The origins of the event trace to Ron Dickson, president of D3 Motorsport Development, who held international rights for CART racing in the 1980s. Following lobbying from prominent Queensland businessmen and a meeting with State Premier Joh Bjelke-Petersen, the Queensland Government confirmed the race for the Gold Coast. Surfers Paradise was selected over the state capital Brisbane, and Dickson's firm designed the original circuit layout — the fourth concept proposed for the area. Preliminary construction work began in 1988, and the Surfers Paradise Street Circuit opened on 15 March 1991 for the inaugural Gold Coast IndyCar Grand Prix.
The circuit measured 4.470 km in its original form, featuring several fast sections and two chicanes threading through the city's streets close to its famous beach. Construction of the temporary circuit each year was considered a benchmark achievement in motorsport venue engineering. Over a full twelve-month cycle, plans were laid and implemented to transform a bustling residential, commercial, and holiday destination into a race-capable facility. For the inaugural event alone, contractors erected seven bridges, placed 2,515 concrete barriers, installed 11,500 grandstand seats, fitted more than 140 corporate suites, and ran 10 km of debris fencing and 16 km of security fencing alongside large-scale power and telecommunications infrastructure.
The Gold Coast Indy ran as a CART-sanctioned event from 1991 through 2007, becoming the championship's flagship international fixture and a genuine highlight of the racing calendar. For most of its fifteen years as a CART event, the Gold Coast Indy attracted in excess of 100,000 spectators over the course of its weekends, a testament to the event's appeal to both local motorsport fans and the resort city's tourist population.
The circuit's combination of high-speed sections and tight chicanes rewarded drivers with technical versatility. The beach-side setting and the spectacle of open-wheel machinery racing through city streets made it distinctive among CART rounds, which were otherwise dominated by ovals and permanent road courses in North America.
Safety standards at the circuit were continuously upgraded through the CART era. One notable advancement in the later Champ Car years was the installation of double-height debris fencing, adding 610 panels in high-impact zones. The circuit earned repeated praise from the Confederation of Australian Motorsport and the FIA for its safety standards.
Sébastien Bourdais won at Surfers Paradise in Champ Car in 2005 and 2007, later becoming the first and only driver to win at the venue in both Champ Car and a V8 Supercar (achieving the latter in 2011 and again in 2012), underscoring the circuit's enduring place in motorsport history.
Following the merger of the Indy Racing League and Champ Car World Series in February 2008, the future of the Gold Coast event appeared initially secure, with agreements in place through 2013 as an IRL IndyCar Series round. However, after a single demonstration event under the new IndyCar banner, the American open-wheel category was dropped from the Gold Coast calendar, ending eighteen years of continuous history between CART/Champ Car and the circuit.
An attempt was made to replace the international open-wheel category with A1 Grand Prix. In November 2008, the Queensland Government reached a five-year deal with A1 GP, renaming the event the Nikon SuperGP. However, the A1 GP series collapsed before the first event could take place, with the UK arm of the series entering liquidation in June 2009. The planned A1 GP cars were impounded in the UK, and the round was replaced by additional V8 Supercar races at short notice.
From 2010, the Surfers Paradise circuit was substantially shortened to 2.960 km to accommodate Supercars Championship events and reduce construction costs. The Turn 2 chicane was replaced by a hairpin leading back to the original track at the Esses. A further factor making the original layout permanently unavailable was the construction of the G:link light rail line over a section of the course, meaning the full historic layout can no longer be reinstated.
The event continued as a Supercars Championship fixture — the Gold Coast 500 — and the circuit retained its status as one of Australian touring car racing's most popular venues. The Surfers Paradise Street Circuit stands as a legacy of CART's international ambition through the 1990s and early 2000s, representing a rare example of a temporary street circuit that sustained world-class single-seater racing for nearly two decades.
The construction methodology developed at Surfers Paradise — combining a year-round planning cycle with strict safety requirements and minimal disruption to a live urban environment — was recognized internationally as a benchmark for temporary street circuit construction. The event's commercial success in integrating motorsport into a major resort destination influenced subsequent street race proposals worldwide.
The Gold Coast Indy also served as a platform for CART's efforts to build a global brand presence at a time when the series was actively competing with Formula 1 for international recognition, and its longevity as a fixture through the series' golden years of the 1990s cemented it as one of the defining events of the CART era.