MotoGP: The USA round falls under Austin, Texas’ new ‘State of Emergency’ ruling. Prospects look iffy for April.

After the cancellation of the 2020 opening round of the MotoGP championship and the postponement of the second round in Thailand (move to October in the calendar, to replace the Aragon round) there now seems to be early indications that another round of race action is falling foul of Coronavirus.

The, what-would-have-been third round of MotoGP, at the Circuit of the Americas in Texas due to be held from April 3- 5, is looking increasingly under threat. The city of Austin’s Mayor, Steve Adler has now declared a ‘state of emergency’ in a bid to stop the spread of the virus. The move means that no gathering of more than 2,500 people can take place.

The first event to fall foul of this decision is the South-by-Southwest music and film festival. Due to be held from 13 to 22 March, SXSW has now been cancelled.

At the moment, there’s nothing from Dorna about this but given what we told you last week when Dorna boss Carmelo Ezpeleta said that ‘GPs behind closed doors could happen’, this may just be the first time that we such measures take place. It’s entirely possible that the USA round could still happen, but without any fans allowed trackside to watch the action.