Most liked posts in thread: F1 Coming to .... TX!!

From the Official F1 Site

 

From the Austin Statesman

 

Cool track, but it is an awfully long drop for those who leave the track!

:eek6:

 

:lol::lol::lol:

Thus the new rule for self deploying parachutes, suitably festooned with sponsors!

 

Texas officials question U.S. Grand Prix logistics

Most race fans expect to sit in traffic a bit while getting into and out of their favorite race venue--two or three hours is almost normal--but wait times at the proposed Austin Formula One venue in 2011 are expected to be an astounding 12 hours.

“It was like, hello, that [12 hours] cannot happen,” Joe Gieselman, manager of Travis County’s Transportation and Natural Resources Department, told the Austin American-Statesman newspaper.

Gieselman and planners penned their estimate after a visit to Texas Motor Speedway in Ft. Worth, where getting in and out of that facility takes “only” three hours.

The figure highlights some of the many details still to be worked out at the proposed Austin track. According to the newspaper, the 12-hour figure emerged during a county commissioner’s court meeting during which Richard Suttle Jr., the attorney for race promoter Tavo Hellmund’s Full Throttle Productions, was peppered with questions. Gieselman said the county’s delay-time estimate, as well as other pointed queries about who would pay for road improvements and how many jobs the project might create, served to highlight the county’s frustration over the paperwork submitted by Full Throttle--which is thus far so sketchy as to make planners’ jobs nearly impossible, he said.

We’re still trying to imagine 12 hours idling in the Texas sun. As one guy we know from Austin said, “There’s not a lot of roads out that way. Given the current situation and time frame, this will be like evacuating Houston for a hurricane.”


Read more: Formula One: Texas officials question U.S. Grand Prix logistics

 

I am not from those parts. I take it evacuating Houston for a hurricane is a big job?

 

Lets just say that when Ike hit back in 2008 and Houston had mandatory evacuations there were reports that the trip to Dallas, normally about 5 hours was taking in excess of 30 hours. That was even after they closed the southbound interstates and diverted northbound traffic into those lanes as well.

There are about 5.7 million residents in the Greater Houston area.

 

Certainly the infrastructure issues MUST be highlighted and remedied. So, with today's roads..........yeah it will be brutal getting in and out.

 

So when are you building that heli-port that we can all use to get to/from the track back to your place where we are all staying?

 

so.. 12 hours in, 12 hours out... I better take an extra day off and get a mini van to sleep in.

 

The problem is that I do not live close enough to the track. So, even with the heli-port in place I am still ~18 mi. away. So, that could still be many hours of idling in the car with today's infrastructure.

 

You miss my point, we ferry people back and forth from Casa de mini_racer to the track.

 

12 hours in slow and go traffic? I'd kill myself.............or someone else!

I'm taking a motorhome, then I can leave the next day once things have cleared up a bit....having had a nice night's sleep in air conditioned comfort. :idea:

 

I've been contemplating that. Will have to place a check mark into the "pro" column.

 

No, I got it. I am just still too far away to ferry/shuttle. They need to get those roads constructed over there E. of I-35, they already have some activity due to the relatively new airport, new toll road, etc. but they need to crank the construction activity knob up to 11, ok at least 10.

 

Wow..........not sure what to make of this

County Commissioners Laugh At US Grand Prix Lawyer

 

For me, it will not play past 5:52.

 

I think the title of the link is misleading, they were laughing, but not at him specifically - just at the incredible amount of stuff that has to happen before this thing becomes real. And that in itself is amazing to me, just how much crap has to be done before they can have a race the size and scope of an F1 event. Incredible!

It also seems that the amount of work that needs to be done in such a short time frame means this thing has very little chance of happening in 2012 - the council seems ready to support the effort, as long as the promoters get them what they need, but it almost sounds like they simply don't know what they need almost till they need it.

The part about the pipelines running thru the property was interesting too.

They did sound like they were a little miffed about being the last in line to find out about the whole thing, and it can't be smart to treat the people who are going to make your event possible like they're the least important folks in the room by making them the last in line when it comes to diseminating info and asking for permits.

Still, there could be a method to this, if by getting enough public support first it makes it difficult or even impossible for the commissioners to say no - rather they have to find a way to make it work.

Makes Indy seem tame by comparison, and also points out why they went there first, it was just so much easier to work with an existing facility used to handling huge crowds and with the proper infrastructure already in place as compared to starting up with absolutely nothing in a field outside of town.

 

Yea the title is very misleading.....I was more disturbed by the whole "we didn't even know you wanted to do this" than anything else.

 

Organisers of the United States Grand Prix at a new site in Austin, Texas insist the race will go ahead in 2012.

Rumours surfaced in the paddock during last weekend's Singapore Grand Prix that the event was already in doubt.

But Formula 1 United States spokesman Adam Goldman told BBC Sport:"Tremendous progress is being made on the circuit in Austin, Texas.

"The project team and community look forward to hosting the F1 United States Grand Prix in 2012."

BBC pundit Martin Brundle raised the issue during the Formula 1 forum after Sunday's race in Singapore, amid rumours the local authorities had not been properly consulted over the plans and with fears over road links to the site which is expected to attract 120,000 fans.

But Goldman insisted all the relevant bodies are on board and work is due to start in December.

"We are working with the State of Texas, City of Austin and Travis County to break ground on the project by the end of the year," he said.

Local media reports in Austin suggested it would need £9.5m ($15m) of road improvements to guarantee clearing people from the site within three hours and there is a feeling it is unlikely this can be completed in time for the race in 2012.

But after a delegation visited this year's British Grand Prix at Silverstone, which had a history of transport problems until road improvements were carried out, the organisers have brought in a number of specialists to look at traffic management, including Graham Lake-Grange, a former member of the Silverstone circuit senior management team.

The 3.4-mile Hermann Tilke-designed circuit will cost an estimated £115m ($180m) to build with the Formula 1 event expected to generate £190m ($300m) for the local economy each year, as well as job opportunities.

Formula 1 supremo Bernie Ecclestone agreed a deal for the Texas capital to host a race until 2021 and, for the first time, a venue for the US Grand Prix will be purpose-built.

The last US Grand Prix took place at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway in Indiana in 2007, a race won by McLaren's Lewis Hamilton.

Its eight-year run was ended after Ecclestone failed to come to an agreement with the circuit's chiefs over new terms.

Watkins Glen in upstate New York, Long Beach, California, Las Vegas, Detroit, Dallas and Pheonix have all hosted F1 races in the past.

From BBC