Top 15 Stories of 2012. Number 13: Texas-Sized Drama
Friday, December 28, 2012
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Schwantz was connected at the professional hip with original COTA promoter Tavo Hellmund. The two are friends and reportedly even designed the track's lauded 3.427-mile circuit layout together. It's hard to believe that Schwantz, who—for the record—has never spoken to us about the drama at COTA, didn't have a hard in designing the section of the COTA track which seems like a tribute to Suzuka. Schwantz's first Grand Prix win, an amazing victory for the ages, came at Suzuka.
Trouble started to brew in the fall of 2011 when circuit financiers Red McCombs and Bobby Epstein saw Hellmund as an unneeded middleman between them and Formula One boss Bernie Ecclestone and reportedly forced out Hellmund as the track continued to negotiate its deal to bring F1 to Texas. Hellmund sued COTA in March 2012, a suit that vanished in mid-June in an "out-of-court settlement" that presumably included a large check going one way or the other. That paved the way for the inaugural F1 race at COTA in November 2012.
But Schwantz claimed the deal with Dorna for a MotoGP race at COTA was with his company 3fourTexas. So McCombs and Epstein started to send smoke signals in 2012 that a world-level motorcycle race might take place at the track in 2013, but it might not be MotoGP due to the impasse with Schwantz. World Superbike was rumored to be Red and Bobby's escape hatch.
The dispute reached a new plateau of nasty when Schwantz filed a lawsuit against COTA on Sept. 7, claiming the track went "behind his back" to negotiate a deal with Dorna for a MotoGP race starting in 2013.
Schwantz and COTA officials traded public barbs in the following week, with Schwantz claiming "fraud" by COTA and COTA countering by saying Schwantz "never had an agreement" to conduct a MotoGP race at COTA. On Sept. 12, Dorna weighed in on the side of COTA. Dorna claimed it was forced to terminate its agreement with Schwantz in July 2012 because 3fourTexas didn't provide Dorna with required evidence of rights, licenses and permits for the event by June 28.
This was a stunning development, one which must have gutted Schwantz. Here is a true modern day Grand Prix legend and ex-world champion, the first rider to ever have his Grand Prix number retired, a person whose image is tattooed on the arms of his fans in some cases, left out in the cold at a track not far from his home. How big is Schwantz? Valentino Rossi is respectful of all former GP heroes, but if you ask him for his favorite, he says "Of course, Schwantz".
Dorna then issued a provisional 2013 MotoGP schedule Sept. 21, with a blank slot April 21 earmarked for Austin. That slot was cemented when an updated 2013 schedule was released Oct. 16 with the inaugural Grand Prix of the Americas listed for April 21, even though the legal action between Schwantz and COTA continues behind the scenes.
Angry men have been drawing lines in the Texas dirt for generations. Sources in Austin say that the lawsuit between Schwantz and COTA, sadly, continues to this day.
In the end, we don't know who said what or when, or who gave what to whom. In the end we're just American MotoGP fans who look forward to seeing the COTA track and want Kevin Schwantz, a Texan and MotoGP legend, to be a part of the track and the event, for him to stand shoulder to shoulder with the men who brought this amazing facility to completion.
Come on guys ...
