of them go on holidays. People make a sacrifice."

Indy chairman Terry Mackenroth said Gold Coasters were embracing the event like never before.

"I spoke to a bloke yesterday from Coolangatta and he'd never been here because he thought the traffic would be a bunfight, but he said it was just a fantastic day and he wished he'd come here 10 years ago," said Mr Mackenroth.

"I think with Will Power finishing so highly up in qualifying there might be a few more Aussies come along to support him."

Team series owner Kevin Kalkhoven, the Aussie-born billionaire, said yesterday the Surfers Paradise event was 'the race that everyone wants to come to'.

"You've got the jewel in the crown, my friend," he told Mr Beattie as they walked pit lane after Champ Car qualifying.

Veteran team owner Carl Haas has not missed a Surfers Paradise Indy since the first in 1991.

"It really has gone ahead in leaps and bounds," said the cigar-chomping Mr Haas, who jointly owns the highly successful Newman-Haas team with actor legend Paul Newman.

 

Gold Coast Publications Pty Ltd Copyright © June 2006