Source: Sydney Morning Herald, 18 December 2020
Former world motorcycle champion Mick Doohan believes that Australian motor-sports heroes are often under-appreciated – and it’s hard to disagree.
While footballers, tennis players, golfers and swimmers are feted, many of motor-sport’s high achievers rarely rate the same level of public acclaim, at least on a regular basis.
Sure, F1 star Daniel Ricciardo is a high-profile figure, but his main public exposure comes for four days a year, when the Australian Grand Prix is run in Melbourne.
How many casual sports fans know of Jack Miller or Oscar Piastri, for example?“Often people outside of motor sport, including many levels of government, have a misunderstanding about how and where motor sports fit into the sporting landscape,” says Doohan.
“Outside of the Olympic sports, motor sport has generated more international success for Australia than most other global sports. It has inspired generations of followers to dream and to conquer the best that Australia and the world has to offer.”
Now the five-time MotoGP world champion is looking to help spread the wider awareness of the sport at all levels by fronting the Australian Motorsports Commission, a new group formed by Australia’s peak motor-sport bodies to argue their case at political and commercial level.