The Gold Coast Bulletin reports that in the aftermath of this weekend's failure of the scheduled A1 Grand Prix race at Surfers Paradise, owing to that series' ongoing financial problems, the organizers of the event are looking to a new option to put open-wheel cars back on the Australian city's streets. With prospects for bringing back the IndyCar Series evidently remaining stymied by scheduling and cost issues, the Gold Coast SuperPrix organizers are pondering an invitational event for Formula 3 cars along the lines of the FIA's Macau GP and South Korea F3 races, which serve as end-of-season all-star events pulling from the various national F3 series.
Conrad Jupiters managing director Stuart Wing indicated that this past weekend's Surfers weekend, which included Australian V8 Supercars as the sole headliner, demonstrated that the Surfers weekend requires an international component to be successful.
"It adds a little pizzazz and international flavor into the weekend," said Wing. "The uncertainty surrounding this year's event did not help numbers. There was a significant drop in business across the board, but there are reasons for that."