MotoGP India Postponed: In what is not such a pleasant news for MotoGP fans in India, the India round of the MotoGP championship will not take place on the scheduled date in September. Instead the championship has been moved to March 2025.
The news was confirmed by news agency PTI which cited local promoters of the race as its source. It was reportd that the race promoters were yet to settle the dues with Dorna who were the owners of the rights. Reports of such nature meant there was ambiguity over the race which was set to happen from September 20 to 22.
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The clarification, however, came after Dorna and co-promoters Fairstreet Sports along with the Uttar Pradesh goverment had a meeting on Tuesday (May 28). After this conference, the decision was taken to shift the race to a later date.
'Unpaid Dues Not A Factor In Shifting Race To Next Year': Fairstreet Sports
"It was mutually decided to shift the race to March next year. We are looking at first or second week of March. All the stakeholders including Dorna agreed that the September weather is not conducive for the race and it is tough on the riders and marshals as experienced last year," Fairstreet Sports CEO Pushkar Nath Srivastava told PTI.
In addition, Srivastava was quick to deny that the postponement had anything to do with unpaid dues.
"All payments were being made in between and whatever is left will be paid by next month. So that was not really a factor in shifting the race to next year. We also thought of doing it in November but that would have meant four back-to-back races which would have been tough on the teams and the riders," Srivastava said.
"We also expect more fans to turn up in March as the weather will be better," he added.
As far as the ongoing season is concerned, it began in Doha on March 10. Before the start of the season, Dorna along with the local promoters had signed a seven-year agreement to have the race in India. Uttar Pradesh government too is one of the promoters after being the sponsor in the previous season. MotoGP India 2023, which was won by Marco Bezzecchi at the Buddh International Circuit in Greater Noida, was easily the biggest motorsports event held in India since the last Formula 1 race in 2013.