Five epic Phillip Island Grand Prix moments

From heroic rides through injury to title-deciding Sundays and heart-stopping last-lap lunges, Phillip Island has a habit of turning Grand Prix weekends into folklore.

And with the seismic news that the iconic circuit will be scratched from the MotoGP calendar in 2027, we figured it was the perfect time to look back at some of its finest moments.

Picking just five is impossible, so this list sticks to an Australian theme, whether that’s a home race hero refusing to give in, a championship sealed in front of a home crowd, a breakthrough podium or a plucky teenager dragging a title fight back to life.

Wayne Gardner arrived at Phillip Island in 1990 with the weight of an underwhelming season, a dominant Wayne Rainey already crowned world champion, and a fierce determination to defend his status as the only winner of what was very much his Australian Grand Prix. With Mick Doohan on pole, Kevin Schwantz alongside him and Gardner starting third, the scene was set for a home-crowd classic.

Early on, Gardner saved a highside, but it snapped a bracket and left his Rothmans fairing flapping in the wind. Worse, it fractured a scaphoid in his wrist too. Undeterred, he kept charging.

With six laps to go he passed Schwantz for second, then hunted Doohan down. Gardner finally made the move under brakes into fast Turn 1, then fought off Schwantz’s counterattack before the Texan was launched into a dramatic highside through Turn 1 with less than two laps to go.

Gardner dragged the battered Honda home eight tenths clear of Doohan for an Australian 1-2, as Donna Gardner sprinted down the straight in high heels to meet him.

That same weekend, wildcard 250cc rider Daryl Beattie missed the podium by less than three seconds in fourth, a huge step up on his 12th the year prior, as Phillip Island farewelled the Grand Prix before the event moved to Eastern Creek in 1991.

By 1998, Mick Doohan had unfinished business with Phillip Island. With the memory of crashing out of the lead the year before hanging over him, he came in determined to right the wrongs, and to do it in front of a crowd who wanted it as much as he did. And instead of a last-lap shootout, Doohan balanced risk, pressure and expectation as he clinched his fifth consecutive 500cc world championship on home soil.

He treated practice as a mission, working out how to go fast on cold tyres and with a full fuel load so he could break early, aware Phillip Island offered plenty of slipstreaming chances to those behind. He executed that plan, but the weekend still threatened to unravel on the sighting lap when he realised he’d dropped a cylinder.

Then Phillip Island did its thing. Heavy drops of rain fell just long enough to throw the grid into a spin and buy time for his mechanics to change spark plugs and fix the issue, before promptly stopping.

Doohan won the race and sealed the title in front of an adoring home crowd, a victory that even dampened retirement ideas. He announced he would return to defend the crown in 1999 and that same year he was named Australian Sports Personality of the Year.

The 2006 Australian Grand Prix became memorable for a rule change as much as a race result. It was the first time riders took advantage of the new flag-to-flag regulation that allowed them to pit and change bikes if it rained. Phillip Island’s reputation for messy weather made it the perfect proving place.

It was also the penultimate round of the championship, with Nicky Hayden leading on 214 points ahead of Dani Pedrosa (192) and Valentino Rossi (188), so there was plenty on the line.

According to Hayden, it was far from the polished pit-lane choreography fans now take for granted. “It was mayhem pit road – guys running, pit boards in the air, radios – I kind of liked it,” the late rider said.

The white flags came out on lap seven. James Ellison dived in first, and almost everyone followed a lap later, except Shinya Nakano and Colin Edwards, the latter crashing before he could make pit entry.

Sete Gibernau emerged on track as the leader ahead of Aussie Chris Vermeulen, who had the knack for being quick early on rain tyres. Marco Melandri, though, went through them like a man with somewhere else to be, passing Vermeulen then Gibernau and controlling the front as the drama continued behind.

Rossi even dived under a rival late for third, but the image that we’ll never forget is Melandri’s one-handed slide out of Turn 12, smoke pouring off the rear tyre and with two fingers raised in a victory sign. Vermeulen’s podium made him the first Australian on an Australian GP rostrum since Doohan in 1998.

The Australian round of the 2012 world championship was a farewell and a celebration rolled into one. It was the last time Casey Stoner would ride on home soil before retirement, and he blitzed the field to win by 9.223 seconds ahead of Jorge Lorenzo.

But for many, the day was especially memorable because Australia managed a podium in every category. In Moto3, Arthur Sissis claimed his first-ever Grand Prix podium after a tense last-lap battle for third place among six riders. In Moto2, Anthony West produced a performance that surprised even those who knew his reputation, taking second place behind Pol Espargaro and finishing just two hundredths of a second ahead of Marc Marquez.

West underlined what it meant to do it at home, saying, “For me, the biggest thing is to do it in front of my dad, my brother and my sister. They never give up on me even when I’m in last place, and a lot of people do.”

West would later be stripped of the result due to a doping breach, but on the day it completed the clean sweep. And parties on the Island on Sunday 28 October went long into the night.

If you want Phillip Island tension distilled into 23 laps, Moto3 delivered it in 2014, with teenage Jack Miller’s win-it-or-bin-it approach. Trailing title leader Alex Marquez by 25 points, Miller needed a win to keep his championship hopes alive, and he had to do it on a circuit that favoured the more powerful Hondas, while he lined up on a KTM.

The pressure came with fresh scars too. In Japan the previous round, Miller led most of the race, missed a gear on the third-last corner and finished fifth for 13 points as Marquez took the full 25.

So at home he threw everything at it. An 11-rider lead pack diced around the 4.45km circuit, then attrition arrived. Two crashed out on lap 10, then three more fell on the penultimate lap, turning it into a six-rider drag race for the final nine kilometres.

Miller grabbed the lead early, then had to defend it with heart-in-mouth braking and ruthless last-lap tactics. He held them off to take his fifth win of the season by 0.029 seconds from Marquez, with the top six covered by 0.242 seconds. Alexis Masbou was only two tenths behind Miller in sixth. Phillip Island had its home hero moment, and Miller kept the title fight alive the only way he could.