Bink

Bernie needs the USA. Maybe he's made concessions. Maybe that is wishful thinking on my part.
Looks like I'll see Texas in 2012!

63Corvette

My wife and I attended all of the Watkins Glen F1 races during the 1970s. I have raced and won the A-Production class at the River City Road Races in Austin, and I have raced in a Vintage support class race for the 1984 Dallas GP F1 race, so all I can say is that IF it happens it will be an incredible thing for Texas and Austin. The Dallas race, in spite of the heat, was a once in a lifetime, not to be missed event. More than 300,000 people attended over three days. My family and I will certainly attend in whatever capacity we are able. I was a great doubter that Don Walker would be able to pull off the Dallas GP, but it did happen. I was a scrutineer, and my wife checked qualifying tires for the teams. I will remain skeptical but optimistic until it happens. If it does GO! an F1 weekend is a memorable occasion!!!

John Shiels

Car companies that sell cars here want the US although Beemer has left. Yes 300+ million with more money than the 4X plus Chinese crowd to spend on advertiser products in the USA

JohnD60

I'm in. This would be a blast! Could I actually be this lucky????

I'm thinking road course. How about Red River to 6th street to South Congress....need to work on the return route across the river.... :-)

John

Zoxxo

I just ran across this:

"Speaking to ESPN, Hellmund said the track and grandstand would be built 'within 10 miles' of the Austin airport and would be at least three miles long. He declined to release further details, including the total cost, but he did say the facility would be privately financed."

Z//

AU N EGL

3 miles long? that is too long for an F1 circuit. 2.5 to 2.7 miles MAX

wtknght1

You're kidding right?! Currently only 5 of the circuits are under 3 miles. And the king (Spa) is 4.3!!!! Virtually all the new circuits are around 3.3-3.6!

I attended the first F1 race at Indy and it was definitely something I'll remember for the rest of my life. I hope it happens...just wish I was closer to it!!

Scooter 94

Hope it works out. We could use some technology in the US. God knows they'll still be running 2003 cars at Indy.

clubracer6

While I am happy to have it back in the US, I just don't get the location (no offense to TX)...

There was a plan for Jersey City, NJ – which would have had Manhattan and the Statue of Liberty as the back drop, tons of hotels, tons of everything. would have been good too… So many great tracks out there or even just some great venues – Laguna Seca, Road America (not the best location at all), the Long Beach course – heck even having it at Daytona (how cool would that be) would be better… He comes another boring new circuit from that Tilke guy….

No matter where it is, I'll be there... Went to every GP at Indy, been to Montreal, Silverstone and last year Monaco, which I will never ever forget...

Zoxxo

Except the government there wanted nothing to do with it.

Laguna Seca is actually a county park. It's run as a non-profit organization and whatever profits it makes over the year are given to local charities. There is no way that it could ever host an F1 race as the facilities would never be up to F1 spec and the necessary changes would never be allowed to happen.

Road America is (a) not up to spec and (b) too far from the necessary facilities to host the teams, the fans, etc. It would be awesome to see F1 cars doing RA, though

Long Beach? They refused to pay Bernie's extortion in 1984 so I'm thinking that they'd not be up for it now

Daytona? Are you kidding?

Tilke? Please God no. Enough already with that stuff.

Monaco is really something, isn't it?

Here's how to do Monaco:
http://gptours.com/index.php?command...1051&package=S



Z//

USAsOnlyWay

I'm excited, Austin will be much closer to the West coast and cheaper than NY.

Looks like the contract has 9yrs built into, so it won't be a one and done at least...

I can't say it will make money, but its Texas. Cheaper to build there, land is cheaper, for people to come it is cheaper... perhaps this is the right way to do it. I can't imagine building anywhere in a big city could be as cheap as Texas.

I sure hope it works, seeing F1 in two years would be AMAZING!

joemoia

To use a Texas phrase, this announcement is "All hat and no cattle".

Anybody who believes that this will actually happen should review the
saga of Donington Park when Bernie announced back in 2008 that the British GP would be held there starting in 2010.

Zoxxo

While I sure want to give them the benefit of the doubt, I must agree that it sure has that feel to it.

Maybe. But I've always had a sneaking suspicion that Bernie didn't really care a whit about Donington and that entire episode was just Bernie doing anything he could think of to ream the BRDC for playing hardball with him over Silverstone upgrades. Donington was iffy from the start (and *everyone* knew it) but if they had pulled it off Bernie would have stuck it to Silverstone. If not, he was no worse off than he was in the first place. It didn't cost Bernie a farthing to play that card. But the BRDC called his bluff and ultimately Bernie cut his losses. There was just no way that they would eliminate the British GP.

There don't seem to be any such underlying motives in the Austin story. The manufacturers and sponsors want to be in the U.S. and with these guys Bernie at least has a chance of seeing some real money for his efforts instead of having to have one in the U.S. "for free" to keep the teams and the FIA happy. Once again, Bernie stands to lose no money.

It remains to be seen. Lot's of folks around the world have doubts about this. The fact that they don't even have a place picked out for the track yet and the thing has to be built and operational for a race exactly two years from now sure makes ya wonder...

Z//

2K3Z06

Just dont see it happening. Probably a PR stunt by Bernie to get leverage on some other site.

joemoia

I agree with your assessments of Bernie's motives concerning Donington/Silverstone, but the point I was trying to make is that Donington WAS granted the race, but the organizers couldn't pull it off, and they already had a track in existence.

With respect to mfrs/sponsors and the US market, Adam Cooper wrote that after the 1st yr novelty wore off, teams/sponsors had difficulty getting corporate clients to attend the Indy USGP. Indy isn't a tourist attraction and other than the SXSW music festival I've never heard of Austin being a "must" place to visit. With the exit of Toyota, Honda and BMW I also believe the "US market" factor for F1 is greatly diminished.

I just think that Austin has a greater chance of being granted an NHL franchise than hosting the USGP.

yakisoba

We shall see. There is an existing track, within 10 miles of the airport and it's around 2+ miles long.
drivewayaustin.com
I just don't think it's the sort of facility that could be improved into an F1 venue. A purpose built facility will take some time to do right. Can we do it in two years? Unknown. If the City leaders get behind it, we will. If not, we're Donnington.

BrianCunningham

no track there yet, but they get an F1 race?

Tintin

I think this is a great thing for the sport and the naysayers here need some education about Austin. One of the largest computer companies in the world is in Round Rock, an Austin suburb and they have shown a propensity to join in when it comes to motorsport sponsorship. I think that you will find that the car companies are secondary and that companies like HP, Dell, EMC, and other US sponsors are more important than car companies as they do far more business and profit. Notice , however that Ferrari and Chrysler are now pals because of joint ownership by Fiat...

I think that you will find that building 3-4 miles of road , some garages and spectator seating is a pretty easy accomplishment in 2 years if you have the money. Austin is a vey cosmopolitan city and is within a few hours driving time of three of the 10 largest cities in America. Filling the stands should not be a problem at all as there are an awful lot of people within 2 hours flying time as well. The real money comes from TV for this sort of thing and not admissions so hopefully the organisers have a piece of Bernie-vision..

New York would be just about the worst place in the world to hold an F1 race - $500 cheezy hotel rooms, overpriced food and generally a city that is anti-car in the extreme. I used to keep an apartment at 61st and York in Manhatten and most everyone I knew there used cabs or black cars for tranport and didn't even own an automobile. I think Miller in Utah and Barber in Alabama are the only two FIA certifiable tracks for F1 in the country and either of those would have been good too. The problem is accomodation for so many people...

Be happy and of good cheer for those lucky tomatoes in Austin and try to be positive about the outcome...

joemoia

I wonder how Texas voters will react


http://austin.bizjournals.com/austin...4/daily39.html

BrianCunningham

That's true, most large cities are busy trying to get rid of cars, not celebrate them.

F1 and CART turned Long Beach around.
It was a real dump before they started racing there
Now look at it.