00:00:00
Speaker 1: Gooday everyone, Welcome to conversations. Now. In February twenty twenty six, we saw our premiers standing very proudly in front of the cameras announcing the acquisition of the Moto GP which would be held here in Adelaide. Now standing alongside him was our next guest, Doctor Sam Shahin, who, as we all know, is established the Bend Motorsport Park at Tailor and Bend. Doctor Shahin, welcome to the program. How are you.
00:00:26
Speaker 2: I'm very well, the sun is shining and we're living in this incredible part of the world.
00:00:32
Speaker 1: You're very proud of South Australia, aren't you.
00:00:35
Speaker 2: I'm immensely proud of South Australia and where we stand, not just nationally but internationally.
00:00:42
Speaker 1: There's so much to talk to you about, but let's initially address the Moto GP. We acquired the Moto GP which had been held at Phillip Island for all those years. How involved were you in that?
00:00:55
Speaker 2: Well, you have to dream big. It's said that destiny likes effort. Everything invented was once imagined. So you have to dream big. You have to dream big.
00:01:04
Speaker 1: Destiny like effort.
00:01:06
Speaker 2: It's a great saying. There's always been talk about the sad loss of F one, but over the years I've seen very few take steps to bring F one to South Australia. And if we have time, we can talk about F one and how close F one came to coming.
00:01:18
Speaker 1: Back to South Australia.
00:01:20
Speaker 2: So I built the Bend and that has been a long journey, a very bold, a very ambitious project, and I have not been shy of saying it is bold and ambitious, and we're often shy of declaring ambition, I think for fear of being shot down the tall poppy syndrome. And I've never shied away from the ambition of bringing first class events, world class events to South Australia, and there aren't many of those, and Motor GIP is certainly one of those. And I have chased Motor GP like many other international great events, to bring to South Australia, to the Bend in the first instance, but I saw an opportunity that was quite unique through twenty twenty and twenty twenty one through to twenty twenty five and the events that led to the event coming to South Australia from next year. And it was awkward in the first instance, because I there were quite a lot of things that changed and a lot of things around the world that just occurred that created the opportunity well things well, one of them was the Murder Gip had been owned by a group called Donna. Donna is as Spanish based company, family owned business has been run by them for over three decades. Donna was acquired by Liberty Media twenty twenty four. Liberty Media owns the rights for Formula one and All of a Sudden Now they own F one and Murder Gipp, the two largest international events for motorsport on two wheels and four wheels. And Liberty Media, as the name suggests, they're a media company. They're not a sporting company. They are interested in content. They are interested in the entertainment rather than the sporting product. We don't have to like it, but that's the fact. The other is that the contract for Motojippy with the Victorian government lapses as at twenty twenty six. And I've lived that over the last ten years because I tried in the early twenty tens to lure Motorjipy to the bend in the early years and I you know, when they renewed their contract for ten years. In twenty sixteen, I sat in my office, closed the door and I said, ten years will come around with a blink of an eye. I just need to keep working for the next decade to make sure I am in the best possible position to bring the event to South Australia.
00:03:42
Speaker 1: But you wanted it for the Bend, surely for this motorsport park that you developed.
00:03:47
Speaker 2: Undoubtedly the Bend is now better known, if I can put it that way, outside of South Australian, outside of Australia, much more than it is in Australia. You know, The Bend opened its doors for its first customers in eighteen By twenty nineteen, only eighteen months later, it won International Motorsport Facility of the International Motorsport Facility BIT facilities from all over the planet.
00:04:10
Speaker 1: I can interrupt you here because I was fortunate enough to share your hospitality on one of those corporate days, and it truly was one of the most amazing, enjoyable, exciting, frightening days that I've ever had. It can't express enough what an asset it is to sell Australia, how people should be able to enjoy it.
00:04:31
Speaker 2: It gives me goosebumps to hear that, Graham, because that is I had to spend a lot of time to work out what is the Bend, what purpose does it serve? And the Bend is simply we are in the business of experiences.
00:04:45
Speaker 1: You know.
00:04:45
Speaker 2: My job is to put a smile on people's faces. And if I do that, then I've accomplished what the Bend is all about. And it is an entertainment product at the end of the day, and people have choice and I have to compete for everybody's attention to make my case compelling enough for people to come and spend a little bit of time at Tail and Bend. So to come back to Motor GP. There was also an election coming up in South Australia, of course, in twenty twenty six, and South Australia has really established its credentials even further over the last few years as a place that not just holds events, but is seriously looking for big international events, and that certainly helps the international credibility I think is well and truly established now for South Australia. And we have a history of putting on great events here going back even to Formula one, but every time there's been an opportunity for South Australia to put on events. We know how to put events here, the fringe, the festival rather as week film Festival one Madelaide. These are international, great events, so kind of the sun on the Moon and every other planet lined up. We have an election coming up with a progressive premiere that was openly seeking to get new events. There was a contract expiry in Victoria in two thousand and twenty six, Libert and Media acquiring Dorner and libert In Media openly taking Formula one in a direction of an entertainment path drive to survive. They'd taken Formula one to Vegas, to Miami. They're really big cities where the focus was on the product, on the entertainment product. It just happens to involve motorsport. And I had maintained the line of communication with Donner with motor GP for all those years they had come and visited the Bend and spent. It took me months to say, just give me an hour of your time, just like your experience, give me an hour of your time when you are anywhere near our continent to come to South Australia. And eventually I did get hold of them. They gave me an hour and they ended up spending a day and a half with me at the Bend and they were duly impressed, as they should be as most people that come. And I'm not embarrassed to say that did they drive? Did they We gave them a drive. Yes, they did go around and have a good crack at the track and they absolutely loved it. And you know, the owners just very openly told me that you know, we we we would love to come here at the right opportunity. So the fact that they were moving in the direction of a greater entertainment product, I thought the Adelaide Street circuit will be of appeal to them, so I reached out to it.
00:07:19
Speaker 1: Didn't you wanted for the Bend though? Did you realize it wasn't.
00:07:23
Speaker 2: I absolutely set out from the start to secure the biggest events in the world for the Bend. But I, you know, I am, I have South Australian blood in my veins. I when when I thought of the opportunity, and I thought, you know what an incredible way to repay this great state that gave me an opportunity, gave me hope, gave me an identity, gave me a place to live and raise a wonderful family. So I reached out to murder GP and and just put the proposition, are you interested in a street circuit in the city of Adelaide? And that was a difficult and awkward and maybe extraordinary proposition. I don't own the city of Adelaide, I don't own the streets of Adelette. I don't, but I just wanted to flirt with the idea, to establish any their interest, their level of interest. And after a long pause on the phone, they said.
00:08:15
Speaker 1: When you say they're doing the premiere.
00:08:17
Speaker 2: No, no, I'm talking to DRNA first, talking to motor GP first. They said we would, we would absolutely be interested in a street circuit proposition. So it took several months to get them to get their heads around how you can run what is the fastest sport on the planet on a street circuit. But we got there and we worked on a a on a basic design that can that can deliver a great the greatest race of motor GIP in the world.
00:08:43
Speaker 1: We might have to take a break here because I want to examine the safety aspect of that street circuit. When they reach over three hundred kilometers an hour. Doctor sam Shahin is my guest. Folks back shortly. My guest in the studio today is doctor Sam Shahin. He owns the Bend, the motorsport park at the Tail and Bend, but he has this vision of bringing major events to Adelaide, and one of them the sees is the Moto GP series. Can they get can we get it here in Adelaide? The contract's about to inspire in Melbourne Victorian government maybe not only overly enthusiastic, but anyway, doctor Sheen is speaking to Donner, who owned the rights, and is it a glimmer or is it a flame of optimism? There there is a.
00:09:26
Speaker 2: Faint light in the distance, but I don't need much, just a glimmer. The glimmer was good enough, and when the fundamentals were right with Dorner, I then went to the Premiere. I did not want to go in the first instance, to Donna unless I thought it was a realistic proposition to bring Moto GIPP to Adelaide, And likewise I did not go to the Premier until I was fairly certain that the proposition is sound and the rights holders are prepared to seriously consider.
00:10:00
Speaker 1: So some people when you put up a new bowl proposition, a little pessimistic about it, and I think of it, think about the reasons why they can't do it? Is our premier the opposite to that, Does he think about the reasons why he could do it? Well?
00:10:13
Speaker 2: I thought he was. In what he's done so far, he has shown himself to be progressive. And yes, you know, there is a big difference, a massive difference between people that are faced with any proposition. Progressive people will always think how can I get something done? But the vast majority of people will start thinking why something cannot be done? Now, there are always very valid reasons why things cannot be done, but that if that is the starting point, then nothing will happen. I think you've got to start with how can I get something done before starting to deal with all the obstacles that might come in the way. So when I went to the premiere and I said, HEMI out, I've got an idea, And it was the same pause that I'd received earlier from Dawner. But you know, there's a glimmer of hope. I think he was prepared to entertain the idea and the rest was history.
00:11:08
Speaker 1: The rest is history. But the thing that struck me immediately is how can you have a Moto GP event on a street circuit when it's so dangerous, when you need these huge runoff areas that you see them come off their bikes and they slide and they slide into the gravel pits. How can you make it safe in a street circuit.
00:11:28
Speaker 2: Well, we have technology on our side. Safety in motorsport is no longer subjective. It is quite objective and it's very science based. For every event, even events we hold at the Bend and at Malala, you know we conduct, there is a speed profiling of events, so you can take any car, any bike at any speed and you can simulate what sort of speeds they would do on any section of the circuit and if a bike or a car was to lose control at any point that there is the technology to calculate what sort of runoff and safety distances you need to make sure that you don't hit anything. Now, motorsport is intrinsically dangerous, so there is risk in everything, but there is a lot of science that will support the development and the construction of a circuit that is safe, safe by international standards, so that that is not subjective and it's very important for everybody in the state to rest assured that the rights holders run the most sophisticated business in terms of safety for a top international sport.
00:12:33
Speaker 1: So where the circuit is mainly around Adelaide and through the park lands, is it mainly Victoria Park?
00:12:39
Speaker 2: Well, the original idea was to run on the circuit that the supercars currently a race in, but as that kind of model evolved, I thought it would be a terrific thing to run motorjippy on the original F one circuit. And there's a lot of romanticism to that, I guess, but we had Adelaide. Adelaide ran one of the best Formula one events in the world at the time and still, you know, thirty forty years later, those that remember those races in the sports still fondly recall Adelaide. So we had an exceptional circuit and what you'll see by November twenty twenty seven is a slightly modified version of the original F one circuit, but not far from it.
00:13:23
Speaker 1: Equally exciting though, how are you dealing with the Eastern suburbs residents with another obstruction to their daily commute. I think anybody who has the prime interest in seeing South Australia on the world stage put on one of the greatest events in the world. Will forego the inconvenience of delays over a few days. I think I hope every South Australian will be proud of the product being right across the planet. There are some sacrifices that will have to be applied here to have a date, an actual date for it, not exactly, but it'll be in the second half of November twenty twenty seven. And will you play a role in it? Will you have a role in it? Or it was your job here? Now done?
00:14:12
Speaker 2: I think I'm ready and able and standing on the sideline waiting any time for whatever purpose I'm needed to help bring this to life. You know, I'm invested in Murdersport. I'm invested in the business of motorsport, and if my time, effort or resources are required, I'm willing and able and happy to help in any way needed.
00:14:39
Speaker 1: Sam, how close did you come to getting Formula one back here in Adelaide?
00:14:45
Speaker 2: We'll talk about ambition. Twenty twenty was a very memorable year. It was a very fiery year. You might recall COVID had just started. There were restrictions starting to come in. We had held the of Asia Lemon at the Bend in January twenty twenty, followed a few weeks later by a round of Asia Road Racing Championship for motorbikes at the Bend, so I really was on the trajectory on the path to bringing international events to the Bend in South Australia. In March twenty twenty, the Australian Grand Prix was canceled in Melbourne, and I was in Melbourne at the time for the Grand Prix because of COVID. One of the teams had an outbreak of COVID and they canceled the event. In September of twenty twenty, the Bend held two rounds of the Viatripik Art Championship just to get the championship going, and in October twenty twenty, the then Premier Stephen Marshall canceled the Adelaide five hundred, including the last year of that contract, which was in twenty twenty one. So by late twenty twenty I thought, I thought, I don't think Formula One is going to come back to Melbourne in twenty twenty one. The restrictions don't look likely that they're going to subside by then. So I contacted F one and I really was very keen to explore the opportunity to bring Formula one to South Australia, and those conversations became very very serious, very quickly. I reached out to F one and I said, look, you don't know me from a baraso. I'm from the Bend and South Australia and Da da da, And the response was staggering. They said, we know who you are, we know who the Bend is. We have in fact sought the homologation plans of your circuit from the FIA, the international body, to look for what our options may be in Australia. So it was a good start and over the three or four months in late twenty twenty and early twenty twenty one, I came within a whisker. It was so close. We just needed to create the just the environment to isolate the teams and the drivers and the massive F one paddic to come to South Australia and create a safe line from the airport to Tailor and Bend and a quarantine center. I think if if the current Premier was there at the time, f one would have been here in twenty twenty one. I have absolutely no doubt about that.
00:16:59
Speaker 1: Wow, what might have been? Can you give us a bit of a timeline on the on the on the bend or a story of how it came to be because it used to be a testing track Fortubishi. Nobody knew it was there.
00:17:12
Speaker 2: No, just likewise I never knew it was there.
00:17:16
Speaker 1: So how did it come about?
00:17:18
Speaker 2: You know, as a as a child. You know, I lived the first decade of my life as a refugee and I was born in a refugee camp.
00:17:27
Speaker 1: I'm going to come to that, so don't don't sure.
00:17:31
Speaker 2: But I had this obsession always with cars, and I've often thought about what facilities we've got in Australia and in South Australia. South Australia was supported and very very incredibly well and proudly by the late Clem Smith who ran Malala, the only Nottor sport facility in South Australia for many manys for decades. And I'd approached him over the years about what his plans were for developed being Malala and bringing it to the standard, the motorsport standard that was required in the twenty first century, and those conversations didn't go very far. And Claim was a man's man, you know he was. He was a good man and he always told me, you know where to go when I asked him whether he'd be willing to part with Malala.
00:18:19
Speaker 1: But the idea could you reare to go?
00:18:22
Speaker 2: Sometimes in the nicest of ways, but not always, but the idea just really I kept eruminating on the idea that it would it be?
00:18:32
Speaker 1: Is it possible?
00:18:33
Speaker 2: Do you dare dream of building something of an international standard in South Australia. It just needed again to the right time, and the right time came. Unfortunately, when when manufacturing ceased in Australia, car manufacturing Ford Holden and Mitsubishi, and Mitsubishi had we always heard of this test facility at Tailor and Bend, and every time I drove past it to Melbourne or to man Gambia, I'd see the big wire fence around this property, but nobody knew what was behind that wire fence. And when I eventually went in, it was incredibly underwhelming. There was nothing, There was no infrastructure, there were no roads. It was they used to get Mitsubishi cars and get them tested for suspension tires, brakes, seatbelt tensioners. So they used to have to deal with university students and get them to drive these cars around in really rough terrain to just test these cars out. But there was no infrastructure, which was very sad for me because it meant we just had to build it from scratch. Didt Mitsubishi originally owned it? Yes, and when they left they shut the gate and the local council bought it at the time.
00:19:45
Speaker 1: So you had to buy it from the local accounts?
00:19:48
Speaker 2: Correct?
00:19:49
Speaker 1: Can I ask what you paid for it?
00:19:51
Speaker 2: No, you can ask.
00:19:54
Speaker 1: Well, I'm going to take a break. Doctor Savsha Hitters. My guest, folks, shortly, my guest in the studio, folks, if you just tuned in, is doctor Sam Sheehin, a very proud South Australian, the son a Palestinian immigrant. And Sam was only a kid when he came here himself. So can we go back. I want to talk about your dad, a man of having with courage and foresight and enterprise. But did he escape from Palestine or did he was he relocated and you talked about being in a refugee camp and you can remember because you're young enough to old enough to can you tell us about those early days?
00:20:36
Speaker 2: Yes, yes, of course gives me goosebumps. My father was a great man. Fred was a great man. He was a man's man. He was funny, he was ambitious, he had courage, he was humble. And yes, he was born in Palestine and nineteen forty eight him and his family were uprooted and ended up on foot for days and days and days, ended up in a tent in Lebanon. Three quarters of a million Palestinians were uprooted in nineteen forty eight and ended up between Jordan, Lebanon, and Siri at the time, and many of them still live in refugee camps. And fast forward to a couple of decades later. I was born in a refugee camp in Lebanon, the son of Palestinian father and a Palestinian mother. My father had to grow up quickly. His father died early and his mother also passed away at the age of forty four early, so he had he became the de facto parent for eight other siblings at a very young age. Eight siblings, eight other siblings. Yes, wow, so those early years we were very memorable and very hard years.
00:21:46
Speaker 1: So what's when you're living in a refugee camps. What's the first thing that comes to your mind when you look back on that fear? Fear.
00:21:57
Speaker 2: My distinct memory is fear. There was a civil all broke out also in Lebanon in nineteen seventy five. I was seven at the time, and living in under those circumstances, all that is on your mind is where your next meal is coming from, whether you're going to have electricity to be warm that that day, and whether you're going to sleep on your mattress on the floor or on a refuge shelter somewhere. Because things could change always on an hour's notice. There were tough, tough times, but my distinct memory always of my parents was their optimism that things will get better. Always work hard, look for opportunity, and good things will will happen, Good things will follow.
00:22:48
Speaker 1: How did you get to Adelaide? How did that come about it? And you could obviously you can remember.
00:22:53
Speaker 2: Yes, I remember clearly. In nineteen eighty two, Israel invaded Lebanon. Were living in in be Route and the city was surrounded and absolutely pummeled for days on end from the sea, from the air, by land, and we lived in shelters for weeks. It was a horrendous experience and still have nightmares about those days. And that was really the straw that broke the camels back. My parents rightfully decided we have to leave. We were attached to our roots here, but we have to leave. Keep in mind, it's a complex part of the world. But as a Palestinian, even though I was born in Lebanon, I was always labeled at Palestinian refugee. Living in Lebanon. I had a passport that said Palestinian refugee. And although I was born in the country, I never had the rights of a citizen, so we were stateless. And he went on to apply to any country around the world that would take this Palestinian family. He applied to lots of places around the world, and we were rejected everywhere he applied. We were rejected on our application to Australia. He applied again, we were rejected a second time, and applied a third time, and we were accepted the third time.
00:24:12
Speaker 1: Why why the third time?
00:24:14
Speaker 2: He just persistence. We just had to leave, and we just got on a plane. Literally we had a visa and ten days later we were on a plane.
00:24:26
Speaker 1: And do you know what it costs from the plane fair.
00:24:30
Speaker 2: It was would have been a few hundred dollars at the time, obviously had it. My father was a very smart man and worked three jobs. He taught himself English. His first job was a clerk at the United Nations Relief and Works Agency in Lebanon, and he progressed through roles in the United Nations Agency. And my mother became a teacher in a refugee camp school in a Palastine refugee amp as well. And they worked hard. They saved a bit of money and everything they had. They said, well, this is this is what we this is what we're going to do. We're going to go and start a new life somewhere.
00:25:11
Speaker 1: And your land in Sydney.
00:25:12
Speaker 2: Land in Sydney. Landed in Sydney. And it took only a few weeks for them to work out that things were not going to work out in Sydney. It was too expensive, he couldn't find work.
00:25:23
Speaker 1: So why Adelaide.
00:25:24
Speaker 2: Well, it's a funny story now that I look back on it, but it's incredibly you know, I think of fate. There were dark days in Sydney in a household, you know, is a new family with very limited savings and nothing was working. So he grabbed a map of the world with a piece of strength from the equator, put it on Palestine and turn it around to the southern hemisphere and it landed on Adelaide. You're kidding me, And he said, we're going to Adelaide.
00:25:54
Speaker 1: You are kidding me.
00:25:56
Speaker 2: So we came to Adelaide. You know that, I say, freak say courage. Courage is not the absence of fear. Courage is the triumph over fear. And he of course had fear over what life might get to if he was not able to look after his family, but he was always committed and always optimistic that this was the land of promise.
00:26:21
Speaker 1: How did you get to a tadlaid from Sydney to drive?
00:26:24
Speaker 2: Yeah, we we that's another's a story on every corner. Gram He bought an old fort Falcon and we got ourselves in the car and drove to Adelaide and the engine blew up in Gaula on the way over. Who blew the engine? So it was it was well right the book one day, but it was not an easy It was not an easy start.
00:26:49
Speaker 1: How many in the family at that stage five in the falcon blows up.
00:26:54
Speaker 2: Well, there's there's there's I have it binger back as my parents and I have three siblings, so we the four of us, cramped in the in the back seat. But it was it was an amazing journey and we landed. You know, we got to Adelaide. This was the land of promise. This was the land of opportunity, and that opportunity has never been lost on me.
00:27:15
Speaker 1: Did you know anyone here? No? So where did you find a place to live?
00:27:19
Speaker 2: The advertiser at the time. At the time, there was an ad in the local paper by Metropolitan real Estates, which that ad is framed still till today in our head office at reception. It says, service station will suit new family looking for a new start. This is the word for word with the ad said, and he thought service station, Like, I know nothing about service stations or petrol or what to do, but car. The key can't be that hard, right, can't be that had But the key to that, to that ad is that the service station had an attached dwelling in the back. And he thought, well, we need we need somewhere to live, and and well we'll need to learn, We'll need to learn and this is the days of you know, there was no self serve back then, drive boy service.
00:28:07
Speaker 1: I had to fix cars.
00:28:09
Speaker 2: Yes, that's when you could fix cars or people, well people rather than laptops. And so the opportunity was almost was just too good at the time, and we just crammed into the back of the house. And the gentleman that owned that service station had put the ad gentleman by the name of Bob bonteen I still.
00:28:28
Speaker 1: Remember his name.
00:28:29
Speaker 2: And my father had just one one condition. He said, just please, can you stay with us for a few weeks. He didn't just want him to teach us how to run the service station. He wanted him to teach us how to speak English because we couldn't speak English.
00:28:43
Speaker 1: She couldn't speak English. You know you speak without a hint of an accent.
00:28:48
Speaker 2: I probably do. And you know I came to Australia as a sixteen year old.
00:28:53
Speaker 1: Oh no, I need to take a break because I want to explore that we're going around out of time because it was so interesting. Doctor sam there's my guest, Folks back shortly. My guest in the studio is doctor Sam Shi, looking very dapper, Bell grove, nice pink top on the sports jackets. Very trendy, but look if you just churned in, it's an amazing story. We spoke about acquiring the Moto GP here in Adelaide and the establishment of the Ben Motorsport Park, but the really interesting part is the family's displacement Palestinian refugees in Lebanon and then being able to make their way to Australia. Land in Sydney and the most amazing method. Sam's dad put a piece of string between Sydney and Palestine, then rotated it and it intersected in Adelaide and they said, well let's move to Adelaide. They get there, they buy a service station that's got a house attached to it. Sam is sixteen, can't speak English. What are you memories of those days? Like? What the sort of vilification that you might have faced, the teasing, the cruelty of young kids to young refugees when you're sixteen.
00:30:03
Speaker 2: It was a troubled time. But you've got to appreciate that we were committed to create a new life in Australia. We were absolutely committed to making a fist out of our new life in Australia, because that is the only opportunity we've ever had. And historically, after the Second World War, France colonized that part of the Middle East. So we spoke some French, and French to English there is some commonality, but we needed to learn English. And yeah, I used to. But I go back to Bob Monteine and the service station on David Terrace.
00:30:41
Speaker 1: The guy who owned the service station and sold it.
00:30:43
Speaker 2: To Yeah, and it was my playground. It was where I learned English. And you know, Bob would say, you know, these were the days of driveway service. Bob would go and say, go and check their tires and ask them if they want anything from the from the shop. So you know, these days you'd go up to the and people will just roll the window down and stick five dollars out and say just you know, five bucks and check the tires. Thanks. Some would say thanks. So you know, I remember a guy coming up to me and say, filler up, Cobber, and I thought, jeapest, So I ran into I said Bob, Bob, Bob, he said, Cobber, what does that mean? He goes, Cobber is good. Now get out there.
00:31:21
Speaker 1: And check his oil. So we're going to fast forward here. How does your dad Fred is his anglicized name. How does he take this little service station? Where was it?
00:31:33
Speaker 2: David terrorist?
00:31:34
Speaker 1: Kill Kenny? David Terrorist? How does he develop that into South Australia's biggest private owned company. Can you do a short version of that?
00:31:44
Speaker 2: Yes? Sure. He saw opportunity again. He saw that if you develop a convenient business, and worked very early that you know, we were in the business of selling time. If you can give people a minute back of their day, that they will travel and they will come back and seek your service. And that's what he set out to do. He set out about building a business that at its core had making a customer's life quicker. And at the time my older brother had started in the business with him. Then Ya Sir, my younger brother who was the real brains thrust behind what ultimately became OTR the entrepreneur. Yasir is the entrepreneur. Yes, in the family. He is a very smart and very humble man. And although he's my younger brother, I still look up to him. He's a great guy.
00:32:40
Speaker 1: It's an amazing thing to say. But you're sixteen, you get into you almost immediately get into university.
00:32:45
Speaker 2: Yes, I how did you do that?
00:32:48
Speaker 1: Get into medicine.
00:32:49
Speaker 2: Well, I again. We landed in Australia on the eighth of August nineteen eighty four. By October we were in Adelaide and we again set out to see I wanted to go to school. No school would take me into I finished the equivalent of what is year eleven in overseas, and I wanted to get into year twelve. No school would allow me to go into anything other than year ten. They said, you've got to go back. You start in year ten. And to cut a long story short, we went from school to school until we went to Woodville High School and there was a principal and I was there with my father, and he said, just give him an opportunity. Father said to the principle, and the principal turned around and said, you know what, there are six weeks left in year eleven. You come to school from tomorrow, prove you can handle year eleven, and I'll let you do year twelve next year. And he did. And I'm forever thankful for the opportunity. I did year twelve. I was ducks of the school in year twelve, Andville High School one of my greatest achievements to this day, and I was good enough to get into medicine at the University of Adelaide.
00:33:52
Speaker 1: It's hard to get into medicine. Did you escape the the pili vacation and the abuse that young migrants generally had to endure.
00:34:02
Speaker 2: There are a lot of good people in the world, but there are a lot of mean people. And I think this is how we were brought up. Just ice forward, focus on what is constructive, Be humble, be humble, you know, and you'll get You'll get somewhere. So I didn't really take much notice of it.
00:34:20
Speaker 1: Okay, so you get into medicine, you complete, you've degredded a degree. I'm not it's at the right word. But then you keep you study for twenty seven years. Why, I mean, you're a doctor. You you're going to a family going to family and country practice, and then you want to be an accountant.
00:34:40
Speaker 2: Yes, well I did study medicine, did a Bachelor of medicine, a Bachelor of surgery. Here in Adelaide. I spent a year at the Royal Adelaide Hospital. That I really wanted to go and explore and work around the world. I went and worked back in a in a clinic in the refugee camp where I was born. You're kid, None of that's you. I went and worked in Sydney for some time and I came back here and did.
00:35:07
Speaker 1: I'm going to let you. I'm going to stop you there, go back to the refugee care. What was that like?
00:35:12
Speaker 2: It's you know, it gives me goosebumps just really now thinking about it. I mean humility. You want to see courage. You go and mix with people that have nothing and see how they cope with the daily struggles just to survive. But in some respects that gave me an incredible amount of energy. You know, we tend to focus on the negatives in our day to day life, but you've got to see how people struggle and how people survive and thrive despite struggles in their life. And if that doesn't give one inspiration, nothing will. I've got to refer to something that I also found in my days in medical practice. In my early days of medical practice, I was always intrigued, interested, obsessed about people journeys, how people got to where they were, and everybody is different, everybody had a story to tell, but there was something but there were similarities in most people's journeys, and it usually is around para retirement age, when people are either thinking about retirement, when they're just retired or in the middle of it. And that was regret. Most people regretted not doing something in their lifetime. Most people regretted, and the regret was unique. There are two types of regret. There is regret for things you do. You know, you do something, you say, oh, I shouldn't have done that. But the bigger regret, the regret that cannot be reconciled, is the regret for things we don't do. Things that people knew they wanted to do all their life, yet they didn't do it for some reason that they thought was rational at the time. And I was always intrigued by that, and I always tried to just peel more layers of that, of that narrative. And often the more layers you peeled, the more I found that that people put up what to them were rational reasons, but they weren't. There were there were there were things that they put up as obstacles that were not real reasons for them not to do the things that they always wanted to do in their life. And I thought, I'm never going to be one of those people. So I continue to learn. I was obsessed by learning. I still am. I went back to university, did night time, not time evening scores at the University of South Australia. Did an MBA. Took me eight years to do that part time.
00:37:32
Speaker 1: And you you've been inducted into the Global Accounting Hall of Fame. I didn't over such as the Global account global Management Accounting Hall of Fame.
00:37:40
Speaker 2: Done your research, Well, then that's not how I was. It was. It was an incredible honor. It was an incredible honor and I'm I'm eternally thankful for the honor. And I felt I had a still a gap in my in my skills set in accounting. So I went back to university again and became an countant. And and and the thing that gave me most pleasure in my days and I had a clinic on Portrait at Well. And at the time, I used to go down to my father's office on Port Road. It was only a two kilometers down the road. Every day I'd go in my break, would have a cup of coffee or a cup of tea, and I used to all day look forward just to those few minutes because I just loved this company.
00:38:25
Speaker 1: We're going to write out of time. Did your dad eventually lead a happy life? Did? Would you? Would he have passed away satisfact, with satisfaction of what he'd achieved.
00:38:34
Speaker 2: I think, I believe so. I believe so. He took a tremendous amount of pride in what he achieved in Australia and in seeing his all of his children be happy and do well in Australia. He was a believer, but he he also believed in in what this great country gave us. He always said, I hope one day when I die, I hope I go to heaven. And if I go to heaven, my only wish is that heaven is as good as Australia. As good as Australia, because you thought nothing can be better than Australia. That's how much he appreciated the opportunity that this great country gave us.
00:39:11
Speaker 1: So he developed the OTR the smoke marts. Did you have any hesitances about selling the cigarettes? With that an issue for you as a doctor.
00:39:21
Speaker 2: I wouldn't be truthful if I don't say that. I you know I was ambivalent about about it, being in a business that sold tobacco. The question was often a pragmatic one. If there was no Spoke Mart, they did not sell tobacco, would people stop buying tobacco? Some may not like that that narrative, but that's that's the truth of the matter. And I did take up a part of that business. In developing the gift box brand, there was an opportunity and I started that part of the business and I took it to good places over a seventeen year journey.
00:39:52
Speaker 1: So that's all been sold now, correct. So how do you spend your day.
00:39:57
Speaker 2: I'm in the business of murder, sport and property. So property still is there from the Peregrine days that that hasn't changed, you know. I live and breathe sport and motorsport. The ben Motorsport Park is the single largest private investment in Australia's sport and entertainment history.
00:40:16
Speaker 1: Is it the biggest park in the world there in the world.
00:40:20
Speaker 2: There is no motorsport facility like it anywhere in the world. It is a unique you know, for a facility right here in South Australia. To win International Mosport Facility of the Year is an incredible accolade. And it's right here an hour from Adelaide. And Malala is also part of the group, and Malala is on a resurgence. It's a wonderful, wonderful facility with soul that really has a soul. And I continue on my ambition to bring the biggest and best events to South Australia.
00:40:49
Speaker 1: Have been able to fire your kids with your ambition and your grandfathers and their grandfathers.
00:40:55
Speaker 2: I have three children. One of them loves My daughter, Sarah loves motorsport and she's a keen go karter and so she's got the gene. My other two children are active spectators, if I can put it that way.
00:41:12
Speaker 1: Sam. It's great. It's always great catching up with you. But it's been a great chat and I feel we've just scratched the surface. There's so much there. Thank you so much for coming in and good luck with that ambition. You have to take South Australia bigger and better as you're proving to do. Thank you so much for coming in.
00:41:28
Speaker 2: Thank you for your time.
00:41:29
Speaker 1: Doctor Sam Chehin was my guest. Folks, thank you for joining us.
Speaker 1: Gooday everyone, Welcome to conversations. Now. In February twenty twenty six, we saw our premiers standing very proudly in front of the cameras announcing the acquisition of the Moto GP which would be held here in Adelaide. Now standing alongside him was our next guest, Doctor Sam Shahin, who, as we all know, is established the Bend Motorsport Park at Tailor and Bend. Doctor Shahin, welcome to the program. How are you.
00:00:26
Speaker 2: I'm very well, the sun is shining and we're living in this incredible part of the world.
00:00:32
Speaker 1: You're very proud of South Australia, aren't you.
00:00:35
Speaker 2: I'm immensely proud of South Australia and where we stand, not just nationally but internationally.
00:00:42
Speaker 1: There's so much to talk to you about, but let's initially address the Moto GP. We acquired the Moto GP which had been held at Phillip Island for all those years. How involved were you in that?
00:00:55
Speaker 2: Well, you have to dream big. It's said that destiny likes effort. Everything invented was once imagined. So you have to dream big. You have to dream big.
00:01:04
Speaker 1: Destiny like effort.
00:01:06
Speaker 2: It's a great saying. There's always been talk about the sad loss of F one, but over the years I've seen very few take steps to bring F one to South Australia. And if we have time, we can talk about F one and how close F one came to coming.
00:01:18
Speaker 1: Back to South Australia.
00:01:20
Speaker 2: So I built the Bend and that has been a long journey, a very bold, a very ambitious project, and I have not been shy of saying it is bold and ambitious, and we're often shy of declaring ambition, I think for fear of being shot down the tall poppy syndrome. And I've never shied away from the ambition of bringing first class events, world class events to South Australia, and there aren't many of those, and Motor GIP is certainly one of those. And I have chased Motor GP like many other international great events, to bring to South Australia, to the Bend in the first instance, but I saw an opportunity that was quite unique through twenty twenty and twenty twenty one through to twenty twenty five and the events that led to the event coming to South Australia from next year. And it was awkward in the first instance, because I there were quite a lot of things that changed and a lot of things around the world that just occurred that created the opportunity well things well, one of them was the Murder Gip had been owned by a group called Donna. Donna is as Spanish based company, family owned business has been run by them for over three decades. Donna was acquired by Liberty Media twenty twenty four. Liberty Media owns the rights for Formula one and All of a Sudden Now they own F one and Murder Gipp, the two largest international events for motorsport on two wheels and four wheels. And Liberty Media, as the name suggests, they're a media company. They're not a sporting company. They are interested in content. They are interested in the entertainment rather than the sporting product. We don't have to like it, but that's the fact. The other is that the contract for Motojippy with the Victorian government lapses as at twenty twenty six. And I've lived that over the last ten years because I tried in the early twenty tens to lure Motorjipy to the bend in the early years and I you know, when they renewed their contract for ten years. In twenty sixteen, I sat in my office, closed the door and I said, ten years will come around with a blink of an eye. I just need to keep working for the next decade to make sure I am in the best possible position to bring the event to South Australia.
00:03:42
Speaker 1: But you wanted it for the Bend, surely for this motorsport park that you developed.
00:03:47
Speaker 2: Undoubtedly the Bend is now better known, if I can put it that way, outside of South Australian, outside of Australia, much more than it is in Australia. You know, The Bend opened its doors for its first customers in eighteen By twenty nineteen, only eighteen months later, it won International Motorsport Facility of the International Motorsport Facility BIT facilities from all over the planet.
00:04:10
Speaker 1: I can interrupt you here because I was fortunate enough to share your hospitality on one of those corporate days, and it truly was one of the most amazing, enjoyable, exciting, frightening days that I've ever had. It can't express enough what an asset it is to sell Australia, how people should be able to enjoy it.
00:04:31
Speaker 2: It gives me goosebumps to hear that, Graham, because that is I had to spend a lot of time to work out what is the Bend, what purpose does it serve? And the Bend is simply we are in the business of experiences.
00:04:45
Speaker 1: You know.
00:04:45
Speaker 2: My job is to put a smile on people's faces. And if I do that, then I've accomplished what the Bend is all about. And it is an entertainment product at the end of the day, and people have choice and I have to compete for everybody's attention to make my case compelling enough for people to come and spend a little bit of time at Tail and Bend. So to come back to Motor GP. There was also an election coming up in South Australia, of course, in twenty twenty six, and South Australia has really established its credentials even further over the last few years as a place that not just holds events, but is seriously looking for big international events, and that certainly helps the international credibility I think is well and truly established now for South Australia. And we have a history of putting on great events here going back even to Formula one, but every time there's been an opportunity for South Australia to put on events. We know how to put events here, the fringe, the festival rather as week film Festival one Madelaide. These are international, great events, so kind of the sun on the Moon and every other planet lined up. We have an election coming up with a progressive premiere that was openly seeking to get new events. There was a contract expiry in Victoria in two thousand and twenty six, Libert and Media acquiring Dorner and libert In Media openly taking Formula one in a direction of an entertainment path drive to survive. They'd taken Formula one to Vegas, to Miami. They're really big cities where the focus was on the product, on the entertainment product. It just happens to involve motorsport. And I had maintained the line of communication with Donner with motor GP for all those years they had come and visited the Bend and spent. It took me months to say, just give me an hour of your time, just like your experience, give me an hour of your time when you are anywhere near our continent to come to South Australia. And eventually I did get hold of them. They gave me an hour and they ended up spending a day and a half with me at the Bend and they were duly impressed, as they should be as most people that come. And I'm not embarrassed to say that did they drive? Did they We gave them a drive. Yes, they did go around and have a good crack at the track and they absolutely loved it. And you know, the owners just very openly told me that you know, we we we would love to come here at the right opportunity. So the fact that they were moving in the direction of a greater entertainment product, I thought the Adelaide Street circuit will be of appeal to them, so I reached out to it.
00:07:19
Speaker 1: Didn't you wanted for the Bend though? Did you realize it wasn't.
00:07:23
Speaker 2: I absolutely set out from the start to secure the biggest events in the world for the Bend. But I, you know, I am, I have South Australian blood in my veins. I when when I thought of the opportunity, and I thought, you know what an incredible way to repay this great state that gave me an opportunity, gave me hope, gave me an identity, gave me a place to live and raise a wonderful family. So I reached out to murder GP and and just put the proposition, are you interested in a street circuit in the city of Adelaide? And that was a difficult and awkward and maybe extraordinary proposition. I don't own the city of Adelaide, I don't own the streets of Adelette. I don't, but I just wanted to flirt with the idea, to establish any their interest, their level of interest. And after a long pause on the phone, they said.
00:08:15
Speaker 1: When you say they're doing the premiere.
00:08:17
Speaker 2: No, no, I'm talking to DRNA first, talking to motor GP first. They said we would, we would absolutely be interested in a street circuit proposition. So it took several months to get them to get their heads around how you can run what is the fastest sport on the planet on a street circuit. But we got there and we worked on a a on a basic design that can that can deliver a great the greatest race of motor GIP in the world.
00:08:43
Speaker 1: We might have to take a break here because I want to examine the safety aspect of that street circuit. When they reach over three hundred kilometers an hour. Doctor sam Shahin is my guest. Folks back shortly. My guest in the studio today is doctor Sam Shahin. He owns the Bend, the motorsport park at the Tail and Bend, but he has this vision of bringing major events to Adelaide, and one of them the sees is the Moto GP series. Can they get can we get it here in Adelaide? The contract's about to inspire in Melbourne Victorian government maybe not only overly enthusiastic, but anyway, doctor Sheen is speaking to Donner, who owned the rights, and is it a glimmer or is it a flame of optimism? There there is a.
00:09:26
Speaker 2: Faint light in the distance, but I don't need much, just a glimmer. The glimmer was good enough, and when the fundamentals were right with Dorner, I then went to the Premiere. I did not want to go in the first instance, to Donna unless I thought it was a realistic proposition to bring Moto GIPP to Adelaide, And likewise I did not go to the Premier until I was fairly certain that the proposition is sound and the rights holders are prepared to seriously consider.
00:10:00
Speaker 1: So some people when you put up a new bowl proposition, a little pessimistic about it, and I think of it, think about the reasons why they can't do it? Is our premier the opposite to that, Does he think about the reasons why he could do it? Well?
00:10:13
Speaker 2: I thought he was. In what he's done so far, he has shown himself to be progressive. And yes, you know, there is a big difference, a massive difference between people that are faced with any proposition. Progressive people will always think how can I get something done? But the vast majority of people will start thinking why something cannot be done? Now, there are always very valid reasons why things cannot be done, but that if that is the starting point, then nothing will happen. I think you've got to start with how can I get something done before starting to deal with all the obstacles that might come in the way. So when I went to the premiere and I said, HEMI out, I've got an idea, And it was the same pause that I'd received earlier from Dawner. But you know, there's a glimmer of hope. I think he was prepared to entertain the idea and the rest was history.
00:11:08
Speaker 1: The rest is history. But the thing that struck me immediately is how can you have a Moto GP event on a street circuit when it's so dangerous, when you need these huge runoff areas that you see them come off their bikes and they slide and they slide into the gravel pits. How can you make it safe in a street circuit.
00:11:28
Speaker 2: Well, we have technology on our side. Safety in motorsport is no longer subjective. It is quite objective and it's very science based. For every event, even events we hold at the Bend and at Malala, you know we conduct, there is a speed profiling of events, so you can take any car, any bike at any speed and you can simulate what sort of speeds they would do on any section of the circuit and if a bike or a car was to lose control at any point that there is the technology to calculate what sort of runoff and safety distances you need to make sure that you don't hit anything. Now, motorsport is intrinsically dangerous, so there is risk in everything, but there is a lot of science that will support the development and the construction of a circuit that is safe, safe by international standards, so that that is not subjective and it's very important for everybody in the state to rest assured that the rights holders run the most sophisticated business in terms of safety for a top international sport.
00:12:33
Speaker 1: So where the circuit is mainly around Adelaide and through the park lands, is it mainly Victoria Park?
00:12:39
Speaker 2: Well, the original idea was to run on the circuit that the supercars currently a race in, but as that kind of model evolved, I thought it would be a terrific thing to run motorjippy on the original F one circuit. And there's a lot of romanticism to that, I guess, but we had Adelaide. Adelaide ran one of the best Formula one events in the world at the time and still, you know, thirty forty years later, those that remember those races in the sports still fondly recall Adelaide. So we had an exceptional circuit and what you'll see by November twenty twenty seven is a slightly modified version of the original F one circuit, but not far from it.
00:13:23
Speaker 1: Equally exciting though, how are you dealing with the Eastern suburbs residents with another obstruction to their daily commute. I think anybody who has the prime interest in seeing South Australia on the world stage put on one of the greatest events in the world. Will forego the inconvenience of delays over a few days. I think I hope every South Australian will be proud of the product being right across the planet. There are some sacrifices that will have to be applied here to have a date, an actual date for it, not exactly, but it'll be in the second half of November twenty twenty seven. And will you play a role in it? Will you have a role in it? Or it was your job here? Now done?
00:14:12
Speaker 2: I think I'm ready and able and standing on the sideline waiting any time for whatever purpose I'm needed to help bring this to life. You know, I'm invested in Murdersport. I'm invested in the business of motorsport, and if my time, effort or resources are required, I'm willing and able and happy to help in any way needed.
00:14:39
Speaker 1: Sam, how close did you come to getting Formula one back here in Adelaide?
00:14:45
Speaker 2: We'll talk about ambition. Twenty twenty was a very memorable year. It was a very fiery year. You might recall COVID had just started. There were restrictions starting to come in. We had held the of Asia Lemon at the Bend in January twenty twenty, followed a few weeks later by a round of Asia Road Racing Championship for motorbikes at the Bend, so I really was on the trajectory on the path to bringing international events to the Bend in South Australia. In March twenty twenty, the Australian Grand Prix was canceled in Melbourne, and I was in Melbourne at the time for the Grand Prix because of COVID. One of the teams had an outbreak of COVID and they canceled the event. In September of twenty twenty, the Bend held two rounds of the Viatripik Art Championship just to get the championship going, and in October twenty twenty, the then Premier Stephen Marshall canceled the Adelaide five hundred, including the last year of that contract, which was in twenty twenty one. So by late twenty twenty I thought, I thought, I don't think Formula One is going to come back to Melbourne in twenty twenty one. The restrictions don't look likely that they're going to subside by then. So I contacted F one and I really was very keen to explore the opportunity to bring Formula one to South Australia, and those conversations became very very serious, very quickly. I reached out to F one and I said, look, you don't know me from a baraso. I'm from the Bend and South Australia and Da da da, And the response was staggering. They said, we know who you are, we know who the Bend is. We have in fact sought the homologation plans of your circuit from the FIA, the international body, to look for what our options may be in Australia. So it was a good start and over the three or four months in late twenty twenty and early twenty twenty one, I came within a whisker. It was so close. We just needed to create the just the environment to isolate the teams and the drivers and the massive F one paddic to come to South Australia and create a safe line from the airport to Tailor and Bend and a quarantine center. I think if if the current Premier was there at the time, f one would have been here in twenty twenty one. I have absolutely no doubt about that.
00:16:59
Speaker 1: Wow, what might have been? Can you give us a bit of a timeline on the on the on the bend or a story of how it came to be because it used to be a testing track Fortubishi. Nobody knew it was there.
00:17:12
Speaker 2: No, just likewise I never knew it was there.
00:17:16
Speaker 1: So how did it come about?
00:17:18
Speaker 2: You know, as a as a child. You know, I lived the first decade of my life as a refugee and I was born in a refugee camp.
00:17:27
Speaker 1: I'm going to come to that, so don't don't sure.
00:17:31
Speaker 2: But I had this obsession always with cars, and I've often thought about what facilities we've got in Australia and in South Australia. South Australia was supported and very very incredibly well and proudly by the late Clem Smith who ran Malala, the only Nottor sport facility in South Australia for many manys for decades. And I'd approached him over the years about what his plans were for developed being Malala and bringing it to the standard, the motorsport standard that was required in the twenty first century, and those conversations didn't go very far. And Claim was a man's man, you know he was. He was a good man and he always told me, you know where to go when I asked him whether he'd be willing to part with Malala.
00:18:19
Speaker 1: But the idea could you reare to go?
00:18:22
Speaker 2: Sometimes in the nicest of ways, but not always, but the idea just really I kept eruminating on the idea that it would it be?
00:18:32
Speaker 1: Is it possible?
00:18:33
Speaker 2: Do you dare dream of building something of an international standard in South Australia. It just needed again to the right time, and the right time came. Unfortunately, when when manufacturing ceased in Australia, car manufacturing Ford Holden and Mitsubishi, and Mitsubishi had we always heard of this test facility at Tailor and Bend, and every time I drove past it to Melbourne or to man Gambia, I'd see the big wire fence around this property, but nobody knew what was behind that wire fence. And when I eventually went in, it was incredibly underwhelming. There was nothing, There was no infrastructure, there were no roads. It was they used to get Mitsubishi cars and get them tested for suspension tires, brakes, seatbelt tensioners. So they used to have to deal with university students and get them to drive these cars around in really rough terrain to just test these cars out. But there was no infrastructure, which was very sad for me because it meant we just had to build it from scratch. Didt Mitsubishi originally owned it? Yes, and when they left they shut the gate and the local council bought it at the time.
00:19:45
Speaker 1: So you had to buy it from the local accounts?
00:19:48
Speaker 2: Correct?
00:19:49
Speaker 1: Can I ask what you paid for it?
00:19:51
Speaker 2: No, you can ask.
00:19:54
Speaker 1: Well, I'm going to take a break. Doctor Savsha Hitters. My guest, folks, shortly, my guest in the studio, folks, if you just tuned in, is doctor Sam Sheehin, a very proud South Australian, the son a Palestinian immigrant. And Sam was only a kid when he came here himself. So can we go back. I want to talk about your dad, a man of having with courage and foresight and enterprise. But did he escape from Palestine or did he was he relocated and you talked about being in a refugee camp and you can remember because you're young enough to old enough to can you tell us about those early days?
00:20:36
Speaker 2: Yes, yes, of course gives me goosebumps. My father was a great man. Fred was a great man. He was a man's man. He was funny, he was ambitious, he had courage, he was humble. And yes, he was born in Palestine and nineteen forty eight him and his family were uprooted and ended up on foot for days and days and days, ended up in a tent in Lebanon. Three quarters of a million Palestinians were uprooted in nineteen forty eight and ended up between Jordan, Lebanon, and Siri at the time, and many of them still live in refugee camps. And fast forward to a couple of decades later. I was born in a refugee camp in Lebanon, the son of Palestinian father and a Palestinian mother. My father had to grow up quickly. His father died early and his mother also passed away at the age of forty four early, so he had he became the de facto parent for eight other siblings at a very young age. Eight siblings, eight other siblings. Yes, wow, so those early years we were very memorable and very hard years.
00:21:46
Speaker 1: So what's when you're living in a refugee camps. What's the first thing that comes to your mind when you look back on that fear? Fear.
00:21:57
Speaker 2: My distinct memory is fear. There was a civil all broke out also in Lebanon in nineteen seventy five. I was seven at the time, and living in under those circumstances, all that is on your mind is where your next meal is coming from, whether you're going to have electricity to be warm that that day, and whether you're going to sleep on your mattress on the floor or on a refuge shelter somewhere. Because things could change always on an hour's notice. There were tough, tough times, but my distinct memory always of my parents was their optimism that things will get better. Always work hard, look for opportunity, and good things will will happen, Good things will follow.
00:22:48
Speaker 1: How did you get to Adelaide? How did that come about it? And you could obviously you can remember.
00:22:53
Speaker 2: Yes, I remember clearly. In nineteen eighty two, Israel invaded Lebanon. Were living in in be Route and the city was surrounded and absolutely pummeled for days on end from the sea, from the air, by land, and we lived in shelters for weeks. It was a horrendous experience and still have nightmares about those days. And that was really the straw that broke the camels back. My parents rightfully decided we have to leave. We were attached to our roots here, but we have to leave. Keep in mind, it's a complex part of the world. But as a Palestinian, even though I was born in Lebanon, I was always labeled at Palestinian refugee. Living in Lebanon. I had a passport that said Palestinian refugee. And although I was born in the country, I never had the rights of a citizen, so we were stateless. And he went on to apply to any country around the world that would take this Palestinian family. He applied to lots of places around the world, and we were rejected everywhere he applied. We were rejected on our application to Australia. He applied again, we were rejected a second time, and applied a third time, and we were accepted the third time.
00:24:12
Speaker 1: Why why the third time?
00:24:14
Speaker 2: He just persistence. We just had to leave, and we just got on a plane. Literally we had a visa and ten days later we were on a plane.
00:24:26
Speaker 1: And do you know what it costs from the plane fair.
00:24:30
Speaker 2: It was would have been a few hundred dollars at the time, obviously had it. My father was a very smart man and worked three jobs. He taught himself English. His first job was a clerk at the United Nations Relief and Works Agency in Lebanon, and he progressed through roles in the United Nations Agency. And my mother became a teacher in a refugee camp school in a Palastine refugee amp as well. And they worked hard. They saved a bit of money and everything they had. They said, well, this is this is what we this is what we're going to do. We're going to go and start a new life somewhere.
00:25:11
Speaker 1: And your land in Sydney.
00:25:12
Speaker 2: Land in Sydney. Landed in Sydney. And it took only a few weeks for them to work out that things were not going to work out in Sydney. It was too expensive, he couldn't find work.
00:25:23
Speaker 1: So why Adelaide.
00:25:24
Speaker 2: Well, it's a funny story now that I look back on it, but it's incredibly you know, I think of fate. There were dark days in Sydney in a household, you know, is a new family with very limited savings and nothing was working. So he grabbed a map of the world with a piece of strength from the equator, put it on Palestine and turn it around to the southern hemisphere and it landed on Adelaide. You're kidding me, And he said, we're going to Adelaide.
00:25:54
Speaker 1: You are kidding me.
00:25:56
Speaker 2: So we came to Adelaide. You know that, I say, freak say courage. Courage is not the absence of fear. Courage is the triumph over fear. And he of course had fear over what life might get to if he was not able to look after his family, but he was always committed and always optimistic that this was the land of promise.
00:26:21
Speaker 1: How did you get to a tadlaid from Sydney to drive?
00:26:24
Speaker 2: Yeah, we we that's another's a story on every corner. Gram He bought an old fort Falcon and we got ourselves in the car and drove to Adelaide and the engine blew up in Gaula on the way over. Who blew the engine? So it was it was well right the book one day, but it was not an easy It was not an easy start.
00:26:49
Speaker 1: How many in the family at that stage five in the falcon blows up.
00:26:54
Speaker 2: Well, there's there's there's I have it binger back as my parents and I have three siblings, so we the four of us, cramped in the in the back seat. But it was it was an amazing journey and we landed. You know, we got to Adelaide. This was the land of promise. This was the land of opportunity, and that opportunity has never been lost on me.
00:27:15
Speaker 1: Did you know anyone here? No? So where did you find a place to live?
00:27:19
Speaker 2: The advertiser at the time. At the time, there was an ad in the local paper by Metropolitan real Estates, which that ad is framed still till today in our head office at reception. It says, service station will suit new family looking for a new start. This is the word for word with the ad said, and he thought service station, Like, I know nothing about service stations or petrol or what to do, but car. The key can't be that hard, right, can't be that had But the key to that, to that ad is that the service station had an attached dwelling in the back. And he thought, well, we need we need somewhere to live, and and well we'll need to learn, We'll need to learn and this is the days of you know, there was no self serve back then, drive boy service.
00:28:07
Speaker 1: I had to fix cars.
00:28:09
Speaker 2: Yes, that's when you could fix cars or people, well people rather than laptops. And so the opportunity was almost was just too good at the time, and we just crammed into the back of the house. And the gentleman that owned that service station had put the ad gentleman by the name of Bob bonteen I still.
00:28:28
Speaker 1: Remember his name.
00:28:29
Speaker 2: And my father had just one one condition. He said, just please, can you stay with us for a few weeks. He didn't just want him to teach us how to run the service station. He wanted him to teach us how to speak English because we couldn't speak English.
00:28:43
Speaker 1: She couldn't speak English. You know you speak without a hint of an accent.
00:28:48
Speaker 2: I probably do. And you know I came to Australia as a sixteen year old.
00:28:53
Speaker 1: Oh no, I need to take a break because I want to explore that we're going around out of time because it was so interesting. Doctor sam there's my guest, Folks back shortly. My guest in the studio is doctor Sam Shi, looking very dapper, Bell grove, nice pink top on the sports jackets. Very trendy, but look if you just churned in, it's an amazing story. We spoke about acquiring the Moto GP here in Adelaide and the establishment of the Ben Motorsport Park, but the really interesting part is the family's displacement Palestinian refugees in Lebanon and then being able to make their way to Australia. Land in Sydney and the most amazing method. Sam's dad put a piece of string between Sydney and Palestine, then rotated it and it intersected in Adelaide and they said, well let's move to Adelaide. They get there, they buy a service station that's got a house attached to it. Sam is sixteen, can't speak English. What are you memories of those days? Like? What the sort of vilification that you might have faced, the teasing, the cruelty of young kids to young refugees when you're sixteen.
00:30:03
Speaker 2: It was a troubled time. But you've got to appreciate that we were committed to create a new life in Australia. We were absolutely committed to making a fist out of our new life in Australia, because that is the only opportunity we've ever had. And historically, after the Second World War, France colonized that part of the Middle East. So we spoke some French, and French to English there is some commonality, but we needed to learn English. And yeah, I used to. But I go back to Bob Monteine and the service station on David Terrace.
00:30:41
Speaker 1: The guy who owned the service station and sold it.
00:30:43
Speaker 2: To Yeah, and it was my playground. It was where I learned English. And you know, Bob would say, you know, these were the days of driveway service. Bob would go and say, go and check their tires and ask them if they want anything from the from the shop. So you know, these days you'd go up to the and people will just roll the window down and stick five dollars out and say just you know, five bucks and check the tires. Thanks. Some would say thanks. So you know, I remember a guy coming up to me and say, filler up, Cobber, and I thought, jeapest, So I ran into I said Bob, Bob, Bob, he said, Cobber, what does that mean? He goes, Cobber is good. Now get out there.
00:31:21
Speaker 1: And check his oil. So we're going to fast forward here. How does your dad Fred is his anglicized name. How does he take this little service station? Where was it?
00:31:33
Speaker 2: David terrorist?
00:31:34
Speaker 1: Kill Kenny? David Terrorist? How does he develop that into South Australia's biggest private owned company. Can you do a short version of that?
00:31:44
Speaker 2: Yes? Sure. He saw opportunity again. He saw that if you develop a convenient business, and worked very early that you know, we were in the business of selling time. If you can give people a minute back of their day, that they will travel and they will come back and seek your service. And that's what he set out to do. He set out about building a business that at its core had making a customer's life quicker. And at the time my older brother had started in the business with him. Then Ya Sir, my younger brother who was the real brains thrust behind what ultimately became OTR the entrepreneur. Yasir is the entrepreneur. Yes, in the family. He is a very smart and very humble man. And although he's my younger brother, I still look up to him. He's a great guy.
00:32:40
Speaker 1: It's an amazing thing to say. But you're sixteen, you get into you almost immediately get into university.
00:32:45
Speaker 2: Yes, I how did you do that?
00:32:48
Speaker 1: Get into medicine.
00:32:49
Speaker 2: Well, I again. We landed in Australia on the eighth of August nineteen eighty four. By October we were in Adelaide and we again set out to see I wanted to go to school. No school would take me into I finished the equivalent of what is year eleven in overseas, and I wanted to get into year twelve. No school would allow me to go into anything other than year ten. They said, you've got to go back. You start in year ten. And to cut a long story short, we went from school to school until we went to Woodville High School and there was a principal and I was there with my father, and he said, just give him an opportunity. Father said to the principle, and the principal turned around and said, you know what, there are six weeks left in year eleven. You come to school from tomorrow, prove you can handle year eleven, and I'll let you do year twelve next year. And he did. And I'm forever thankful for the opportunity. I did year twelve. I was ducks of the school in year twelve, Andville High School one of my greatest achievements to this day, and I was good enough to get into medicine at the University of Adelaide.
00:33:52
Speaker 1: It's hard to get into medicine. Did you escape the the pili vacation and the abuse that young migrants generally had to endure.
00:34:02
Speaker 2: There are a lot of good people in the world, but there are a lot of mean people. And I think this is how we were brought up. Just ice forward, focus on what is constructive, Be humble, be humble, you know, and you'll get You'll get somewhere. So I didn't really take much notice of it.
00:34:20
Speaker 1: Okay, so you get into medicine, you complete, you've degredded a degree. I'm not it's at the right word. But then you keep you study for twenty seven years. Why, I mean, you're a doctor. You you're going to a family going to family and country practice, and then you want to be an accountant.
00:34:40
Speaker 2: Yes, well I did study medicine, did a Bachelor of medicine, a Bachelor of surgery. Here in Adelaide. I spent a year at the Royal Adelaide Hospital. That I really wanted to go and explore and work around the world. I went and worked back in a in a clinic in the refugee camp where I was born. You're kid, None of that's you. I went and worked in Sydney for some time and I came back here and did.
00:35:07
Speaker 1: I'm going to let you. I'm going to stop you there, go back to the refugee care. What was that like?
00:35:12
Speaker 2: It's you know, it gives me goosebumps just really now thinking about it. I mean humility. You want to see courage. You go and mix with people that have nothing and see how they cope with the daily struggles just to survive. But in some respects that gave me an incredible amount of energy. You know, we tend to focus on the negatives in our day to day life, but you've got to see how people struggle and how people survive and thrive despite struggles in their life. And if that doesn't give one inspiration, nothing will. I've got to refer to something that I also found in my days in medical practice. In my early days of medical practice, I was always intrigued, interested, obsessed about people journeys, how people got to where they were, and everybody is different, everybody had a story to tell, but there was something but there were similarities in most people's journeys, and it usually is around para retirement age, when people are either thinking about retirement, when they're just retired or in the middle of it. And that was regret. Most people regretted not doing something in their lifetime. Most people regretted, and the regret was unique. There are two types of regret. There is regret for things you do. You know, you do something, you say, oh, I shouldn't have done that. But the bigger regret, the regret that cannot be reconciled, is the regret for things we don't do. Things that people knew they wanted to do all their life, yet they didn't do it for some reason that they thought was rational at the time. And I was always intrigued by that, and I always tried to just peel more layers of that, of that narrative. And often the more layers you peeled, the more I found that that people put up what to them were rational reasons, but they weren't. There were there were there were things that they put up as obstacles that were not real reasons for them not to do the things that they always wanted to do in their life. And I thought, I'm never going to be one of those people. So I continue to learn. I was obsessed by learning. I still am. I went back to university, did night time, not time evening scores at the University of South Australia. Did an MBA. Took me eight years to do that part time.
00:37:32
Speaker 1: And you you've been inducted into the Global Accounting Hall of Fame. I didn't over such as the Global account global Management Accounting Hall of Fame.
00:37:40
Speaker 2: Done your research, Well, then that's not how I was. It was. It was an incredible honor. It was an incredible honor and I'm I'm eternally thankful for the honor. And I felt I had a still a gap in my in my skills set in accounting. So I went back to university again and became an countant. And and and the thing that gave me most pleasure in my days and I had a clinic on Portrait at Well. And at the time, I used to go down to my father's office on Port Road. It was only a two kilometers down the road. Every day I'd go in my break, would have a cup of coffee or a cup of tea, and I used to all day look forward just to those few minutes because I just loved this company.
00:38:25
Speaker 1: We're going to write out of time. Did your dad eventually lead a happy life? Did? Would you? Would he have passed away satisfact, with satisfaction of what he'd achieved.
00:38:34
Speaker 2: I think, I believe so. I believe so. He took a tremendous amount of pride in what he achieved in Australia and in seeing his all of his children be happy and do well in Australia. He was a believer, but he he also believed in in what this great country gave us. He always said, I hope one day when I die, I hope I go to heaven. And if I go to heaven, my only wish is that heaven is as good as Australia. As good as Australia, because you thought nothing can be better than Australia. That's how much he appreciated the opportunity that this great country gave us.
00:39:11
Speaker 1: So he developed the OTR the smoke marts. Did you have any hesitances about selling the cigarettes? With that an issue for you as a doctor.
00:39:21
Speaker 2: I wouldn't be truthful if I don't say that. I you know I was ambivalent about about it, being in a business that sold tobacco. The question was often a pragmatic one. If there was no Spoke Mart, they did not sell tobacco, would people stop buying tobacco? Some may not like that that narrative, but that's that's the truth of the matter. And I did take up a part of that business. In developing the gift box brand, there was an opportunity and I started that part of the business and I took it to good places over a seventeen year journey.
00:39:52
Speaker 1: So that's all been sold now, correct. So how do you spend your day.
00:39:57
Speaker 2: I'm in the business of murder, sport and property. So property still is there from the Peregrine days that that hasn't changed, you know. I live and breathe sport and motorsport. The ben Motorsport Park is the single largest private investment in Australia's sport and entertainment history.
00:40:16
Speaker 1: Is it the biggest park in the world there in the world.
00:40:20
Speaker 2: There is no motorsport facility like it anywhere in the world. It is a unique you know, for a facility right here in South Australia. To win International Mosport Facility of the Year is an incredible accolade. And it's right here an hour from Adelaide. And Malala is also part of the group, and Malala is on a resurgence. It's a wonderful, wonderful facility with soul that really has a soul. And I continue on my ambition to bring the biggest and best events to South Australia.
00:40:49
Speaker 1: Have been able to fire your kids with your ambition and your grandfathers and their grandfathers.
00:40:55
Speaker 2: I have three children. One of them loves My daughter, Sarah loves motorsport and she's a keen go karter and so she's got the gene. My other two children are active spectators, if I can put it that way.
00:41:12
Speaker 1: Sam. It's great. It's always great catching up with you. But it's been a great chat and I feel we've just scratched the surface. There's so much there. Thank you so much for coming in and good luck with that ambition. You have to take South Australia bigger and better as you're proving to do. Thank you so much for coming in.
00:41:28
Speaker 2: Thank you for your time.
00:41:29
Speaker 1: Doctor Sam Chehin was my guest. Folks, thank you for joining us.
