Riders Preferred Membership
Shop by Vehicle
Track Order
Contact Us
Tightening travel restrictions in Europe, specifically on U.S. citizens, and continued surges in COVID-19 cases, have led to another cancellation: The United States will not compete in the Motocross des Nations, scheduled for September 25 and 26 in Italy.
International travel is already complicated enough, but things got even murkier this week when the European Union removed the United States from its safe travel list on Monday. Individual countries in the EU are free to set their own travel restrictions, but with the possibility of being blocked from travel to Europe at the last minute, the team decided to call off its participation this year.
"Due to the sizeable financial risk faced by all the team stakeholders, and the unknowns in play here, we came to the unanimous conclusion that suspending our participation was the responsible decision," said AMA Director of Racing Mike Pelletier.
It's the second consecutive year the U.S. team's participation has been blocked by the pandemic.
What about traveling the other direction?
There has been a lot of speculation about the Red Bull Grand Prix of the Americas MotoGP race, scheduled for October 3 at the Circuit of the Americas in Austin, Texas. The EU decision affects U.S. citizens traveling to Europe, not the mostly European racers and team crews traveling to the United States. But Texas has been one of the centers of the recent surge in COVID-19 cases in the United States and Austin has been hit just as hard as any other part of the state. The Handbuilt Show, typically part of the MotoGP weekend, has been canceled for 2021.
But after MotoGP canceled rounds in Thailand and Australia and put the Argentina race in the postponed category (no one really expects it to happen), series organizers Dorna appear to be determined to carry on with the U.S. race, regardless of the situation in Texas, according to multiple reporters in Europe with good connections inside the series. And, after all, things could be significantly better in a month. We can hope.
