On the world stage
In the early 1980s Kym Bonython formed a government department known as ‘Jubilee 150’. The group’s portfolio was to hatch ideas for South Australia’s 150th anniversary celebrations in 1986 and Kym, being a petrol head, couldn’t help but dream of holding a significant motorsport event to mark the occasion which would also place Adelaide (and South Australia) on the world stage. Helping out with ideas was Adelaide-based travel agent and former sports car racer, Bill O’Gorman, who pinpointed the exact category to showcase.
Glen fondly remembers the first time Kym asked him what he thought of such a bold plan. “We were spectating at Speedway Park one night and… I was already thinking of giving the flag waving game away at that stage, but Kym said to me ‘Don’t retire yet, Glen, I’ve got plans for something big!’
“Then Kym says ‘What do you think about us staging a Formula 1 Grand Prix and running it in the city?’, and I said ‘well, that’d be great but how are you going to do it?’ So that was the first I knew about it, but it had an immediate effect on me and I could feel my fists clenching, wanting to grab hold of this opportunity and to be a part of it!”
Adelaide did win the rights to host an F1 grand prix – and even earlier than the original plan for it to be part of the state’s 1986 Jubilee celebrations. When F1 supremo Bernie Ecclestone had a hole in the 1985 schedule that needed filling, the South Australian government accepted the challenge and set about the daunting task of a dramatically shortened build time for the street circuit.
Glen Dix’s journey to the inaugural grand prix was both unique and highly inspired. Never one to do things half baked, Glen focused all his efforts into ensuring his role would be done to perfection. The Grand Prix Board of SA, along with CAMS, had already approved of Glen being the ‘Official Finisher’, so Glen’s ideas were coming thick and fast.
“When I knew that I had the job as flagman, I said to CAMS ‘can I dress myself in green and gold, the Australian colours?’ It was my idea,
and they said ‘yes of course’, so, I went into (department store) Fletcher Jones in the city and told them what I wanted, and they said ‘We’ve got just the material… this is the leftover material from the jackets that we made for the Montreal Olympics!”
Glen was more than satisfied with such a significantly patriotic connection. “Then I said ‘I’d like the green trousers to go with the gold jacket’. So, I went in to pick them up, tried them on, all good. Then, another official just happened to be there for some reason and when he saw the jacket he said, ‘When am I
