Austin MotoGP 2013 in jeopardy?

Tavo Hellmund, the racing promoter credited with envisioning and then creating the framework for the Austin F1 race through his contacts within the racing industry—including F1 supremo Bernie Ecclestone—has filed suit against his former financial partners in the Austin venture...



...his longstanding motorsports contacts that enabled him to land a contract for a Formula One race in the Austin area (in addition to MotoGP and Australian V8 Supercars races in 2013), was pulled out from under him via “an improper and unlawful takeover” by McCombs/Epstein “withholding…promised funding.” The suit states that Hellmund offered McCombs and Epstein 75 percent of the venture in exchange for financial backing, but when they failed to pay Ecclestone the required $23 million fee for the original F1 race contract in September of last year, that contract Hellmund negotiated was cancelled (this theoretically put McCombs and Epstein in the driver’s seat for a new contract that wouldn’t include Hellmund…but it ended up resulting in a protracted stalemate with Ecclestone, who is a longtime friend of Hellmund’s, that was only saved at the last second).



...the significance of this brouhaha in Texas is that Hellmund still holds the MotoGP contract that was announced with much fanfare back in April 2011. Thus with this latest move, unless he signs it over to COTA or someone else in much more favor with current COTA management, the chances of the 2013 debut of MotoGP in Austin are pretty darn slim.

Click to expand...

Geonerd said:

No worries! Tavo seems like a fine, upstanding person. I'm sure he'll do the right thing.

So long as someone pays the scum sucking pig the $500,000 a year he thinks he deserves.

Click to expand...

[font=Arial,]Motorcycling legend Kevin Schwantz, who figured to be the public face of that race, has been mum on the subject for months. But in February, Schwantz sent a letter to Steve Sexton, the president of Circuit of the Americas, saying, "I urge you one final time to contact Mr. (Tavo) Hellmund about obtaining the rights to host a MotoGP race in Texas, after which I would be glad to open discussions with you as the new promoter. If you have not obtained such rights from Full Throttle, then unfortunately Circuit of the Americas will not be included as a round of the FIM Grand Prix Road Racing World Championship."[/font]

Click to expand...

[font=Arial,]In his letter, Schwantz claimed, "For the benefit of the Austin facility and our Texas fans we entered into the most promoter-friendly contract in MotoGP with Full Throttle, the creator and an owner of the Circuit of the Americas project ... It is my understanding that Circuit of the Americas had the opportunity to obtain these rights on several occasions between late 2010 and the fall of 2011 but that Circuit of the Americas did not follow through."[/font]



Full Throttle is Hellmund's promotional company. In a lawsuit filed last week, Hellmund claimed there was an $18 million deal for the Circuit of the Americas to buy his share of the company and the rights to the Formula One and MotoGP races, but that the deal wasn't consummated as planned in an Oct. 25 meeting last year in the London office of Formula One boss Bernie Ecclestone.



In December, the track was able to renegotiate a contract for the Formula One race with Ecclestone after Hellmund's original contract was determined to be in breach.



No such deal has been reached regarding the rights to MotoGP.



Schwantz, a long-time friend of Hellmund's, wrote Sexton, "In the past others at the Circuit of the Americas have indicated that their group has attempted to obtain these rights from Mr. Hellmund for amounts ranging from $4 million to $17 million but that Mr. Hellmund declined."



[font=Arial,]Schwantz claimed he knew such offers hadn't been made and requested documentation of any such offers.[/font]

Click to expand...

Sexton said in an email, "We are in discussions with several major race series who have reached out to us, and our confidence is high that three to five major world-class events, including a two-wheel championship, will be on the 2013 schedule — and that these races will take place under terms favorable to the Circuit and the series owners."

Click to expand...

So, as for MotoGP in Austin: An Autoweek request for an update from Schwantz was answered by a copy of a letter that Schwantz's personal assistant says was sent to COTA president Steve Sexton on Feb. 17.​

​

​

​

​

In the letter, Schwantz said he spoke to Carmelo Ezpeleta, who is essentially the Bernie Ecclestone of MotoGP. The letter said Ezpeleta told Schwantz that Sexton had contacted the MotoGP promoter about “obtaining rights to a MotoGP race at Circuit of the Americas.” Schwantz points out in writing that the rights have already been granted—to Hellmund, Schwantz and Full Throttle—and therefore, such inquiries should be made to them, not Ezpeleta.​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

Perhaps even more notable, though, is that Schwantz claims Sexton indicated to Ezpeleta that COTA has attempted to buy the rights from Hellmund and Schwantz, and that they declined the offer, in an attempt to “overcharge Circuit of the Americas in exchange for transferring these rights,” Schwantz said in the letter. Schwantz wrote that COTA executives have variously said that COTA offered Full Throttle from $4 million to $17 million for the rights, “but that Mr. Hellmund declined. Bobby Epstein,” the chief financier of the project, “repeated these claims himself, directly telling me that he offered $10 million to Mr. Hellmund for these rights. You, I and Mr. Ezpeleta all know that such offers have not been made to Mr. Hellmund,” Schwantz wrote in the letter.​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

Schwantz also wrote that the “actions and misrepresentations made by Circuit of the Americas appear to be an attempt to interfere with the contractual relationships that currently exist between us and Full Throttle,” and that “any further attempts to interfere with the contractual relationships between the parties will be referred to my legal counsel.”​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

Bottom line, then: Schwantz and presumably Hellmund are claiming that COTA is trying an end run to get MotoGP rights, rather than honor the existing contract, which Schwantz wrote was “the most promoter-friendly contract in MotoGP racing,” and which, at the April 2011 announcement, seemed to please everyone within the organization.

​

Click to expand...

Saying Formula One race organizers do not have solid plans for road closures, traffic management, emergency services among items related to the November event, the Travis County Commissioners Court unanimously asked Tuesday that those plans be in place by June 1. County staffers are expected to immediately send a letter to Circuit of the Americas officials, saying that they need to submit a traffic plan, a roadway plan, information for a mass-gathering permit, a public safety plan and a development permit, and send weekly letters citing any issues with the organizers adhering to the county's schedule, County Judge Sam Biscoe said in the commissioners' meeting Tuesday. The county also expects drafts for some of those plans by April 30.

Click to expand...