US GP in Austin Discussion and Speculation...

A 2012 F1 race might be doomed but there has been way too much $$$$ invested not to complete the track.

 

Not for someone like me who races there...I lose at least two attachments to my car after every enduro

 

You act like nothing changed in the plan. A lot changed.

I believe what was said is "it's not funded" - which turned out to be true. They can't make their schedule, which also turned out to be true. They have revised the schedule numerous times and cut down the plan considerably.

As for "it will be a failure", we will see. If they get the track done in time, we'll see how the first year goes. The hotel room issue and ingress/egress issues are monumental and could be fatal - but we'll see.

But, so far, two of the three criticisms levied against the project have been undeniably proven correct. We'll see about the third.

 

World class on the grass!! Ants never bite!

 

Lets see, the track will be finished, the event will happen, and we'll party downtown like frat rats.

That's "two of three" criticisms (of yours) proven correct???

You have an odd manner of "keeping score"...

Still penty of rooms in New Bransfels!
But the ones next to me are filling up, you know....with party people.

 

A lot of THIS criticism is well founded, IMO.

You'll note I had shallow confidence in Tavio's nut swinging since day 1.
That part was true....

There's plenty of lodging they are just trying to hit a Home Run with the first "at bat".....sorry for that, beyond my control.

But just like at Indy, when F1 came to town there were the high rollers, then the campers.

I'll let you guess who parties harder at events like Lemans...

 

I think he's looking at "permanent grandstand" seating and not including the rental temporary bleachers.

Is there a published number for the temporary grandstands?

They can easily add thousands of seats, as late as three weeks prior....

 

Watch where (and how) you say "grass" in Austin or someone will stuff Mexican Lettuce into your pocket.....

Especially a Toni Price show.......

 

Im betting you have fun no matter what Tex! Grass, lettuce or Jack Daniels! Im betting your post race report will be superb

 

Yes, unpaid, but then we don't have to buy a ticket. We're affiliated with clubs, not employed by them. Usually get a free lunch, usually get a free shirt and maybe a hat. Yes, lots of overseas help. Yes, they do want people with experience. Indy started out this way, but for a multitude of reasons they had to reduce their experience requirements in following years. If this event happens, let alone repeats, here's hoping lessons were learned.
Flaggers also control the lights, but Control overrides all stations for situations like a red flag.
I like many aspects of the Austin circuit but I've yet to get excited about this event. So I can find a room for $250 a night, if it's going to take an hour or two to get to the track for daily 6am meetings that makes for a long day. This year will be my 18th Canadian GP, it would take a very strong event to change where I spend my vacation time.

 

This one isn't hard, even for you!

When the whole project was first announced, a lot of people said it wasn't going to happen. I was one of those people.

My criticisms were

1) They didn't have enough time (and they didn't start early enough) to complete their plans in the time allotted

2) They didn't have the money in place (obviously, since they weren't building for months).


The question is whether those criticisms were right or wrong. The answer is that they were right. How do we know? Because COTA changed the plan several times. Each time, it was a reduction in scope (and cost) of the project.

If you don't believe me, then go look up the original plans from Austin Commercial that were posted. Then look at the later ones. You will see quite a few things that were cut out of the plan.

Hence, two of the three criticisms posted were correct.

 

How do you figure there is plenty of lodging? There are 30,000 rooms in Austin. Articles have stated they need some thousands of rooms just for all the F1 personnel (teams, officials, press, track workers, etc). That leaves around 24,000 rooms for fans, assuming zero occupancy in Austin during race weekend for non-F1 travel.

If they are expecting 120,000+ people, unless they are expecting 100,000 of them to be within driving distance, I don't see how there is plenty of lodging?

 

most rooms are not single occupancy, at the last F1 race in Indy we had 5 in our suite, you could probably average over 3 people to a room.

 

My room "sleeps 4" but "f***s 8"..........you see the math......

 

That's how it works, my Indy F1 Grandstand seats had three wives from the Mercedes team in them, at my invitation (along with a cute little guy in a stroller) I had to give them back, tho.......

 

... so long as you don't mind sharing your room with about 80,000 sweaty hairy European guys!

...but whatever floats your boat! ha!

 

No, they are displaced by a South Congress stripper, named Michelle.

Seriously though, the just search "Austin" and discount ALL the surrounding 'burbs in your search for lodging, it would be like saying "Long Island" instead of the surrounding areas of NYC.

 

If the race gets cancelled because it can't be finished in time, it's a major slap to US racing for a long time.

 

How so? I just do not understand this outlook that people have, it's kind of like the BS outlook about MS tarnishing his reputation when he returned to F1, complete and utter nonsense. Its seem's people/society today are always looking for a scapegoat or conspiracy theory instead of just following the project and understanding that hurdles happen everyday in every type of business.

If the track is not ready this year then that is fine but by 2013 something better damn well happen and if it doesn't F1 is the only racing series tarnished not the US racing scene.

 

I agree with Bob. If the track doesn't come through, it will AGAIN be an American F1 ventured failed before it even got off the ground. It will be even more difficult in the future to secure a race if everytime someone from the US tries to enter F1, it fails. Future projects just won't be taken seriously or will have to sell their souls up front.

Mark

 

+1

Luckily the NY GP will make up for it.

 

I think we are getting ahead of ourselves, myself included, and all we can do is sit back and see what transpires with fingers crossed for a positive outcome.

 

Agreed! I'm truly pulling for the Texas boys. I don't mean to be negative about the situation, I'm just losing faith. Nothing would make me happier for them to prove all of us wrong and put on an amazing race (at a reasonable price for spectators).

Mark

PS: I never meant to imply that typical US racing would be effected by the success or failure of Austin, only F1 in the US would be effected.