COTA clarifies partnership dispute

19/04/2012

A statement issued by COTA (Circuit of The Americas) reads:

Representatives of Circuit of The Americas have set the record straight about claims that circuit investor Red McCombs might sell a portion of his ownership interest in the sports, entertainment and business development facility under construction in southeast Travis County to Tavo Hellmund, owner of Full Throttle Productions and former Circuit executive.

"To be clear, as Red McCombs has stated, he has no intention of selling his ownership interests in Circuit of The Americas," Julie Loignon, vice president of public and community relations stated. "One of the partnerships Mr. McCombs has invested in is Accelerator Holdings LLC, which holds a minority interest in the Circuit of The Americas. Even if Mr. Hellmund was to acquire his pro-rata portion of Mr. McCombs' shares of Accelerator Holdings, that portion would represent an approximate 2 percent interest in Circuit of the Americas. As such, Mr. Hellmund could not influence the seven-member board structure or management of Accelerator Holdings, let alone the board, management team or operations of Circuit of The Americas.

"The Circuit's ownership seeks to resolve Mr. Hellmund's dispute through arbitration, which was outlined and agreed to in writing by Mr. Hellmund," Loignon continued. "We remain committed to seeing that process through to resolution. In the interim, we continue to make great progress on the construction and look forward to hosting the return of Formula 1 racing to the United States this fall with the inaugural Unites States Grand Prix in our home city of Austin, Texas."