cota

No, attendance has been trending down since Year 1 actually, and Tavo's event in Mexico City (as scotsman cites) took a big bite out of our attendance from that region (they had a Mexican driver to cheer too!)...

That might be because of PROMOTION!

Although COTA calls me all the time now, about Ducati Island!!
MotoGP.....

 

There's certainly truth in that...some things are best said face to face, behind closed doors.....

That would really put a damper on me, were I considering building a $400M track!!!

 

This is truth!

Did you send feedback?

But really, it would have been as simple as some gravel pathways to the (temporary) restrooms...

So much of the F1 set up is rentals, and to not look at logistics prior to the event and say "even if it rains" was huge oversight by Management (who have resigned after the 2015 event).....

 

They always have......it's a straight pass thru, except for the timing.

 

I suspect because they know the 'average' Merc buyer in the US wouldn't know an F1 car from a whole in the wall. Mobil 1 features the McSplutters in a few of their ads, but I doubt it buys them very much for example.

The States have their beloved (by many anyway) Taxicab series; Easy to follow, phantom yellows to get them all aligned in a nice easy to understand running order and away they go again. Plus it's 'invented here', something that to date at least has rarely been the case here (the great Dan Gurney of course being the exception that proves the rule.) It's also 'hard' being an F1 fan here; very little mainstream coverage, 'odd' times of day for most races, no 'local' talent/teams to root for and so on.

I'd love to see COTA succeed. I'd love to see Haas succeed - he seems well respected in racing circles here, so maybe his mere presence will help. Damn, I'd love another race at Laguna or the Glen too, but experience tells us it's just not sustainable unfortunately. We can blame Bernie's greed, the high sanctioning fees and so on, but I feel the bottom line is it's another case of 'not invented here'. And if it's not invented here, then it must be crap!

Cheers,
Ian

 

Because of the Texas State Legislature, I would put Austin's strippers and prostitutes up there with the best....

Ahem...at least the ones I know, personally....

 

Have you seen Texas World Speedway in College Station, recently??

 

I had Lot A!!!

You should have used THAT one!!!!

 

OK, I stand corrected. I thought I recalled attendance had been pretty much static apart from this year due to weather of course.

Hopefully, Haas & maybe an American jockey (Rossi?) will help to redress that balance.

No doubt. But, I'd also guess those that are interested know about it.

So, did they overcome their pissing contest with Kevin Schwantz? And what the hell is 'Ducati island'? I'm no biking guru, but would guess they'd be better off with a 'Harley island!'....

Cheers,
Ian

 

You don't find many facilities here that are F1 "rated", even Indianapolis spent huge money on renovations, to get there.

Tavo's idea (along with our own Kevin Schwantz) was sound, but too soon they were "under the bus" of the money managers.

Tavo, you recall, didn't have the sanctioning fee either (but he found it for Mexico City!)

Schwantz lost the MotoGP franchise in a very similar manner.
They were both exposed by a lack of financiers of their own, apart from the hard cost of the track itself.

 

There ARE real bathrooms and water fountains in Turn 1 and in Turn 15!!!
Lines looked like a bread line in the Depression!

 

It's a different "Haas" no relation at all, to the Newman Haas racing team, of the IRL.

 

Yes, they paid Kevin schwantz a settlement for his efforts in design, (before Tilke) and now he does event commentary, but he never recovered his loss of the event (MotoGP) sanctioning.

COTA usurped that..

Ducati Island is what Mercedes and the F1 sponsors SHOULD do....it allows us (as owners) to drive right into the track to a common area, a little hottie says "welcome!" and puts a logo puck right under our kickstand, hands us a flag, sunglasses and a logo hat..

And then the Style Show!!!!

Nothing to do with racing, but EVERYTHING to do with selling more Ducatis!
It must work I bought several and made a pass at one of the girls...

Anyway it's "entertainment", it's "fun"!!!
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Of course, I bought one of those!

They had the Ducati Store and every purchase put you into a Door Prize raffle for Pit Passes, inside the pit with the team to experience the race!!

That was fun, as my date was already picked out, and we made a 'Pinkie Shake' on it!

Little girl on the right, here..modeling a Ducati dress..
I'm sure a local girl hired for the event, they checked in our helmets (I don't wear one)..
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..anyway, you get the idea where "F1 has gone wrong".....

They have pushed it in the opposite direction (except for maybe the food, this year's contractor and vendors finally had a nice, if overpriced, menu)..

Mercedes product display??? Ummm......no.

How about the Mclarens?
They had two of those at the heliport, near T1, the first year...quickly covered in dust!
Nope..missing.

The new Ferrari?
Where?
Maybe back in Houston.....

FCA???
Missing.... off holding those great PRIVATE parties..
You have seen the pictures?
No, there ARE no pictures...

I am serious, I invited everyone here to go to the Broken Spoke, Saxon Pub for Eve Monsees, and Denny Freeman....it's a sad state, when I am a better party than Bernie and Sir Elton John...I guess they "snort alone", to paraphrase an old John Cougar Mellencamp song.....



Anyone here make the My Yacht party???

 

The Harley's are over on Highway 71, at Jennie's Hog Wild.......the bartender is in lace underwear..

 

..I was there, too!

No Harley presence in MotoGP, however..

Maybe that's a GOOD thing, they'd never make it past the Metal Detectors....
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F-1 in the USA is a large sport. It's not NFL, MLB or NBA or even NASCAR size...

F-1 has always been popular in the USA. Watkins Glen in the 70's used to have over 100,000 people each day! while other races in Europe were good if they had 50K - 75K ... Monza and Nurburgring being the exceptions.

What has killed F-1 in the USA was taking away the traditional tracks, demanding super high fees, and not making any form of marketing effort. not haveing an American team or driver has never been a problem, its nice but has never been a mandatory thing.

True - when Mario was in F-1 it was a bit more popular, but he is just as well known here for Indy car.

the rivalry between CART and F-1 in the 80's is what killed F-1. while CART were building their brand - F-1 took the snobby approach that its just better - like Gucci or Ferrari , and that if you wanted F-1 you came to it. so they moved to Vegas, Dallas, Detroit, and the worst - Phoenix. I was at each of those events at least once. Only Detroit had anything resembling any F - 1 character. and in the end that died becuase of money.

Indy was great - and a logical place to have F-1 ... but even then the money situation got crazy. so I dont know how COTA ever though it would last. It is a FANTASTIC TRACK, with modern awsome infrastructure but even with govt. subsidy it cant make it... Its not the USA it's F-1.

Had Bernie been smarter and less snobbish - he could have grabbed some huge American companies as sponsors - Coke - Nike, etc... but he would just demand more and more $$$ with NOTHING IN RETURN to the organizers. F-1 is the WORST KIND OF EUROPEAN SNOBBERY... It's great when you can be a part of it, but Americans like to be down in the garages, see the drivers - talk and touch them... and unless you are a major Sports event like NFL, MLB, NBA you cant take the players too far from the fans. that is the number one mistake F-1 makes in the USA - and everywhere. especially in the USA where people are not as put off by a class system... you have to be acessible. Indy Cars gets it, Tudor series - even NASCAR - i've been down in the pits, garage etc during the race!

In the end F-1 has a huge American Fan base. but we are out on our own... sadly F-1 could care less.

 

That was true of the rain on Saturday:

"Bernie invites you weary rain soaked fans, who have sat patiently all day, waiting.....to come walk the Pits"

And then....COTA employees stood at the gates to cross the track, stripping everyone of food and /or drink.

WTF!!

 

Wow! Guess I've learnt something today! I was convinced that 'Newman-Haas' was the same Haas as we have coming along next year! How many motor racing obsessed guys with the money and the name 'Haas' can there be? More than one it would seem!

I hear you. I think they can get away with (basically) ripping folk off for food & bev AS LONG AS it's 'decent'. It's paying mega bucks for **** while wading around in the mud that tends to get to folks....... Merc, Ferrari or Mclaren displays? Surely they'd be better off in downtown Austin rather than a dusty/muddy/difficult to get to display on site?

If I'd have made it (& I had a plane ticket booked!) I'd have been at the Broken Spoke, fer sure! (May have even helped to get the neon sign fixed!)

Having said that, I went with the FCA 'group' to Indy for the first three years. - not Paddock Club (I'd want to be *driving* the things for that price!), but a very well organized affair featuring reasonably priced food & beer (& ****ing turkey legs!), the best seats in the house, and hospitality in the Legion afterwards. Fancy ass dinner with a couple of decent guest speakers Friday nights. Very nicely done IME. Not 'cheap', but good & at least somewhat 'reasonable'. Nothing bad to say about the FCA gig, at least back then.

Problem with Indy, at least in year one, was they ran out of beer before the race even started! That sucked!.......

Cheers,
Ian

 

Holey-Moley!

Any idea if that was Bernie's 'demand' prior to granting access or some genius with COTA? We do know for example that he controls the Paddock Club & it's hospitality with an iron fist. I asked him once (online, no response of course) why he couldn't give at least part of the Paddock Club revenue to the track - it wouldn't hurt him too much, but it may just allow these poor, struggling promoters to make a little money.....

 

The Newman/Haas Haas was Carl Haas. Carl was the Lola Importer for the US for many years, among other hats he wore.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carl_Haas

The Current Haas of Haas F1 is Gene Haas.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gene_Haas
https://fromtheothersideofracing.wordpress.com/2014/04/11/who-is-gene-haas/

Gene and Carl are not related other than the same name.

 

I call BS on #1.

#2 - if the sponsor wants to be in the USA, then why doesn't a sponsor
sponsor the event?

'should'?

If Bernie was receptive to what sponsors 'want', then he would lower the
price of admission (cost to have a race) just to make the sponsors happy.
I'm sure sponsors are just SCREAMING to have a race in Bahrain or Malaysia.. (sic)

Why did Detroit drop F1 in lieu of CART cars?
(don't start about the crappy Detroit street circuit - that's a different discussion)

 

It seems like the "regs" for F1 fans are every bit as idiotic as for F1 teams!

A recipe of decline.