When American media conglomerate Liberty Media recently purchased Formula One from a consortium of money-sucking, profit-boosting leeches, the company indicated a renewed focus on the American market was one of its priorities.
That sounds a lot like Dorna about five years ago, when three MotoGP events took place in the USA in 2012 and 2013, at Austin, Laguna Seca and Indianapolis. Now that lineup is down to just one, at Austin.
But MotoGP still received a nice boost to its profile on Uncle Sam’s shores this week with a lengthy feature profile in The New York Times on reigning World Champion Marc Marquez. The story, which also included many photos, glowingly described the interesting dichotomy of Marquez’s gravity-defying skill and superstar speed on a Grand Prix motorcycle with his continued desire to live at his parents’ house in Spain.
It’s the “boy next door is an alien” angle that nearly every ardent MotoGP fan knows. But MotoGP dorks are not the target audience of “The Gray Lady,” so this feature opened the door to one of the world’s more extraordinary athletes and exciting sports to a readership that probably knows little or nothing about either.
Story link: https://www.nytimes.com/2017/02/07/sports/marc-marquez-motorcyle-champion-hometown.html?_r=1
