US GP Austin 2013 Advise

LOL. Dude. They CLEARLY aren't interested in people with race industry experience. The MiJack thing might be a worthwhile lead. They drew a damn good crowd in Houston for IndyCar of all things.

 

Oh I don't claim to know it all......but notice the Single Day seats are all the bottom rows of the less popular turns.

They also have added some swank boxes at each end of the Main Grandstands for premium seats, they are open instead of enclosed, but that's some expensive seats they havd added perhaps to make up for unsold PSLs???

I'm glad it's Red's money and not mine!!

 

Yes, that's the one from the Convention Center.

What is that, 4th Street??

 

No doubt trying to make a more direct link with the FanFest. That's gonna be a parking nightmare, esp if it's the only free option. Parking is terrible there on a normal day.

 

There's a good loop hole, it involves the Bike Route.

You know, there's a Fire Station pretty near the end of the route......

Park there, take your bikes off, pedal a short distance and Valet them with the Park.
A Sheriff was there quite late one night, when we went back to get one...

 

Yeah, I know. I opened it when it was new & worked there for about 15 years. Not too much parking there...only about 2 or 3 spaces for station visitors & you should probably go knock on the door & see if it's ok to leave your car there. Otherwise it might be gone when you return.

Since I work for the FD, I was gonna do that last year. I can park inside the gate with the other FF. I've done it a few times for other reasons. I ended up getting a better parking deal.

 

Just fyi though you can still do this in the same area. Just park on the street that runs from Burleson alongside Station 35 and Howdy Honda over to Ben White. But damn...please be careful riding down Burleson Rd. It's not exactly ideal for cycling.

 

So, I wont be parking at the Travis County Expo Center like last year? Where do I park if coming up from SA? If I need to buy a parking pass, it wont get to me before I leave for Texas. Still in the dark...

 

I am staying at the La
Quinta south of Austin and have a Ferrari F1 Club pass and parking. any one wanting to park there and ride up and back is welcome. I plan to attend the fri. and sat. evening events so I will not go back after the days events until late

 

I might have more info on the lots above and one more soon. Looks like prices might actually be reasonable this time around.

 

Versus free last year...?

 

Versus what they charged for parking at any lot they've controlled before...but yeah, none of it's free this year. The free shuttles last year ran from properties COTA didn't control. This year they've made moves to control as much of the transport as they can & then charge for either the parking or the shuttles, depending on the location.



Shuttle Lot purchase & other transportation info:

Parking, shuttle plan for November?s F1 race released | www.statesman.com

Circuit of the Americas

Much better deal than they've offered for parking in their lots before, assuming the prices are per car and not per person. Doesn't say either way to my knowledge. The track shuttle plan seems a little lacking if you wanna get from the Main GS or Turn 1 to Turn 11.

 

Haven't followed this thread closely.....do I sense a 'revenue enhancement' attitude even greater than last year?

 

Well, they've offered special discount pricing on tickets the last several weeks, but I think that's out of necessity due to very slow sales more than anything else. They do seem to be trying to corner the market on parking and make even more money off of everyone no matter how they plan to get to the race. If the other series' races are any indication food and drink prices aren't decreasing, and the on-site shuttle service has been reduced in scope, so that a cost saving for them and a reduction in service for the fans.

 

Just found the statesman info and came here to post it. Glad to see others are on it

A little disspointed that there's a charge for the shuttle, but at least its reasonably priced.

I'm well aware that F1 runs on copious amounts of money, more money, and bull****, but COTA positioning themselves to extract more money from you no matter what as a seperate charge is somewhat....distasteful.

At least I know how I'm getting to the track now....

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Thank you; that helps a lot. Do I need to try and get the parking pass before I go, or pay as I show up?

If coming up from SA, preference on which lot?

 

According to the COTA transportation page, for the satellite shuttle lots, you can pay in advance on Ticketmaster or pay at the lot when you arrive. For on-site parking, you must pay in advance.

It's kind of tricky to answer which option is best to use coming from the south. None of them are particularly good in that case.

 

When we parked at the Expo Center, it was pretty easy, so I am going to be optimistic and hope it is again. I assume I pay the parking pass cost for my one car and then the shuttle for two of us is included? Really hard to figure out, and I saw that people are buying parking passes for the number of people, not number of vehicles. I have seen Park and Rides operate so many different ways, hard to tell. I think we are going to aim for the FM973 Red Lot, since we will be doing 80 mph on HW130/45.

I want to really thank you for finding and sharing the information. It helps a lot going into this with some idea of how things will work and what to expect.

 

+1

 

Thanks for the nice comments guys. This thing has certainly evolved over the years & we like to help people get the info they need.

I had heard that the shuttle parking lots would be per car, not per rider. Can you remember where you saw differently? If it's per rider, then that changes everything dramatically.

The only thing bad for you about choosing the red lot is that your route to it will carry you past the first couple of exits for COTA (Moore Rd & FM 812), and your exit (Elroy Rd) will be the third COTA exit. Lots of traffic potential there. If I was gonna pick one of those lots coming from SA, I'd take 130 north to U.S. 183, then continue north on that to FM 812 & turn right. You might see what I mean on this map: http://www.circuitoftheamericas.com/images/directions/Lot812.jpg

 

Pretty thorough article here regarding the new transportation plan, by Ben Wear, the Statesman's transportation columnist:

F1 traffic plan changing in race?s second year | www.statesman.com

 

Premium link without ANY free views...

Most newspapers behind a paywall give you a few free views per month...

 

Here's another:

Circuit of The Americas enhances transportation plan for 2013 FORMULA 1 UNITED STATES GRAND PRIX

According to these two articles, at the shuttle lots the fee is per car, and the shuttles are free. You're paying only to park the car. If you know anyone paying per person, tell them not to!

If they choose the downtown shuttle, the cost for a round-trip ride is $5/person.

 

Yeah, sorry, I was emailed the article & didn;t know it was behind the paywall. Nothing earthshattering anyway, just more background.

 

Damn COTA.

Their own website says if you wanna use their pay shuttle lots "You can purchase in advance here or pay cash at the lot". An hour ago they tweeted this:

Circuit of Americas @circuitamericas
@markwimmer Hey Mark, we won't be offering cash parking at our Red and Yellow lots. You'll need to purchase passes in advance.

...and get this. As of 0930, their back gate on Elroy Road was closed with cars trying to get in. SVRA Vintage racing started at 0800. Reminds me of when they still had the gate locked between the bridges an hour into V8 Supercars until a guy tweeted about it.

The SVRA event this weekend at COTA is incredible. Went out yesterday & was blown away by the cars. Was not blown away at all by being locked out of 3/4 of the track. The fans can only access T15-18 and the Main GS to T1. Unreal.