Marc Marquez "easily won the Grand Prix of the Americas for the fourth time, but Circuit of the Americas won the weekend when MotoGP visited Central Texas last weekend," according to Sean Shapiro of MY STATESMAN.
This year’s event "drew the largest three-day crowd in the four-year history of the event in Austin." According to Dorna, the commercial rights holder for MotoGP, "the attendance over the three days was 131,811, including a race-day crowd of 56,528."
During the inaugural event in '13, "the three-day attendance was 131,082, with a race-day crowd of 61,901." Attendance numbers then dropped to 118,918 in '14 and 119,673 in '15 "before spiking this spring." From '13-15, MotoGP "also had a race in Indianapolis, and California’s Laguna Seca Raceway was on the calendar until 2014." This year Austin "was left as the only North American race when MotoGP officials didn’t renew the contract in Indianapolis." Marquez said, "I was really disappointed when Indy was gone from the calendar, because America is very important for MotoGP. It’s really important for the market of USA." Indianapolis’ loss "was Austin’s gain; the race in Indianapolis had bigger attendance each of the past two years." In '14, Indianapolis "had a three-day attendance of 132,588, and that jumped to 145,588 in 2015." For the time being, it is "going to stay that way." MotoGP and COTA officials "signed a 10-year contract in 2013" (MY STATESMAN, 4/12).
