US GP in Austin Discussion and Speculation...

Requiring a freaking garden!!! What the heck, do they have to hire people to hug trees during the event as well?

 

Who is the skinny idiot wearing the starfish on the city council? She should read the contract before opening her mouth to ask questions? I'm beginning to be thankful that I don't live in Austin.

 

I'll be damned, approved.

 

Welcome to Austin, Dude.

This is the city that once elected a person who sold flowers on street corners as Mayor.

The good news is the freak show is pretty much irrelevant. It's the faces you don't see that matter.

Dale

 

Local politicians are the same world over

 

I'm trying to determine how the negative nancies will spin this news to indicate failure with absolute certainty.

 

"The city council action is actually irrelevant, because the Formula 1 race doesn't meet the legal requirements for the state funds. The lawsuit will result in an injunction, and keep the desperately-needed future investors from putting up the cash required to finish printing the business cards and to buy toasters."

 

"The infidels are not even within 100 miles of Baghdad. They are not in any place. This is an illusion. We have them surrounded in their tanks. Our initial assessment is that they will all die. I blame al-jazeera. They are marketing for the americans. I am not scared and neither should you be!"

 

Woo hoo!!!!!

Back in april, during the press confrence, they pointed out that they were going to use some of the land to showcase Texas A&M's crop sciences. Pretty neat stuff actually. They've made maroon caroots, among other things.

 

Yes, pretty neat stuff. The company my dad used to work for, they were experimenting with hybrid plants a while back. They had cauliflower that tasted like broccoli and vise versa. I'm sure they had other stuff too.

Anyways, glad it was approved!

 

This hurdle cleared and genetically altered food
aside, what's next then?

BHW

 

The construction plans have been altered. A small deck will be placed on top of the flag pole with three seats on it. The Ferrarichat.com naysayers will have to shinny up the pole to get to their seats if they want to see the race.

 

...you don't have to, your opinion is based on speculation, mine is based on facts.

 

Any truth to the rumor that Bernie will now agree to move the race to be just before Brazil? That would wonderful from a weather standpoint, and also no conflict with Father's Day.

Also, there still are rooms between Austin and San Antonio with regular prices, no minimum stays, 24 hour cancellation. Probably 35-40 minutes from the facility. Beats the 90 minutes I used to drive each way for the USGP at the Glen.

 

...says you.

However there is documented evidence to the contrary. The project schedule straight from Austin Commercial shows that they are months behind schedule. And just last week, the USF1 guys said to the city officials that it will be difficult to secure financing if they don't move forward on that front.

So the notion that they are months behind schedule and not fully funded isn't speculation at all. Claims to the contrary based on inside knowledge are just that - claims.

 

Freudian slip?

 

PTS flashback

 

And now we get Australian V8's!
http://www.statesman.com/blogs/content/shared-gen/blogs/austin/racing/entries/2011/06/30/australian_v8_supercars_to_rac.html?cxntfid=blogs_formula_austin

http://www.autoblog.com/2011/06/30/v8-supercar-series-coming-to-austin-in-2013/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+weblogsinc%2Fautoblog+%28Autoblog%29&utm_content=FaceBook

 

.

 

starting in 2013

I think MotoGP and Aussie V8s know something that F1 doesn't

 

They were behind even when they made that schedule back in February....

Assuming they filed the paperwork with FEMA for the CLOMR/LMOR or whatever back in December, and it takes 6 months to get it approved, they wouldn't have been able to file for the building permits in April/May as they had scheduled.....Infer from that what you want.

If I am not mistaken, they didn't say 'secure financing' rather 'put the project in jeopardy' I posted the transcript from the Council meeting a few posts back....

Just a guess, but I imagine any financing they had in place, wasn't going to be released until all of the gov't issues were resolved (makes sense and entirely plausable)

End of summer; no buildings up, then I'd start to worry. Until then, its all just a bunch of speculation

 

If they were months behind right from the start, that tells me that having the race in June of 2012 was never a serious projection. However, since they are already months behind that schedule, they need to meet the milestones and continue at the projected pace in the schedule just to be done in time for an end-of-the-season race.

But the thing isn't even all approved yet, from what it looks like.

As for the financing, I think it is pretty clear it is not all in place. We know the government money is not already in place. We know that the COTA people attempted to secure additional investment funding and failed. And we know that the lawyer (according to one poster) said they need it to go through for the financing to happen. We also have observations which show us significantly smaller progress at the COTA site than at other venues that had similar (or even longer) timelines.

These all combine to show that the funding definitely is not all in place.


I don't think a 2012 race is even in the minds of the COTA people anymore. They are probably assuming 2013, if at all.

 

If for some reason this fails, it will make a wonderful dirt bike track