Justin Marks offers some insights: Trackhouse is only just getting started in MotoGP

With the arrival of Trackhouse Racing, a new chapter began in MotoGP for the 2024 season. The US team took over the grid places from RNF and entered into a close partnership with Aprilia. Two and a half years later, team owner Justin Marks considers the actual build-up phase of his team to be slowly coming to an end.

Trackhouse brought a wealth of experience from US motorsport with it. Marks is also active in NASCAR alongside the musician Pitbull. Nevertheless, when entering MotoGP, his aim was not simply to transfer successful concepts from the US to the World Motorcycle Championship.

“I wouldn’t say that we want to make MotoGP more like NASCAR,” Marks clarified during the recent race weekend at Silverstone. Rather, Trackhouse had initially taken a deliberately low-key approach. “I think we’re only just beginning to establish what we want to be in MotoGP.”

Trackhouse in MotoGP: The foundations are in place

In the first two years, the main focus was on settling into the new environment. “We wanted to make a soft landing. We didn’t want to turn up here on the first day and immediately start doing all these crazy, different things,” explained the American.

Instead, Marks first wanted to understand how MotoGP works. “We had to find our bearings and get to know the sport, the people and the dynamics, and understand what it takes to be successful.”

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Nicht selten: Eine Trackhouse-Aprilia vor einer Werks-Aprilia

Foto: Gold & Goose

It is only on this basis that Trackhouse intends to capitalise more fully on its own strengths. Marks counts collaboration with sponsors and partners as a key part of this. “We want to do what we do best: find partners, inspire them, get them excited about this sport and then develop great programmes with them.”

Marks therefore regards the past two and a half years primarily as a learning phase. He says the recent sporting successes are not the decisive factor behind Trackhouse’s plans to take the next step. “It actually has nothing to do with winning,” emphasised Marks. “We’ve now reached the point where we know what we can be here in MotoGP.”

US roots part of the identity

Accordingly, his sights are already set beyond the current season. The Trackhouse owner has particularly high expectations for 2027 and 2028. “I’m looking forward to that. We’ve now reached the point where our staff in the US who are involved with MotoGP, and we ourselves, are really beginning to recognise, through our joint efforts, the direction we want to take.”

In doing so, the American heritage is set to remain an important part of the company’s identity, without Trackhouse defining itself exclusively through the US market. “We want to celebrate the fact that we are an American-owned company. At the same time, however, we also want to show what we can achieve in a global environment, celebrate cultures around the world and make the most of the opportunities that arise from this.”

Looking ahead to the coming years, Marks therefore announced with confidence: “We have great things ahead of us.” The team owner cannot pinpoint a single turning point in the development so far. Rather, he sees progress as the result of numerous small steps.

“I don’t know if I can single out two or three decisive factors,” Marks admitted. “We’ve simply taken a methodical approach, remained committed to our staff, supported the riders and nurtured our relationship with Aprilia.”

Small steps rather than a big bang

Above all, patience has been crucial. Trackhouse has deliberately refrained from trying to change too much in a short space of time. “We’ve tried to be very methodical and patient, and not to do too much too quickly. We were aware that this is a difficult sport and that we want to be here for the long term.”

Marks describes the philosophy with a simple approach: “We try to improve by one per cent every day in each of these areas.” Over a longer period, these small improvements have added up.

For Marks, this work is now beginning to pay off. “Over time, this has a compounding effect. I think right now you can see how it’s all coming to life.”