Schwantz Takes Over as Houston MotoGP Promoter

Kevin Schwantz has taken control as event promoter to bring the MotoGP World Championship to Texas, but the former world champion may have his work cut out for him to make it happen.

According to a report by the Austin American-Statesman, Schwantz and his company 3FourTexas have assumed promoting rights for a MotoGP race at Austin’s Circuit of the Americas after his business partner Tavo Hellmund was ousted by track organizers.

Hellmund’s Full Throttle Productions worked with 3FourTexas and to forge an agreement with MotoGP promoter Dorna in April 2011 to bring MotoGP to the new Circuit of the Americas in 2013. Hellmund also played a role in landing Formula 1 racing at the Circuit of the Americas. Since then, however, construction of the circuit was halted due to conflicts between the track’s rights holders and Hellmund.

In November, F1 rights holder Bernie Ecclestone declared its agreement with Hellmund void due to a breach in their contract. F1 then negotiated a new deal with the track’s investors but without Hellmund. The circuit will host its first F1 race in November but there has been no progress on the MotoGP front.

In an email response to American-Statesman inquiries, Schwantz says he has made overtures to Circuit of the Americas but the two sides have yet to make serious headway.

Several weeks ago, Tavo was nice enough to step aside and asked COTA to talk directly with me about a MotoGP contract for them. To date, COTA has not had any meaningful discussions with me regarding MotoGP at COTA.

Your question is probably better addressed to COTA. I, of course, hope that there is MotoGP in Austin and have offered COTA multiple options in how to achieve that.

[Source: Austin American-Statesman]

Related Reading
Texas to Host MotoGP in 2013

2012 MotoGP Silverstone Preview