Former Adelaide 500 general manager Nathan Cayzer is confident South Australia’s crown jewel street race will bounce back stronger than before.

With Labor’s win over Liberal in the state election on Saturday, the Adelaide 500 is set to return on December 1-4 should newly-appointed South Australian Premier Peter Malinauskas deliver on his election promise.

Supercars has stated its intention to close out the 2022 season at the parklands circuit, which would mark the first time that the championship has finished its season in Adelaide – notwithstanding the non-championship events during the Formula 1 Australian Grand Prix era.

Cayzer began working at the Adelaide 500 as the event’s commercial manager in 2012 before taking over as general manager in 2016, a position he held up until 2018.

In that time, he saw the event run by the South Australian Motor Sport Board and later under the South Australian Tourism Commission/SA Events.

That dedicated board was dissolved by Labor’s then-Premier Jay Weatherill in 2015, a decision that Cayzer said made sense at the time but ultimately hindered the event’s success.

With Malinauskas set to reestablish the board, Cayzer believes the event can bounce back.

“The biggest thing is – and I totally understand, and it was a call that the government needed to make then – that removing the board and putting it into the South Australian Tourism Commission, which then put it in with other events, was going to help it,” Cayzer told Speedcafe.com.

“But from my own personal opinion, that wasn’t the case. It then became one of five or six events that didn’t allow everyone to give it the attention it needed because there were other events that needed to be done as well.

“When it was under the Motor Sport Board, there was a team of 12 people. We were focused 100 percent on the event. It really got the direction it needed to have and it had a group of board members that were very commercially focused.

“Governments aren’t built to run events that are based on a commercial outcome in my opinion and experience. Whereas, that’s very much what the Adelaide 500 was.

“For it to be at its best, it needs a dedicated team of passionate people that are into motorsport and understand the landscape of the commercial property and also as a group of board members that have a commercial background that can support the ideas for the event to continually improve.

“That’s no disrespect to anyone that was on the SATC board, because they were great people and did a fantastic job, but it wasn’t their primary care. Whereas, when it was under the Motor Sport Board, that’s what its primary care was, to run Australia’s largest domestic ticketed event.”

Cayzer said he’s optimistic that the event will succeed with the right people on the new-look board.

However, the event’s success doesn’t necessarily rely on it, especially considering the short timeline Labor has to reestablish the event.

Between the state election and the first day of on-track action at this year’s Adelaide 500, there are 257 days to get the event up and running again.

Part of that process will be sourcing infrastructure for the event, some of which was sold off in a fire sale by the previous Liberal government.

Nevertheless, Cayzer is confident it can all be done in time for this year.

“Yes, there’s a lot of people with very good IP on how that event can be built. Is there enough time? I believe personally there’s enough time,” said Cayzer.

“Does the board need to be in place straight away? Not necessarily, because I think for 2022, Supercars as a category and as an events business will play a very, very big role in what this year’s event looks like.

“I think that’s the best thing for the Labor Party and for the people coming in, that there is some very highly credentialed people at Supercars that can help build it and get it to the level that it needs to be for 2022, but then 2023 they can start to build and build and build.

“Infrastructure, there’s enough in Australia to make it happen. The pit building in South Australia, it was a very big piece. Is it still possible to use it? 100 percent. Is it still in Adelaide yes I believe so”

“I was very fortunate to build many great relationships with all contractors and have stayed in touch with them all so I firmly believe with the right people that the event can run and it can be a really good showpiece to finish off the season for Supercars.”

Although Supercars will be the event’s main act, off-track activations will no doubt be part of the event making a triumphant return.

The Adelaide 500 has typically had a big-name artist, or artists, feature – including the likes of the Red Hot Chili Peppers, Robbie Williams, and Cold Chisel.

“That’ll play a big part,” said Cayzer of the event’s music acts.

“There’s a gentleman by the name of Brian Gleeson, who many people will know, who’s been part of that event since it first started was part of the Formula 1 days in bringing concerts.

“I have no doubt whatsoever, he would have been working on something for some time for the past six or eight weeks.

“He’ll certainly have something there that will roll out that South Australia will be very excited about, I have no doubt about that.”

This year’s Adelaide 500 is earmarked to be the 2022 Repco Supercars Championship finale.