This weekend, Friday 23 to Sunday 25 October, MotoGP races at Phillip Island for what the event's own promoter calls "one last time". The Australian Grand Prix Corporation's ticket announcement (opens in a new tab) headlines it "The final chapter", says the weekend "will mark the 30th MotoGP race at Phillip Island", and that is the whole story in one line: a 4.4 km ribbon of bitumen above Bass Strait is about to host its last premier-class grand prix, and from November 2027 the Australian round moves to a street circuit in the middle of Adelaide.
If you ride, you already know. If you are a car person who has never bothered with bikes, this is the weekend to bother. The sprint goes off at 3 pm on Saturday and the grand prix at 2 pm on Sunday (opens in a new tab), AEDT, and the top two riders in the championship arrive separated by two points (opens in a new tab) according to MCNews. A title fight, a farewell and the fastest-flowing circuit on the calendar in one weekend is about as good as spectating gets.
Why should a buyer or seller care? Because a weekend like this moves metal (bikes, trailers, tow cars and the odd impulse purchase), and because the reasons the race is leaving say something about how Australian motorsport gets paid for.
At a glance
- When
- Fri 23 to Sun 25 October 2026; sprint Sat 3 pm, GP Sun 2 pm AEDT
- Where
- Phillip Island Grand Prix Circuit, 381 Back Beach Road, Ventnor VIC 3922
- Why it is the last
- Victoria refused a move to Albert Park; SA signed Adelaide from 2027 to 2032
- Tickets
- On sale since 26 May, prices frozen at 2025 levels, from $50
- Circuit
- 4.448 km, lap record 1:27.765 (Marc Marquez, 2024)
The weekend, hour by hour
The official Australian site confirmed the 23 to 25 October dates (opens in a new tab) back in July 2025, when the FIM published the calendar. The local session times are easiest to read on Crash.net's start-time guide (opens in a new tab): MotoGP first practice at 10:45 am Friday, the hour-long practice at 3 pm Friday, second practice at 10:10 am Saturday, qualifying from 10:50 am Saturday, the 13-lap sprint at 3 pm Saturday, warm-up at 8:40 am Sunday and the 27-lap grand prix at 2 pm Sunday. The support classes race on Sunday morning: Moto3 at 11 am over 21 laps and Moto2 at 12:15 pm over 23 laps (opens in a new tab), per MCNews. The smaller classes are also on track from the start of Friday; Speedweek's European timetable (opens in a new tab) has Moto3 first practice at midnight Central European time, which is 9 am on the island.
Two things worth knowing before you plan a Sunday. First, Phillip Island has form for rearranging itself: in 2023 the grand prix was brought forward to the Saturday because of an inclement weather forecast and the Sunday sprint was cancelled (opens in a new tab). Second, this year's weekend also carries a points-scoring round of the Penrite ASBK Championship (opens in a new tab), so the gaps between the world championship sessions are not dead air. Keep an eye on the official app on race morning rather than trusting a timetable printed a week ago.
Tickets, getting there and where to sleep
Tickets went on sale on 26 May 2026 at 12 pm AEST (opens in a new tab), and the corporation says every price is frozen at 2025 levels: general-admission Island Passes, grandstands, hospitality, parking and the Catch-a-Coach service, with entry starting at $50. Its CEO Travis Auld is quoted saying "Freezing ticket prices means more fans can get to enjoy this historic moment for MotoGP." The ticket page (opens in a new tab) lists Island Pass, grandstand and hospitality options, names Ticketmaster as the authorised seller, lets one adult Island Pass redeem up to four junior passes for kids 14 and under, and mentions a Jimmy Barnes set on Saturday and Jet after the race on Sunday. We could not find a sold-out notice on that page at the time of writing, but a farewell weekend will not stay that way, so check before you drive.
The circuit sits at 381 Back Beach Road, Ventnor VIC 3922 (opens in a new tab), on an island that is about 125 km south-south-east of Melbourne (opens in a new tab) and reached by a 640 m bridge from San Remo to Newhaven. That bridge is the choke point. Everyone leaving on Sunday afternoon crosses it, which is why the corporation pushes its coach service as a way of avoiding "petrol costs, parking, and designated drivers". If you are towing a bike or a camper, leave early or leave late. The ticket page links Bass Coast Shire Council's Cowes camping site and the circuit's own campgrounds, but gives no prices or availability, so treat accommodation as something you confirm, not assume.
What makes the island special
Phillip Island is not a stop-start modern autodrome. It is a 4.448 km circuit that reopened in its current form on 4 December 1988 (opens in a new tab), built on land the same page describes as "on the edge of the coast", which is where its steep grades come from. The first world championship grand prix there was in 1989, the year the Australian round joined the FIM calendar, and Wayne Gardner won it (opens in a new tab), according to AMCN. The 900 m Gardner Straight carries his name; the first corner was named after Mick Doohan after his 1998 win (opens in a new tab); the third corner became Stoner Corner before the 2012 race; and a corner honours Len Lukey, who bought the circuit in 1964. Every name on the map is an Australian world champion or the person who kept the place alive.
The lap is quick. The MotoGP race lap record is 1:27.765, set by Marc Marquez on a Ducati in October 2024 (opens in a new tab), which works out to an average well above 180 km/h around a lap that includes a fast, cambered left-hander over a blind crest with the ocean beyond it. Car people will recognise the feeling from Mount Panorama: a track that was laid over the landscape rather than onto it, where the surface tells you something every corner. The sports-car lap record on the same page, 1:24.06 by Tim Slade in a Brabham BT62, is a reminder that this is a serious car circuit too, and Supercars returns there in 2027 (opens in a new tab).
The flip side of the coast is the weather. Phillip Island has an oceanic climate with south-westerlies off Bass Strait (opens in a new tab), an October mean maximum of about 17.8 degrees, a mean minimum of 9.1 and roughly 67 mm of rain across about 14 October days. For the 2024 race the Bureau of Meteorology's forecast, as reported by Speedcafe (opens in a new tab), ran from a 95 per cent chance of rain on the Friday to 17 to 20 degree days with 20 to 30 km/h south-westerlies for the races. We could not find a published Bureau forecast for this weekend at the time of writing, so pack for four seasons rather than reading one. The wind is the thing: it is the reason a grand prix was run on a Saturday in 2023, and the reason the grandstand on the straight is worth the money.
Why this is the last one
The decision happened in 48 hours in February, and the paperwork is public. On Tuesday 17 February 2026 the Victorian government issued a media release (opens in a new tab) headed "Labor backs Phillip Island for MotoGP". It says the government "ruled out a request from Dorna Sports to move the event from Phillip Island to Albert Park", that Victoria "has agreed to contribute additional funding to help Dorna Sports create a bigger, better event beyond 2026 but only on the condition that the event remains at Phillip Island", and that the island "has held the event 29 times". Sports Minister Steve Dimopoulos is quoted: "Phillip Island is the home of the Australian Motorcycle Grand Prix, and we are proud to support it."
Two days later, on Thursday 19 February, MotoGP's owner announced the Adelaide deal (opens in a new tab): a six-year agreement between MotoGP Sports Entertainment Group, the South Australian Government and the City of Adelaide that runs through 2032 inclusive, on a roughly 4.195 km, 18-corner layout that follows the old Formula 1 street circuit used from 1985 to 1995, with the first race over three days in November 2027. The same page says it "will be the first MotoGP Grand Prix to be held in a city-centre location" and quotes Premier Peter Malinauskas: "We are now competing with the rest of the nation for the world's best events - and winning." The 2027 calendar (opens in a new tab), as reported by Crash.net, lists Adelaide as round 21 of 22 on 14 November, marked subject to homologation.
Between those two announcements the ABC reported (opens in a new tab) that Victoria confirmed on 18 February that negotiations had broken down and that 2026 would be the last race at Phillip Island, with Dimopoulos saying the promoter's position was that it would leave unless the race moved to Albert Park. The same report has the Premier saying 45 parklands trees would be removed for the Adelaide layout, and Jack Miller saying he trusted the federation's safety calculations. So the sequence, from the primary pages, is this: the promoter asked for Melbourne's F1 venue, Victoria said no and offered more money to stay on the island, and South Australia had a signed deal within two days. Who first approached whom, and on what money, is not on any page we read, and we are not going to guess.
Why would MotoGP take possibly their best circuit off the calendar... I'll let everyone decide.
The riders' reactions, collected by AMCN (opens in a new tab), split the way you would expect. Stoner, who won here six years running, called the move a swap of a world-class circuit for an unproven concept. Gardner said he was not surprised and blamed years of mismanagement by the state and the corporation. Valentino Rossi: "It's a shame because Phillip Island is a piece of history of MotoGP." Miller called it "sad, extremely sad" but backed Adelaide on the grounds that a city round is cheaper for families to get to, which is an argument worth taking seriously rather than booing.
Is "last ever" the right phrase? The Victorian release calls the island the home of the race, and the ABC quotes former premier Jeff Kennett saying he was confident it would return one day. The honest version is the promoter's own: this is the final chapter under the current contract, and the Adelaide deal runs to 2032. Nothing we read rules out a return after that, and nothing promises one.
Another perspective: the United States and the Netherlands
Australia is not the first country to watch a beloved circuit drop off the calendar, and the two best comparisons point in opposite directions.
Laguna Seca in California is the cautionary one. The United States motorcycle Grand Prix (opens in a new tab) ran there in 1988 to 1991, 1993 to 1994 and 2005 to 2013. The Wikipedia account of its end says that by 2014 the country "could only support two events", that the not-for-profit organisers "could no longer compete with either circuits" (Indianapolis and the Circuit of the Americas in Texas) and "couldn't keep up with Dorna's ever increasing financial demands", and that the circuit was dropped despite holding a contract for that year. The track itself (opens in a new tab) had been lengthened in 1988 specifically to meet the FIM's minimum for a grand prix, and had its famous hump flattened in 2006 for the MotoGP riders. None of that saved it. The US round lives on at a purpose-built facility in Austin, and Laguna Seca has made do with MotoAmerica and, from 2013 to 2019, World Superbikes. If you want the Phillip Island parallel, it is this: a historic natural-terrain circuit run by a small operator, up against a newer venue with a bigger cheque, loses even when the riders love it.
Assen in the Netherlands is the counter-example. The Dutch TT (opens in a new tab) has been on the world championship calendar since the series began in 1949, missing only 2020 for the pandemic, which makes it the oldest event on the calendar and earns it the nickname "the Cathedral of Speed". It survived by changing: a 28 km road triangle in 1925, a 16.5 km rectangle of public roads from 1926, a 7.7 km layout in 1955 and a permanent enclosed circuit from 1992, and the same page says the race is due to stay there until at least 2031. Assen kept its grand prix by continually rebuilding the venue and, we would add, by being in a small, dense country where the race is a national institution rather than a state-by-state bidding war.
| Feature | Phillip Island | Laguna Seca | Assen |
|---|---|---|---|
| First GP | 1989 | 1988 | 1949 |
| Status | Final GP this weekend; Adelaide from 2027 to 2032 | Dropped after 2013; US GP now at Austin | Permanent fixture, contracted to at least 2031 |
| Stated reason | Promoter asked for Albert Park; Victoria refused | Could not meet rising promoter fees against two rival venues | Kept rebuilding the circuit since 1925 |
What Australia can take from the pair is uncomfortable. Both show that a circuit's quality is not what keeps a grand prix; the money and the willingness of the venue to change are. Assen spent a century rebuilding. Phillip Island's owner and the state offered more funding and, per the Victorian release, a bigger event, but the promoter wanted a city. We could not find a public figure for either the Victorian offer or the South Australian fee, and we think taxpayers in both states are entitled to one.
What it means if you're buying or selling
This is a motorcycle race, so we will keep the car angle honest rather than invented.
Towing a bike or a camper to the island. The San Remo bridge is a single crossing and the ticket page itself points people at the coach service to dodge parking. If you are towing, know your numbers before you load: our guide to GVM, GCM and ATM (opens in a new tab) explains what a tow car can legally carry with a trailer and four mates' gear in the tray, and a race-weekend roadside check is not the place to learn you are over. Buying a tow vehicle for exactly this sort of trip is the one purchase we think the weekend justifies.
Event weekends and private sales. Tens of thousands of visitors on the Bass Coast means a seller in Gippsland has a rare pool of out-of-town buyers, and a buyer has sellers who want a deal done before Monday. Our view is that the pressure cuts both ways: do the inspection and the PPSR check as if it were any other weekend, because a bargain negotiated in a campground is still a bargain you have to drive home.
The collectable-bike angle. We would be careful. A "last Phillip Island MotoGP" sticker on a replica or a limited edition is a marketing event, not a valuation, and we could not find any source that puts a number on what the farewell does to resale. Buy a bike or a tribute car because you want to ride or drive it. If it holds value, good. If you are insuring something special for the trip, our piece on insuring a classic (opens in a new tab) covers agreed value and laid-up cover, which are the two questions that matter.
Our take
This is our view. Phillip Island is the best thing on the MotoGP calendar for a spectator who likes machinery, and a lot of us at MotorLoop are car people first. The reason is the same reason we prefer a naturally aspirated flat-six to a spec-sheet: it is felt, not just fast. You can stand at the top of the hill and watch a bike change direction over a crest at a speed that a street circuit, by definition, will never allow. Adelaide's old Formula 1 layout was a great race track in 1985, and we hope the bike version is too, but a circuit that has to remove 45 trees and rework its barriers to be safe for motorcycles is a different sport from a circuit laid over a cliff.
We also think the fair version of the story is that Victoria did the right thing and still lost. The state refused to shift a regional event to a city venue to suit the promoter, offered more money, and was outbid by a government that wanted a city event. That is the Laguna Seca pattern, and there is no shame in it. Jack Miller's point that a city race is cheaper for a family to attend is also true, and anyone who has paid for a weekend on the island knows it.
So go this weekend if you can, and if you cannot, watch the Sunday race knowing it is the end of a contract rather than necessarily the end of the circuit. Kennett is confident it will come back; we are less sure, because grands prix run on fees rather than sentiment. Either way, the wind will still be blowing across the Gardner Straight on Monday, and Supercars will be back in 2027. The track is not going anywhere. The money is.
Header photo: Tom Reynolds (opens in a new tab) via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 2.0 (opens in a new tab).
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