Red Bull U.S. Grand Prix Moves
Henny Ray Abrams | July 28, 2009
The Red Bull U.S. Grand Prix will move off the July 4 weekend and back to its more traditional date when the MotoGP World Championship pays its annual visit to the Monterey peninsula in 2010.The tenth of 18 rounds of the 2010 championship will run on the weekend of July 23-25, three weeks later than this year’s race and one weekend after the Germany Grand Prix at the Sachsenring. It will also mark the start of the three-week summer break.The third annual Red Bull Indianapolis Grand Prix will again run on the last weekend in August. Next year’s race is set for August 27-29.The 2010 calendar isn’t much different than this year’s. It again begins under the lights in Qatar before moving to Japan (Motegi) two weeks later, then to the heart of the European season the following weekend in Jerez de la Frontera, Spain.The biggest changes come during the European phase and involve the races in Great Britain and Catalunya. With the move from Donington Park to Silverstone, the British round will run more than a month earlier, now on June 6, the traditional date for the Italian GP at Mugello, which moves up a week to May 30. Catalunya, which traditionally runs after Mugello, now moves to the July 4 weekend recently vacated by the Laguna Seca race.Only one race separates the two rounds in the U.S. The Czech Grand Prix on Aug. 13-15 runs three weeks after Laguna Seca and two weeks before Indy.Then it’s back to Europe for Misano, followed a week on by the only new race on the calendar at the Balatonring in Hungary. The race was originally on this year’s calendar, but was postponed a year.Three weeks on the Australasian swing begins, but with the dates reversed. The Malaysian GP is on Oct. 10, a week before Phillip Island.The series then moves back to Europe for the final two races, first in Portugal on Oct. 31, then the traditional season finale at Valencia a week later.2010 MotoGP Calendar:April 11-Qatar, Doha/LosailApril 25-Japan, MotegiMay 2-Spain, Jerez de la FronteraMay 16-France, Le MansMay 30-Italy, MugelloJune 6-Great Britain, SilverstoneJune 26-Netherlands, AssenJuly 4-Catalunya, CatalunyaJuly 18-Germany, SachsenringJuly 25-United States, Laguna SecaAugust 15-Czech Rep., BrnoAugust 29-Indianapolis, IndianapolisSeptember 12-San Marino & Riviera di Rimini, MisanoSeptember 19-Hungary, BalatonringOctober 10-Malaysia, SepangOctober 17-Australia, Phillip IslandOctober 31-Portugal, EstorilNovember 7-Valencia, Ricardo Tormo – Valencia
Henny Ray Abrams | Contributing Editor
Abrams is the longest-serving contributor at Cycle News. Over the course of his 35-some years of writing and shooting photos, he’s covered events from MotoGP to the Motocross World Championship - and everything in between.
