Marc Marquez dominated recent MotoGP races at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.(Photo: Doug McSchooler/for The Star)Buy Photo
MotoGP has gone the way of Formula One at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
After eight years of hosting the top international motorcycle series, IMS confirmed Friday it will not stage the Red Bull Indianapolis Grand Prix in 2016.
MotoGP arrived at IMS in 2008, a year after F-1 departed after an eight-year run as well.
MotoGP will not return for the same reason F-1 left: economics.
In 2012 and '13, Dorna Sports, which manages MotoGP, packaged two U.S. races in an effort to defray travel expenses. But the event at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca in Salinas, Calif., was not on the schedule either of the past two years.
IMS President Doug Boles said attendance at last month's event was the highest in four years — Dorna Sports announced a three-day total of 145,558, with 67,648 on Sunday — but the track's projection for '16 could not guarantee financial success given the expectation of an increased sanctioning fee.
Boles said the IMS fan base has shown to be "four-wheel rather than two-wheel."
This year's MotoGP event was Aug. 7-9, which leaves a hole in next year's IMS schedule. Boles doesn't expect to fill it.
"It's no secret we continue to be interested in a proper endurance race, and there are options," Boles told The Indianapolis Star. "But we have to figure out exactly what those options are, so that's probably a 2017 project."
The three major sanctioning bodies that stage such sports car races are IMSA (with the Tudor United SportsCar Championship), the FIA's World Endurance Championship, and the Pirelli World Challenge. IMSA's event is the most likely to be selected given its U.S. stature and previous work with IMS (events in 2012, '13 and '14).
Key to next year, Boles said, is completing the track's renovation project and hosting the 100th Indianapolis 500 on May 29.
IMS also will have IndyCar's Grand Prix of Indianapolis on May 14, the Brickyard Vintage Racing Invitational expected to be June 17-19, and NASCAR's Brickyard 400 event July 22-24.
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