Formula 1 coming to Austin, Baby!

was watching practice and they mentioned that tonights formula1 debrief will have stuff about austin
(kinda of obvious but a reminder to watch/record)

I drove out to elroy yesterday and the land does look nice. defintely some elevation change etc. I didn;t have a map with me so I was somewhat going off of memory. I think I may take another trip out this weekend since I am hanging with my 18mo daughter and mom is out of town
 
LOL...I'm going out yet again tomorrow.

Seems a lot of people have been doing so since the announcement.
The Link

Some good info in there, btw...

Just imagine what it'll be like once the dirt starts flying.
 
Oh man...just found a badass ringtone from Mabilo.

Look under Sound Effects and go to page 7. Listen to "Formula One" and prepare for your knees to weaken.
 
A draft of the 2011 schedule has surfaced: Link.

I keep having nightmares that Bernie is going to chose to stay away from the heat in Austin in 2012 and stick us with an October date. In theory October in Austin is great, but football rules in Texas starting with high schools on Thursday through to MNF. What we don't need is the first race attendance low because everyone is at a football game. Even worse would be a schedule that puts the race on a weekend when Texas is at home.

Hopefully TH and Bernie have already crossed this bridge.
 
I had to drive out there myself, so made the grand tour Saturday, late afternoon. It's going to be a culture shock for some residents out that way.
I looped all the way around, FM 812 to Elroy Road, to McAngus and back. The part in the back, on Elroy Road, has a nice view of the airport and the city. I don't know where the entrances will be, but it is hard to envision 200,000 people trying to get somewhere on those narrow, windy, poorly maintained roads. They must have a plan on how to accomplish this, but road improvements take time.
Lots of cows and cattle egrets in those fields, a couple of nice creeks, and some elevation changes. The track could be spectacular. Hope they work out the logistics efficiently.
There are a few houses on two sides of the property. Their quiet home in the country setting is about to change.
 
Viper, I don't think much of a portion of the crowd there will be Texans or affected by the fact Football is being played. It would be on a weekend of an away game, obviously, and I may be alone in this but I would choose to F1 live and record a Horns game if that was an issue.

The majority of fans will be arriving from out of the country and State. I don't know how much of the crowd will come from Austin but I assume not much. Those that do won't likely be the curious lot but people who won't mind one football day being missed for this grand event.
 
I'm confused. Races are on Sunday. Go to Friday practice, Saturday Qualifying and the game, Sunday race. Full schedule of epic. Lodging would be a *****.
 
Thanks Mandingo. This is more rolling land than the hills in the hill country, but that is ok. It is like Silverstone in that respect.

All I am saying about football is the area needs to be focused on the race not what Lake Travis, Texas and the Cowboys (not to mention the Chase in NASCAR) are doing. As a promoter you do not like to be dependant on the out of town crowd for everything. There are vey few of us in Texas that would watch F1 and record the football game.
 
Well, another aspect is that THE reason the F1 teams and constructors and sponsors and advertisers want a date in the USA, is to develop and bring in a USA F1 market. They've clearly indicated time and again that having a marketing presense here in the USA is huge for them.

Consequently, from a promoter's standpoint, it doesn't make much sense to attempt to generate USA interest in an event going directly against the #1 sport in the USA. Sure, the international folks will attend regardless, but the whole point of having a race in the USA (from the perspective of the teams and constructors and sponsors who have been begging for it) is to generate a market for the sport here in the USA. They already have a global market for the sport, that's not the point of having a race in the USA.

So I believe that having the race in the fall when the USA is concentrating heavily on its #1 sport would be a major mistake, and nearly pointless from a Marketing perspective.

I could MAYBE see it being a one-year deal for the first event if the track isn't ready in time, but long term, the race really needs to be in the spring or very early summer if it is to achieve what F1 wants it to achieve, and that is the conversion of a large US market into F1 fans.

As pointed out above, the number of Americans who will tape a footbal game in order to watch an F1 race is extremely small.
 
I think you guys are right about that and I think they're going to try hard to stay with the spring date even in year 1.

I also think a swing through Austin, (maybe even eventually another U.S. stop), Montreal, and Brazil during the spring would be a great way to achieve the interest and create new fans just like you're talking about.
 
I believe it will be a major mistake to schedule any race in the fall. I can't believe any of you on this site are underestimating Texans' love of football, both on Saturdays and Sundays.
What I don't know is what percentage of expected fans will come from Texas, versus those that fly in from Mexico, Central and South America, and even Europe and Asia.
I think the venue would require a lot of fans from Houston, Dallas, Austin and San Antonio, though.
If you are familiar with Texas World Speedway, it was located in College Station precisely to be midway between the major Texas population centers. Then they scheduled a couple of major races, can't remember which series, maybe Can-Am, Trans-Am or NASCAR, on a football weekend. They had bad luck with weather and the huge mistake of competing against Texas football, and went bankrupt. I went to a NASCAR/IMSA race weekend there in about 1972 and covered it for the Daily Texan. There was rain off and on, and the promoters took a bath.
Bottom line-unless most fans are expected from outside Texas, don't schedule any race on a football weekend. A lot of people that don't attend the college or pro games plan their whole weekend around watching their favorite teams on TV.
Is the population big enough now where there are 100k racing fans who would forego a football weekend in Texas? Maybe, but why take that chance?
 
I went to Indy for the GP and we mingled for 4 days every year. I rarely ran into people from Indiana. Lots from Canada, California, New York, Chicago, etc. Attendance will not be a problem even if the race were on a Tuesday night.

Mandingo, the toll road at Elroy has a fairly modern exchange that can handle some traffic. The road looks expanded until McAngus. 812 looks similar. Can you tell us where you think the infrastructure will be improved to handle flow?

I went to the Texas Motorspeedways opening with the Rolling Stones and 114 was 2 lanes. took hours to get there. Ingress and Egress is making me lean towards having an RV there like Indy regardless.
 
Oh, I'm planning on having an RV there alll week regardless. Just wondering how much it's going to set me back!
shocked.gif
 
Oh yeah...dang!

Well how 'bout if we run it at about 3am. Should be nice & cool & that would make for about a 9 or 10am Euro tv start. Solves the football conflict, too.
wink.gif
 
Great news for the facility, concerning news for the neighborhood.

As I was sitting there watching some of the coverage for the Hungarian GP, they showed people arriving to the track. It was a two-lane road, with both lanes moving in the same direction (toward the track, obviously), and cars stacked up two-wide like that for miles.

Made me think about entrance and egress for this track at Elroy, how it will be handled, and how it will affect those living nearby, not just on F1 race weekends, but throughout the year.
 
I am sure that any permit/zoning will include minimum infrastructure imporvements. TH should realize he is going to have to pay for that.
 
When reading that last bit I took into consideration the noise factor. With more races comes more noise. They really need to make it sweet for the people closest to the track and the most affected by it. Personally, i would love the sounds. At least I think I would.

I would like to see them overdo the amount of roads and access and have it be more than enough than less. I am trying hard to think of the last venue I was at that this was the case. Nope, cannot think of it.
 
OKC appears to be getting an ALMS ( Link )

04 July in OKC is the pits. I would hope that Austin can slot in between Sebring and Long Beach.
 
Easiest place I've ever gotten into a major sporting event was Circuit Gilles Villeneuve in Montreal for this year's Canadian GP. Took the Metro all the way to the venue then walked to my seat. Amazingly sweet.

As for the sounds, I know I'd rather listen to race cars a few days out of the year than MoPac every single day as I do now.
 
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