Totally agree, that they made their own bed with the mixed messages to fans downtown. So many late arrivals parked off pavement they were stuck. I had a few tense words with a Sheriff towing a car out, but then I HAD followed the rules, as well as paid out the azz for a Parking Lot. Way less than two hours for me, but I have well learned the surrounding roads. I really think a nice RV up in Dry Camping is going to be the best thing. No IN and OUT. For Lemans cars I met a great guy doing that, from Sebring, but COTA turned off all the big screens facing them, and would not help if they were stuck in the mud! Those fans go on the list with Rifledriver..once was enough. They won't be back. COTA management goes tone deaf during race weekend....that's their real problem...self absorbed.
It totally relates to the level of your ticket. Stepping out of a Main Grandstand elevator into standing water is not so "VIP" feeling.. Same for the tents out in T15, where you were wading thru mud 4" deep to reach a Portacan trailer.. At that level they need to take better care of people. People spending money.
A GA ticket holder carrying a lawn chair and an umbrella, they have different expectations. They are real race fans!!!
I parked over at the high school and took the shuttle to the track. The wait for the buses both before and after were both tolerable. And at least we were parked on pavement! But of course I didn't wait around for Sir Elton.
Well if they had designed it correctly they could have had parking and camping in the infield, that would have left clear sight lines everywhere but they chose to put all the infrastructure in the infield blocking the view for everyone. Makes one wonder if the designers of the layout of the facility have been to a racetrack before. Flooding?? Hey everyone knows it never rains here. I parked in the mud but the Lambo doesn't get stuck in the mud. I saw a couple of tour buses sunk up to the cargo doors though.
I've had every level of ticket. To say they suck because of the once every decade monsoon that was last year however is a bit much IMO. Again though I go to dirt track events here and there so my tolerance level is a bit dif I think lol.
On a completely different note.... We tested at COTA about a month ago, my first time back there in over a year. I'm unsure if it's the track "settling", or it's a consequence of the storms last year, but the track has really changed... It's changed from being perfectly bollard-table smooth to quite bumpy; there is now a pronounced "hump" just before the brake zone into T11 that has to be managed carefully, it caught a few people out, and we were in GT cars. The F1 cars will definitely feel it....the back straight also has some new "dynamic" to it that is palpable at 160mph, especially off line. The additional paved runoff is definitely better than the astroturf (though some turf is still there), should be interesting to see if/how track limits are enforced; the orange turtles they use at COTA can take a wheel off if you hit them square (and are usually removed for F1).
from what I've heard it's a combination of the track settling, and the track has had a lot of use leading to rippled pavements, particularly in the braking zones.
I have access to 4 seats in the Loge VIP section...directly besides the start finish line. I am not the license owner. The seats look directly into the garages...private food and beverage service. Under the umbrellas. 4 day pass. Access to everything. Pits, drivers signature sessions, concert etc. I am sure there are better seats/ passes, but I haven't seen them. I have never seen seats/ passes like these for sale to the public. The owner of these seats was one of the original purchasers of the licenses. Wife and I bought 2 of the seats for $3k and the other 2 are for sale. If you are interested let me know and I will connect you with the owner. I am making no money..just passing the opportunity along..
Well despite the negative on Taylor Swift, all I can say is now my two daughters and wife are interested in attending - F1 fans - hardly; but at least COTA understands that without the attendance numbers they won't get the kickback from the state and city... BTW, if you want to experience a real F1 race go to Monza , Spa or Monaco (20 years ago)...Now, ROW especially new venues are pure marketing and revenue. Long are the days when this was about man and machine sport, like everything (including Ferrari - publically traded - products) it is about the bottom line. If you don't want to be part of it don't watch or attend.
A LOT of water did migrate through the property, above and of course under ground too. Interesting observation. Thanks for sharing it.
I have never said that..never. Big supporter even after they snubbed my help... But it's like cheering for Houston team, or something...
Yes I was buying those PSL seats on CL, for 2016 F1, from people that LIVED near the track! Lots of broken promises there too, apparently. That actually sounds like a great deal. IIRC it was at least $15K originally??
PM me and I will connect you with the owner. Very nice local MD. Yes, $1500 each and YES its a killer deal. Downside? You will have to set next to me and my wife
LOL! Well, I still help "lost people" and hand out ear plugs.....what's the legality of the sale from COTA's view?? Transferance of an ownership contract I assume... Not that the Security has EVER ask me for any ID....but your name goes on them?
There was a mention of the bump in an Autoweek PWC story the other day. http://autoweek.com/article/sports-cars/patrick-long-wins-gt-pirelli-world-challenge-race-austin The author made it seem like the bump was a result of the storm. It isn't. We started seeing that bump & talking about it way last year. It was bad enough then that some drivers were starting to try to swerve to the inside a bit to lessen the severity of the hit. Some were doing it this past weekend too, but that screws up their line on approach to 11, so it's kind of a dilemma. The bump is right near the braking zone & it's a hard lick from what we can see. The bump seemed to have gotten worse by the WEC/Tudor weekend & the USGP weekend. What it seems to be is ... there's a big rectangular concrete drainage structure under the track right there. It seems the track has settled a bit less where the structure passes underneath than where it doesn't, so there's kind of a hard, straight ridge developing in the asphalt above the edge of the structure. It goes all the way across the track. I don't know what the long term fix will be, but it's pretty clear that it's probably only gonna get worse until something is done. The announcers were commenting that when COTA opened it was considered billiard-table smooth, but it's already getting a rep as a bumpy track. Some of the F1 teams had trouble with the bump last year messing with their electronics...Williams I think, and maybe a couple others. There also seem to be 'ripple' bumps developing on the approaches to 19 & 20, & the approach to 19 isn't a hard braking area. Actually, they're just getting worse...We started seeing those bumps in 2014. For this PWC weekend, everything beyond turn 4 to about 16-17 was closed to the fans (SUCKS), so we weren't able to go down there and see if the bump has worsened since last year. But if you're standing trackside and watch the cars going through there, you can see the cars react to it. Here's a picture of the drainage structure after they installed it: https://scontent-dfw1-1.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-xpf1/t31.0-8/328658_308774582470427_342189403_o.jpg
Yeah I never got the impression you were saying they suck or the place is a dump. It's not. Far from it, but there was still plenty of work to do out there, work that just hasn't been getting done. Even before the storms last year, the place wasn't even near the condition it was when it opened, and back then it wasn't even finished.
You dig it up and patch at least 200', I would think. Odd though the original subgrade did not do it. You normally backfill with cement stabilized sand on systems like that and the paving never feels it.
You see over leveraged McMansions fade in exactly the same way. Underwater on the note, where's the motivation??
I'm seeing several PSL owners upset about their turn 1 seats being relocated to the new, smaller grandstand up the hill from where it used to be. They're saying they're going to rebuild it before F1, but there was a crew out there Friday installing sprinklers where the old stands sat, so we'll see. Meanwhile, on their ticket page that just went active today, there's a link to a seating chart for turn 1. It's a dead link. No pic. Bad omen?
No man, that's some outsourced friend of a Dallas Cowboy cheerleader doing web support! It always does that.. Call Paige, and get what you want, she handled Ducati Island!!!
