SEPANG, Nov 4 — Over 184,000 spectators turned up to watch the three-day 2024 Malaysian Motorcycle Grand Prix (MotoGP) at the Sepang International Circuit (SIC) here.
SIC chief executive officer Azhan Shafriman Hanif said though it did not meet the target of 200,000 spectators, it still exceeded last year’s figure of 182,912.
“It is still a glorious day for me. Although we did not achieve 200,000 people as targeted, we still drew nearly 185,000 spectators, or, to be exact, 184,923.
“What I can say is that everything went smoothly, we have stakeholders happy with this achievement,” he told reporters after the MotoGP concluded yesterday.
The best part, he said, was this year’s edition saw Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim attending his first MotoGP race.
He attributed the encouraging response from the public to Rahmah ticket sales, priced at RM49.90.
“Many bought the K2 Hillstand tickets. Although it is uncovered and has no seats, they still bought tickets and, as we saw, (yesterday) there were many people at the K2 Hillstand. Thank you KBS (Youth and Sports Ministry) for supporting us,” he said.
Meanwhile, Azhan said the SIC is open to letting local riders train at the circuit and they will only be charged the security and marshal fees.
“I promise all Malaysian riders, whoever wants to train here can just contact us and, if there is an empty slot, they can use the SIC to train.
“However, we need to set a stipulation based on categories, whereby those riding ‘kapcai’ (underbone motorcycles) will not be allowed to train with those riding 250cc and 600cc machines, for safety purposes. We invite everyone to train here as rental for the circuit is free,” he said.
— Bernama
