The first United States Grand Prix was held in as a non-championship race at the
Daytona International Speedway on the 2-mile or 3.2 kilometre long motorcycle course. In , the
FIM upgraded the Daytona race to world championship status by making it the opening round of the 1964
Grand Prix motorcycle racing season. A feud between the FIM and the
American Motorcyclist Association (AMA) meant that AMA competitors such as
Gary Nixon,
Dick Mann and Roger Reiman were prevented from entering the FIM sanctioned event. This marked the first time that Grand Prix motorcycle racing raced on the North American continent. Spectator attendance for this race was low as there was little interest from the American public, who preferred the championship organized by the AMA and as a result was not interested in the "European" style of racing. On top of that, the American organizers wanted to include a sidecar race in their program but refused to pay the extra travel expenses. While last year's bumpy section had been reprofiled for 1989, riders still complained it was dangerous - especially Turns 11, 1 and 2. During the race, an ambulance drove on the track in dangerous manner to assist the crashed out
Wayne Gardner who had broken his leg after a heavy shunt exiting Turn 5, with no yellow flags being shown to the riders. A bizarre incident occurred on the cooldown lap of the 1989 Grand Prix, when
Bubba Shobert hit the back of
Kevin Magee's motorcycle at high speed after he failed to see the Australian. On lap two, Magee suffered a heavy accident whilst being in the top positions, his second in two years at this circuit. The race had to be red flagged to allow an ambulance to enter the circuit, where the Australian was taken to the hospital with severe head trauma. There he was operated and a blood clot in his brain was surgically removed, after which he was kept in an artificial coma for some time. The accident meant he was out of the 1990 season. In
1992 the United States Grand Prix was taken off the calendar in favour of other venues preferred by
Bernie Ecclestone, who was increasingly involved in Grand Prix motorcycle racing at the time. For the however the event returned for two more years as Ecclestone focused more on Formula 1 again. After a ten year hiatus, the event was brought back for the third time in on the same circuit as before - Laguna Seca. The track had undergone the needed updates and safety requirements and was now considered to be safe enough to host a U.S. Grand Prix again. During the last existence of the U.S. Grand Prix, two other races co-existed with each other for one season in 2013 - the Indianapolis Grand Prix and the Grand Prix of the Americas. The first Grand Prix existed from 2008 until 2015 and the second one still is held today, only being cancelled in after the outbreak of the
COVID-19 pandemic. In 2026, MotoGP quietly changed the name of the
Grand Prix held in
Circuit of the Americas in
Austin, Texas, to the United States Grand Prix. ==Official names and sponsors==