When news broke that Australia was back on the calendar of the MXGP championship, I can tell you, this little Aussie was excited and overcome with emotion. Way back, more than 20 years ago, the Australian public got to watch the likes of Chad Reed, Micheal Byrne and Andrew McFarlane battle the best motocross rider in the World.

Those two GPs at the Broadford circuit in Victoria opened the doors for those three Aussie talents to burst onto the World scene and the rest was history.

What followed was a long list of young Australian motocross riders getting opportunities Worldwide, from Brett Metcalfe, Dean Ferris, Todd Waters and of course, the sensational Lawrence brothers. What the 2025 Australian MXGP will do is open the door for the next generation of Australian talent and for that alone, I am excited for my country.

Last weekend, chief executive officer at Infront Moto Racing David Luongo made his second trip to Australia and make a deal with the Northern Territory Government’s Northern Territory Major Events Company to run a Grand Prix in Australia in 2025 and for the next five years. To say this is huge for the sport of motocross, would, even that would be an understatement.

We caught up with David Luongo and asked about the deal, the future and the excitement of getting this deal done, with one of the most important motocross countries in the World.

MXLarge: Firstly, fantastic news about the Australian Grand Prix, I know you and I have spoken about if for a long time and both were excited for it to happen. When I was in your office in Spain and you mentioned it to me, how close we were getting, that was good news as an Australian, able to go back home for a Grand Prix. How was your experience working this deal out?

Luongo: You know Geoff, from the time we know each other, we talk about this coming back to Australia and for all the private talks and interviews for the last 20 years, we are always saying the races we are missing on the calendar are Australia and Japan for sure. For sure, for us, this is a big milestone and also to find a great partner there, because it is a race that is a long distance and you really need a good partner and that partnership is also very, very exciting.

MXlarge: Obviously, Australia is on the bucket list of many tourists and motocross fans. I know a long time ago; Darwin maybe wasn’t the tourist destination that it is now, and I assume the government there are wanting to let people know how much the city has grown for tourism. How was your experience visiting Darwin and the facility?

Luongo: I was there twice, I went around the time of Argentina at the start of the season, to finalize the collaboration and we looked at the facility. Everything is guided by the government, and they want to bring a lot of big events to Darwin, to push for tourism from Australia and from abroad. The landscape there is really beautiful, because it is humid and warm, so the landscape there is so beautiful, the beaches the forests, really a nice area. The location, it is a permanent track, a road racing facility, where they have run the V8 series in Australia. They will build a really beautiful track, which is in an area, if you look at the map of the facility, there is an area that has elevation and a forest, so the track will be a real motocross track and respecting the DNA of Australian motocross tracks. It is something that will be a good program.

MXLarge: I had heard of that area, that there is good elevation and that is good news for many people.

Luongo: I would say it is a bit like Portugal, with some elevation and the start will be close to the road racing track and all the permanent facilities, what they use for the cars, that will also be used for the Grand Prix, the pits, the media centre, everything is already there for us. It is like 15 or 20 minutes from the city centre. So, a really nice place to have a real Australian style motocross track and also a facility something like Assen.

MXLarge: I understood that the MXGP of China will be the week before the Australian Grand Prix. Is that true?

Luongo: Yes, the idea is to mix it with another overseas Grand Prix, or mix it with Turkey, where they also prepare the crates from Turkey and to link with a second overseas race. As you know, Darwin is five hours from Singapore, so I used that connection, and it was a very easy travel route. It is easy to reach Darwin, and Quantas will be running more flights in the future. For the races, there will be extra flights added for the event. The Government are really pushing the tourist department, to make the best way possible for the race. I visited many hotels in Darwin, from the Hilton to the Marriot and also many B&B’s, because it is a tourist city. In the winter in Australia many people go to Darwin, because it remains good weather for that period. There is a lot of tourist facility, and it is on the sea.

MXLarge: I know we have spoken several times about his event, the most recent time was in Spain this year, and we both talked about the possibility of the Lawrence brothers racing their home Grand Prix. Has there been any talks with Feld or MXSports about what weekends they will run their SMX play-offs and trying to fit the Grand Prix around that?

Luongo: It isn’t a discussion we have talked about yet, but I am sure they are both happy that finally a Grand Prix will be run in their country. They are on top of being fantastic riders, they are also good people and I think their mind they will want to race it, so we will see their calendar, but they have a lot of commitments in America, so we will see.

MXLarge: If they were there, I don’t think you get any problem getting a lot of people at the event. I already see a lot of people on social media are looking at making the trip, some making a big road trip to the event from Perth or somewhere else, but a lot of the questions are, what date will it be, because at the moment we just know it will be in September?

Luongo: We don’t have the exact weekend, because it needs to fit into the other dates of the other rounds, but I am confident that it will be around the second week or September, so somewhere there.

MXLarge: Obviously the government want to boost tourism, as you said, and I know Darwin was pretty rough back in the 1970s and 80s, but I know it has grown a lot. Did you speak a lot about that and what the city offers tourists and people coming for the race?

Luongo: Yes, we did talk about that and they are building a lot of new hotels along the sea-front, the government team have organized big football matches, with some of the leading football teams, so there is a big wheel of the committee to make Darwin one of the centres of major sports. It is also good to go there, because we will be the most important even of the year for the Darwin, while other cities in Australia have many major events, but for Darwin, our event is the biggest event they will have there. We have the full support of the government, all the sporting organizations there, so everyone is behind us to make this a truly great event. They are very proud to be a part of this.

MXlarge: A question, did you try and swim in the Ocean there and what did you think of Australian beer?

Luongo: (Laughing). No, I was told not to go swimming in the Ocean, but I did visit some crocodiles in the area. You have nice animals there.

MXLarge: You have obviously also dealt with MA (Motorcycling Australia), did they give an indication of their support of the event with a lot of Australia riders possibly being involved?

Luongo: Yes, there will be wild-card riders from Australia and this whole process has also been with MA. For 15 years we have tried to get this done with their support. The Australian market is one of the biggest in the World and we talk about maybe a junior race for the future talent of Australia. Many Australian talent have come through the EMX or MXGP series, some stayed, some moved to America, but I want, with this GP, that we create a big bridge with young Australian talent and the Grand Prix series.

MXLarge: Any final words on this huge news?

Luongo: You know for me Geoff, this is a new step into the fact Infront is a real global sport, next year we will also have the Monster Energy Motocross of Nations in America, and five or six overseas rounds. 21 races and we are getting to the vision we have for this sport. You saw the racing in Portugal this weekend. It was incredible and crazy, and I can tell you today, I don’t know if any other promoter could have made this race possible and the track workers did an amazing job. The MXGP and MX2 races were just crazy and incredible to watch. The season is long, and we will have a lot of surprises. Even if it had been perfect for Jorge (Prado), things can change.