Austin F1 Track aerial views

Hmmm - OK, it's Sunday, but the place appears deserted...... Where's all the heavy equipment? Darn, you can see more activity & kit at GT's site, and he works pretty much alone!

I dunno - something just doesn't "feel" right there at the moment.

Cheers,
Ian

 

They took all the equipment off for photo opportunity...

 

Small world, I took a few pics from ground level that day. Not as interesting as these, at all.

 

Does anyone know what is being said locally. The lack of open communication on progress and plans for the actual race(promotion etc) is somewhat worrying. Id like to go year 2 or 3 of this but this looks like ALOT is lacking. What is the latest to echo Ian on this one.

 

You guys are a bit nervy aren't you?.

13 months is ample time to get tarmac laid and put stands and buildings up!.

 

Calm down.
It looks better than Yeongam Korea did in late 2009.

 

It looks better than the Korea track looked on race day

 

Is the 2009 statement true though? - I thought they'd "gone vertical" much sooner. It's nothing more than a dirt field right now..... I truly hope they can get 'er done, but it just seems timeframes keep slipping.

Cheers,
Ian

 

I guess some of us are feeling nervy because of the loss of Indy, as well as the supposed to be USF1 team...

 

I met some folks in London last week who are in Austin realestate and they are 100% sure that F-1 will happen..... hope they know more that all of us!

 

That side of things I totally understand.

In the past F1 has been it's own worse enemy when it comes to the USA: not very fan friendly; racing that was too tactical with very little on track overtaking; comparatively expensive ticket prices and an excess of rules and regulations that are not easy to understand for the average race fan.

One of the sad thing is, is that this season with DRS zones and KERS, the USA is missing out on the sort of on track action that it's been demanding for years, i.e, plenty of overtaking on track and not in the pitlane! (however, everything else has pretty much stayed the same though!).

but that's not the issue with the posts being made!.


The biggest problem I have with this thread is that it's so negative about the possibility of the circuit being ready on time.

There's 13 months left to go and people are approaching it with an attitude of: "no chance it'll be ready!", "This has got disaster written all over it!".

Suddenly I can detect the last ounce of the Americans British heritage coming out!, the doom and gloom mungers looking on the down side, being pessimistic about it all.

Maybe I've bought into the media's image of Americans too much when it comes to sport, but I've always had the impression that they approached everything in sport with an attitude of : "There's nothing We can't do, and there's nothing we can't do better than anyone else on this planet!".

Are you seriously telling Me that people don't believe it's possible to slap some tarmac down in 13 months or throw up some buildings and stands in that same time?.

I'll tell you what, if that's the case, gives us a call in the UK and we'll send some pikeys over to lay a bit of tarmac and a gang of Irish builders to knock you up a couple of buildings!.

If it's not the case then have a little faith, it will be done!, it will be great! and it will be successful! (because if it isn't, I highly doubt F1 will come back to the USA ever again!).

 

Ya think?
A lot can go wrong in 13 months, it isn't THAT long of a time.

Doubt it, some of us could not care less about the loss of Indy perse', and anyone with an IQ over four knew the USF1 team was DOA.

I'll say it yet again.
In Yurrup, all there is is Soccer and F1.

In the USA there is football, baseball, basketball, hockey, soccer, college sports, minor league sports, kids' sports, multiple types of racing coming out the ying-yang, in short, a LOT of competition.

We had perfectly fine venues in Watkins Glen, Elkhart Lake, Mid-Ohio, Atlanta, Laguna, Riverside, Ontario, even Indy and Long Beach, the venue isn't the problem, the problem is the demands of the f1 powers-that-be.
If they could have events in Detroit, then why not other places?
If they could have events in Monaco, then why not other places (here)?

F1 *COULD* have events here, they choose to price themselves out of it or make demands that cannot be met, these demands hurt the TRUE FAN of the sport.
F1 can go to other countries because the government pays for it, or a large chunk of it, heck, look at CANADA. You see, F1 doesn't HAVE to come here, they know if someone wants it bad enough someone will cough up the money for it, and even if I was a multi-billionaire, I would not pay for it (to come) here, if it was a winning proposition I'm VERY sure Mr. Penske and the France family would be all over it.

We don't care WHERE the event is - we are flexible - we can go anywhere, it's the snobs in the ivory towers that screw it up for us common folk.

 

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vypGPc2LVFo&feature=related[/ame]

You've kinda missed the point that Remy was making.

In Europe there is Domestic football, European football Golf, Rugby Union, Rugby League, cricket, tennis, British Touring cars, German touring cars, World touring cars, The World Rally Championship, Speedway, Moto GP, World Super bikes, British super bikes, GT Racing, professional cycling, show jumping, basketball, athletics, horse racing, horse trials etc., etc., none of which have any bearing on how long it takes to build an F1 circuit!.

That's an oversimplification of the problem and one that I've already covered in My previous post.

Another part of the problem is that for the casual race fans in the US who are not dedicated F1 fans, they don't understand the complexity of F1 and are not prepared to put in the necessary homework in order to "get it" (this also applies to plenty of racing fans in the rest of the world too).

As I understand your statement, you seem to be implying that the USA doesn't see an F1 race as being good value for money and so doesn't want it, and yet there seems to be a reasonable amount of interest in F1 in the USA (hence this whole thread being started).
I would ask if you wouldn't feel like you're missing out compared to the rest of the World when it comes to F1 but then you do hold a "World Series" in which no other nation takes part! (no offence intended BTW, but it does rather indicate an insular way of thinking).

But it is the snobs in the ivory tower who are trying to give "the common folk" your own F1 race (again), and yet before the track is even completed you are already saying: "we don't want it!, it's going to cost too much money!, no ones interested!".

For F1 to succeed in the USA, there has to be an effort made on both sides to make it work.

 

A colleague was in Austin about a month ago and returned
for a couple of days this week. At my urging he went out
to the site and reported this week that he didn't see any
progress to the track from a month ago but did see the
road widening improvements being started.

As my friend is in construction, he kept asking when is the
race again? I told him about the work stoppage which
is mentioned in the other thread here and his response
was "It dosent look like they've got a minute to lose."

BHW

 

That's a massive oversimplification of what is required.

I do not mean this directed at you specifically, but it becomes more evident to me with every post on this subject how few people understand business plans and investment. The biggest issue with the USGP is funding, and the idea that "all they need to do is slather down some asphalt and knock out a few buildings" shows a complete non-understanding of not only the financials, but also the logistics. That's like looking at an F1 car and saying "come on - it's not that difficult... four wheels, an engine and a transmission? That's not very complicated. A buddy of mine built a demo derby car in 2 days, there's no way an F1 track can't be done in 13 months!".

 

Interesting pictures, thank you.

As an aside, are those various small towns showing in the pictures, or at least human dwellings? How are they about the sudden (if) noise and traffic increase or have they no say because of the airport? Can't see any 'grandfathering' arguments there for motorcars/concerts. Certainly at all the tracks in the US I have been to, noise has been a very contentious point.

 

For the most part, they are for it. I've followed quite a bit on the local politics. There will be some that say "the town didn't want F1", but those that say it aren't from Elroy nor the area. The city of Elroy didn't care for the subdivisions going in where the track would be years ago.

Noise will be the least of the worries, traffic will be, and hopefully the roads will be improved. At the moment, when the roads dip from heavy trucks and their tire tracks, the locals will not repave the roads, but rather shave off the top in the middle. It's far cheaper. The traffic problem will not be limited to F1 either. If, in the future, other events such as ACL Fest http://www.aclfestival.com/ is offloaded to the track, they will have even more traffic.

 

Thanks, I know that they built developments around IRP/ORP/Lucas Oil Raceway (grief!!) who suddenly decided that a nearby track and noise was a nuisance shutting down some events.

I feel that the principals in the COTA thing may be squirming as to where/if they will be able to cash out profit and bail............but I said as much last year.