Pro-grand Prix Event At Albert Park Fizzles Out
The Age
Sunday July 31, 1994
A pro-Grand Prix ``motor sports spectacular" was brought to a damp and quiet end yesterday as rain and lack of interest took its toll on supporters.
The motoring event - promoted as a chance ``to demonstrate the huge interest in motor racing ... and show support for the Albert Park Grand Prix" - raised $245.50 for the Grand Prix cause.
Mr Andrew McNay, a motor-sport enthusiast who promoted the event with a motorcycle insurance firm, said he closed the display of cars, motorbikes and trucks at Albert Park because ``it started really belting down and we lost a bit of interest, with the cold and wind".
He said he had lost nearly $2000.
Prominent pro-grand prix activists distanced themselves from the event, claiming it had been organised as a money-making venture.
The chairman of the ``Yes, Albert Park Grand Prix Supporters Group", Mr John Moss, dismissed Mr McNay's event as ``an example of a promoter using the Grand Prix as a tag to try to make money".
But Mr McNay described Mr Moss's criticisms as ``a fallacy". ``The best I planned to do is cover my costs. I did it for a cause, and I'm glad I did it," he said.
Mr Moss's group had planned a rally last month, but it was cancelled after Mr Moss said he feared too many people would turn up - ``at least 40,000" - and that the rally would become unmanageable.
Yesterday Mr Moss said the group had no plans for a rally ``at the present", although ``there is always a certain amount of pressure from the public to hold a rally."
Mr Moss said Mr McNay had approached his group for support, but the group had not been interested. ``We had such strong support through petitions, letters and faxes we saw no point in a rally," he said.
Mr McNay said he could not estimate crowd numbers at his event. ``It's very, very hard to say, because there were people coming in and going out all day," he said. ``It's not as big as we hoped for."
But he said he was not too disappointed ``considering the limited amount of media exposure we received to promote the event". He said ``close enough to 200" vehicles had been on display.
The Opposition's sport spokesman, Mr Bruce Mildenhall, said the event yesterday ``is another indication that the people of Melbourne are continuing to turn their backs on this poorly planned, divisive Grand Prix proposal".
He said event promoters ``would have been happy with one-tenth of the number of people who attended the last anti-Albert Park Grand Prix rally, but instead got a paltry turnout which again demonstrated the public's lack of faith in the whole idea".
© 1994 The Age
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