Trackhouse Racing MotoGP™ headed to Southern California and the bright lights of Los Angeles to show the world the first color scheme of its Aprilia RS-GP motorcycles in front of a select crowd of US racing legends and industry elite.
Trackhouse Entertainment Group owner Justin Marks announced, back in December 2023, that his organization will field a MotoGP™ World Championship team in 2024, a move expanding its reach across the global motorsports world and building on its success in the NASCAR series. Just six weeks later the Team is pulling back the curtains on its season-opening design with two of its Aprilia MotoGP™ prototype bikes and introducing Miguel Oliveira and Raul Fernandez in team colors.
Evoking a strong American theme in its livery, the team is aiming to represent the next chapter in the USA’s long and successful relationship with the premier class of road-racing – legends like Kenny Roberts, Freddie Spencer, Eddie Lawson, Wayne Rainey, Randy Mamola, John Kocinski, Kenny Roberts Jr. and the late, great, Nicky Hayden all blazed a trail that Trackhouse seeks to continue.
A strong shared vision for the development of on-track performance reflects Trackhouse’s championship focused culture which extends to its vibrant and dynamic approach in NASCAR. Together with Aprilia Racing and its parent company Piaggio Group, they look to unlock wide-ranging opportunities worldwide.
At the core of any racing team are its riders and Trackhouse enters its first season in the World Championship with a strong, well-balanced, line-up:
#88 Miguel Oliveira joins the Trackhouse Racing MotoGP™ Team as an established star of MotoGP™. He marked himself out for future success in Portugal from his earliest days on track and has shown his prodigious talent and intelligence throughout the Championship battles he has fought in his career to date on the world stage. His five race wins since he arrived in the premier class have marked him out as a man to watch, particularly when he can run at his own rhythm, or rain falls. His 2023 season was disrupted by injuries suffered largely through no fault of his own and so 2024 will be all about staying fit, working on finding the sweet spot with the new Aprilia RS-GP bike and making his proven pace count throughout the year.
Miguel Oliveira: “I’m obviously super happy to be in the US launching this American team in MotoGP™. It’s a great pleasure to be a part of the Trackhouse family. I can’t wait to get started with the new season, new colors, exciting colors, very racy and competitive ones. I can’t wait to get on the new bike during the test in a few days and get the season started.”
#25 Raul Fernandez arrives in the Trackhouse Team as one of the youngest, most exciting, riders in the MotoGP™ World Championship. Since the age of 11 years old, when he learnt his early racecraft on the tracks around Madrid, he has been ‘one to watch’. No rookie has shaken up the intermediate Moto2™ class like Raul in 2021, when he blitzed the field with eight victories and only missed out on the Championship crown in his rookie year, injury preventing him from securing vital points towards the end of the campaign. 2023 ended strongly with a top 5 finish in the final race and 2024 will be a year that Raul looks to stamp his speed on the timesheets from the opening race in Qatar through to the final round in Valencia.
Raul Fernandez: “Today you saw our livery for this year. For me it’s really nice and it’s a great opportunity to show the American flag. I think it’s great that America will have a MotoGP™ team, so for me it’s a huge pleasure to be here and show this flag. I really like the US and its people. The presentation was just amazing. To be here in Los Angeles is just a dream! I’m really happy and have a great feeling for this season. I think I’ll enjoy it a lot. See you on track!”
Trackhouse Entertainment Group is the owner of Trackhouse Racing’s NASCAR team, which operates out of Concord, North Carolina. After a full-time driving career in sports cars and NASCAR, Justin Marks founded Trackhouse Racing in 2020 and started fielding Chevrolets in the NASCAR Cup Series in 2021.
The new team has enjoyed success on track. Daniel Suárez became the first Mexican driver to win a Cup Series race when he visited victory lane in 2022, New Zealander and three-time Supercar champion Shane van Gisbergen won at Chicago in his debut Cup race on July 2 and American Ross Chastain finished second in the standings in 2022 and posted four victories including the 2023 Cup Series season finale.
Marks brought 2007 Formula One champion Kimi Raikkonen to NASCAR and Trackhouse Racing in 2022 and 2023 as part of the team's PROJECT91 program created to give international stars a chance to compete in the sport. It was the same program that led to van Gisbergen’s win in Chicago.
Off the track, Trackhouse Racing as a brand has proven itself as a progressive, marketing-minded team, reimagining how the sport is presented to its fans, media partners and sponsors. It brought in international entertainment superstar Pitbull as a team partner, created a new style of team clothing, increased digital presence to fans and created live entertainment at racetracks throughout the season.
Justin Marks: “This launch is an incredible moment. It’s the combination of an incredible amount of work that everybody at Trackhouse, MotoGP™ and Aprilia have put together in a very short period of time to make a little bit of magic happen. That’s basically in the space of two or three months, we set up a MotoGP™ team, ready to compete and to be able to do something great on the racetrack. We’ve got a group of people that are all very, very talented and passionate about the season ahead of us. It’s also special, because we are an American team. We are a global brand, but an American company and to be able to celebrate the formation of this team and debut these incredible bikes in an iconic American city like Hollywood is truly a special, special thing. I look forward to the season.
We don’t really know what to expect, I think as far as performance on the racetrack. All I know is that we’ve got great equipment with Aprilia, great people and very, very motivated, healthy and happy riders. Typically, that equals speed in this type of sport, so it’s going to be a big learning experience for me and Trackhouse Racing that is used to working in Nascar, but we’ve got a group of people that are very experienced in MotoGP™, two great riders, a bunch of great mechanics and incredible partners in Aprilia. So, I really think the sky is the limit for this team.”
The key Partners joining Trackhouse Racing in the MotoGP™ World Championship are Aprilia Racing – the racing department for Piaggio Group, Sterilgrada Alimenti – pioneering producer of milk and fruit based beverages and foods, GoPro – turned the world of personal video on its head and has driven shared experiences ever since.
Following the Launch in Los Angeles, Trackhouse Racing MotoGP™ Team moves to Sepang, Malaysia for its first test ahead of the opening of the MotoGP™ World Championship in Qatar, March 8-10.