MELBOURNE: Malaysia Airlines staged a hugely successful Malaysian Grand Prix promotion in Perth over the weekend.
The capital of Western Australia staged its first Festival of Speed on Sunday, with a demonstration of a Red Bull Formula One car driven by Australian F1 driver Mark Webber.
The festival attracted a huge crowd, with many people who were driving to the venue on the northern outskirts of Perth, turning around and going home because since the wait to get into the circuit took two to three hours.
“The amount of interest in the Malaysia Airlines stand at the Festival of Speed, the first event of its kind to be held in Perth, was not only very noticeable but quite staggering,” former Australian Grand Prix official Geoffrey Harris told Bernama yesterday.
“A Perth newspaper, The West Australian, had run a 16-page supplement about the festival with a half-page advertisement on a competition to win a trip to the Malaysian Grand Prix.
“An enormous number of people were entering the site. It was also noticeable that neither the organiser of the Australian Grand Prix in Melbourne, nor the event’s airline sponsor Qantas, had any presence at the Perth festival, Harris said.
“Yet if you wanted to entice F1 fans from Perth to KL, they all were at the Barbagallo Raceway. I think Malaysia Airlines kicked a big goal on Sunday.
“Webber visited the Malaysian stand to draw the names of two winners who will attend the Sepang Grand Prix, as guests of the organisers.”
Webber was the winner of six grand prix and finished third in this year’s world championship. — Bernama