- Dorna confirms RNF Racing will not be permitted entry to 2024 season
- CryptoData carried out ‘repeated infractions and breaches’
- RNF Racing sold majority stake to CryptoData in 2022
- CryptoData also had three-year deal to title sponsor Austrian GP
Nascar’s Trackhouse Racing are rumoured to be looking at a MotoGP entry from 2024, according to The Race.
The team, co-owned by American singer-songwriter Pitbull, are currently in talks with the series’ commercial rights holder Dorna to take over the RNF Racing entry.
The series has confirmed that RNF Racing will not remain on the grid next season due to ‘repeated infractions and breaches of the participation agreement’ which have affected the ‘public image of MotoGP’.
Team principal Razlan Razali departed the outfit at the weekend, seemingly due to a feud with majority shareholder CryptoData.
The Race reports that the Romanian company had hoped to continue without Razali, but an on ongoing dispute with Dorna over title sponsorship fees for this year’s Austrian Grand Prix has seen the commercial rights holder look elsewhere.
CryptoData signed a three-year deal to title sponsor the Austrian race in 2022, while the company stepped in to save RNF Racing from collapse at the end of last season.
Razali previously told BlackBook Motorsport that he “could not guarantee whether we could even finish the season” before the intervention.
Trackhouse Racing stepping in would generate some much-desired US interest for the global motorcycling series, and the process should be relatively simple with Aprilia retaining overall ownership of their satellite team.
BlackBook says…
CryptoData made bold claims to BlackBook Motorsport about wanting to change MotoGP and “become like Red Bull but as a technology integrator in motorsport”, but clearly there was little substance to this.
While RNF Racing should have done more due diligence on this investment, their dire situation left them little choice but to accept the promise of salvation.
Inadvertently, this gives Dorna chief commercial officer Dan Rossomondo a boost in his pursuit of greater American representation in MotoGP.
He told BlackBook Motorsport that the United States is a “very important” target to “cultivate new fanbases”. Now, Trackhouse Racing can offer an unexpected but welcome step in that direction.