Ladies and Gentlemen, Start Your Engines...in 380 Days!

In just 380 days the construction site behind me will host the 2012 Formula 1 United States Grand Prix.

2012 Calendar Announcement from The Austin Grand Prix on Vimeo.

This news comes from the FIA World Motorsport Council, who met today in Barcelona, Spain and confirmed the 2012 Formula 1 Calendar. The F1USGP is officially set for June 17th, 2012; just 380 days from today.  Though there are many construction and logistical hurdles to be cleared, and the viability of the track depends on a pre-race inspection, it looks like work at the track will continue to progress full-speed ahead in order to meet the FIA's deadline.

In addition to setting the 2012 calendar, the WMSC voted unanimously to hold the Bahrain GP on Oct 30th this year, following an on site visit with government officials and the FIA Vice President. If you recall, this year's Bahrain GP was set for March 13, but canceled on February 21 due to political unrest in the country. According to the FIA statement, the intention of reinstating this year's race in Bahrain is to use the GP to unite the people of Bahrain, but there are still large challenges to overcome due to the political and humanitarian state there. With this announcement, there has been loud outcry from teams, drivers and F1 fans worldwide who do not agree with this decision.

The Statesman also shared that next Tuesday the Austin City Council will meet with the COTA team to discuss enrolling the City as the "local sponsoring entity" in order to support the Major Events Trust Fund.  Despite rumors and speculation by naysayers, the METF is designed to be a self-sustaining fund that is fueled by increased tax revenues from food, drink, travel and hotel sources in conjunction with major events. Thus, the Austin City Council would play a passive role in this sponsor scenario, and according to Richard Suttle, COTA's lawyer, the city will not be out of pocket for the "rolling loan" needed to kick-start the METF. You can read more at The Statesman.

Well it's no surprise that we're extremely excited about this announcement. We set up a Facebook Event: Formula One Grand Prix of the United States, so be sure to join the event and socialize with us and other fans. We'll be posting information on tickets (the #1 question today!) as soon as it is available, because we want you to join us in Austin in 2012!

You can also sign up for our newsletter for ticket information and to stay up to date on the latest news from Austin!

More detailed investigations into the effect of the Bahrain schedule addition and the City Council/METF meeting next Tuesday will follow.

View from Turn 1 - Circuit of the Americas - Picture taken April 14, 2011 - All Rights Reserved by Austin Grand Prix

Descending Upon The Austin Grand Prix - Site Visit Part I

On Friday, November 13, I hopped on yet another friendly Southwest Air flight from Chicago to Austin, but first made a few stops in Kansas City and Dallas.  This time the stops were welcomed because they allowed me to change seats (while waiting on new passengers to board the plane) and grill my Pilot on how we would be flying into Austin.  I texted Kevin to find out exactly where the future F1US site was located geographically in relation to the airport.  He quickly responded and then I pulled the pilot aside for a rather abnormal question:

“So, I have a really technical question.  Say I wanted to look out the window on our descent into Austin and see a parcel of land located about a mile and a half southeast of the airport.  What side of the plane should I be sitting on?” <insert smile and charm>

The pilot thought for about 2.5 seconds and then responded, very matter-of-factly, yet somewhat puzzled, “On the right side.”

I thanked him and took my seat in 1F – the window seat on the right side of the plane.  When we were taking off from Dallas we passed over the oldDallas Cowboys football stadium – the one that has a retractable roof.  Legend has it that Jerry Jones (Dallas Cowboys team owner) wanted the roof to open so that "God could watch his team play."

Cowboy's Stadium in Dallas, by HKS ArchitectsThat’s how American football works in Texas – kids start playing at age 9 and don’t stop until college or later if they’re lucky. 

It’s interesting to note that HKS Architects designed the new Cowboys stadium and they’re the architects joining Herman Tilkke for design of the Austin track and site.

Here is a promo video of the new Cowboys stadium.  Although it is really poor quality, you can start to get a feel for HKS Architect's work.  How do you think they will incorporate their work with Hermann Tilke? 

(IMHO HKS has a better high quality flash video on their company website:  HKS Sports)

Though about 200 miles south of Dallas, the flight to Austin Downtown Austin from above Elroy, TXis a quick one, and about thirty five minutes later we were making our descent into Austin Bergstrom International Airport.  We swung out to the southeast and then made a sharp hairpin turn to enter the airport headed north.   My seat on the right side of the plane allowed me to look out the window, an east-facig view, and setup for the perfect shot of the site and future track location; a view no one has shared with fans until now.  I was so excited about the idea of getting a closer look that I started snapping pictures as we got closer to the airport and to my surprise, the flight path gave me a perfect view of the site.  It's safe to say that future passengers flying into Austin from the south will pass above the track and have a perfect view of this new Austin icon.  Pretty cool, eh?

The following diagram shows the flight path we took while approaching Austin and the direction of my camera for each of the track site images.  In total, four of the images I took give a perfect view of the site and should help you understand the terrain and location a bit better (more images in the Gallery).

 Diagram of Flight Path and Images, by Kevin Olsen

Image 01

Image 02

Image 03

Image 04