Founded as a NASCAR team by stock car driver Justin Marks and now co-owned by rapper Pitbull, Trackhouse has taken over as Aprilia’s satellite team after CryptoData RNF was expelled from the championship.
It will continue to field RNF’s 2023 rider duo, Miguel Oliveira and Raul Fernandez, and is pushing for both to be on factory-spec RS-GP motorcycles rather than year-old machinery.
The American-owned squad has now unveiled a Stars and Stripes livery for the 2024 MotoGP season, with sponsorship from Italian dairy brand Sterilgarda, which has been prominent in the lower classes.
Trackhouse was quickly linked to MotoGP when RNF was kicked out of the championship for repeated breaches of its Participation Agreement, and then also to Moto3.
While an entry into the latter has not come to pass just yet, the premier class project was confirmed in December in a glitzy presentation which featured an Aprilia in another variation of a United States flag livery.
Trackhouse Racing replaces what was once the SRT squad which gave future MotoGP champion Fabio Quartararo his debut in the premier class and was the final team for which Valentino Rossi rode.
It morphed into RNF as a result of a management buyout but continued to field Yamahas and Razlan Razali remained as Team Principal, but had already made the decision to switch to Aprilia in 2023 when CryptoData bought a majority share.
Trackhouse is already a formidable operation in NASCAR, with Ross Chastain finishing second in the 2022 Cup Series standings.
It is also the team with which Shane van Gisbergen made his NASCAR debut, which turned into a sensational victory on the streets of Chicago in its ‘Project91’ entry and a full-time switch to stock car competition.
The 2024 MotoGP pre-season resumes with the Shakedown Test at Sepang on February 1-3.
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