Ferrari Mailing List: Re: USGP in Austin

[Charles Perry (charles]

My dad and I were there as well, in the Turn 2 stand along with Rick. I agree with Mr. Larson & Rick's assessments.

 

The Friday practice crowd was huge relative to other GPs I've been to.  I think their estimate of 60-70k is accurate. This was about the same on Saturday for Qualifying - more like what I'm used to, suggesting that more of the attendees of this event came specifically for the spectacle and the entire 3-day experience. PA estimated as much as 35% of the crowd was from Mexico. Our hotel was packed with TelMex branded peeps. However, I heard many different languages over the weekend, so I don't think it was all North American locals. Crowd for the race was not nearly what I was used to. There was elbow room in the stands and a lot of open seats. However, I don't think this was because the people didn't buy tickets or show up - I think it was because everyone was excited about the new track and spent more time wandering from area to area to figure out where the place to be is, or using the very generous grassy areas for the General Admission crowd.

 

The track is beautifully done and well laid out. About the only improvement I would suggest is that the two bridges needed to get from the main entrance to the far side stands are too narrow and were significantly bottle-necked a number of times through the weekend. Still no more than 15 minute wait to get through, but that's a lot when you're just staring at bald spots and fencing. They did an incredible job with restrooms and cleaning up. No longer wait than 3-4 minutes for restrooms (can be 15-20 minutes in Montreal). Food was very good but they could have used a few more vendors. Very expensive was the biggest complaint - $5 bottled water/soda, $8-9 beers, $10 pork tenderloin sandwich. Nothing about this weekend was under-commercialized.

 

The critical stuff at the facility was finished and done well but you could tell there was a lot of "finish" work to be done over the next year. Some paths were still unpaved, some landscaping still under plastic green erosion barriers. Suites looked temporary - delivered complete like pods.

 

We stayed downtown and used the shuttle busses. The lines were incredibly long but moved very quickly - very well managed. The biggest delay was getting people's fat asses into the bus and seated so it could roll out and let the next one pull up. There was always a line of busses waiting to load people - supposedly 400+ busses contracted and I saw bus markings from as far away as Kansas. Leaving Sunday was definitely slower - about 45 minutes in the bus line, but once on the bus it was very quick back to downtown. They need to manage the line barriers better since there was a near riot about people cutting, but it was fine and we even had a "wave" going through the bus line for a while - fun.

 

For me the only real epic failure of the facility was no broadcast of the track PA (usually on an FM frequency somewhere). However, I think this was on purpose so they could sell more of the FanVision personal TVs. As I said, Nothing about this weekend was under-commercialized.

 

The city was very well organized and a lot of fun. TONS of cops on duty - not sure what they were expecting but at times it seemed the ratio of fans to cops was near parity. Cops were very friendly and were pretty much hands-off. I asked about it and they said that being a college town they were used to a lot worse and that they generally didn't bother people unless they were seriously making a nuisance of themselves. There were the usual street parties that are normal for Austin but swelled a bit for the GP. They had a bunch of downtown support stuff like concerts going on. I saw Enrique Iglesias & Nelly at the Austin Civic Center and it was well managed and well produced. Pretty amusing, giving the Hispanic leaning of attendees, to see Enrique Iglesias mobbed and then have the Civic Center nearly clear out for Nelly. I doubt he's played to that small a crowd since he was doing high-school gyms - and Austin is his home town!

 

I think the city vendors made some short-sighted decisions.  They all jacked their rates like crazy. We paid $410/night at a La Quinta Inn with a three day minimum and pre-payment with no cancellation. Holiday Inn Express Airport was getting $525/night. Nice downtown hotels were as much as $4k/night for suites. Even the food trucks doubled their prices for through-the-window tacos, which pissed off a bunch of the drunk college kids who couldn't scrounge enough for 4th meal through the weekend. If the race attendance falls off seriously next year, I would blame the city vendors rather than the track and its efforts or the City of Austin and theirs.

 

I had a much better time than expected and will probably try to re-visit the track later next year for MotoGP or V8 Supercars. I think turn 15 would offer the best seating. Turn 12 looks best on paper but the stands are very far away from the track. Fifteen is very close and on the double-hairpin. Turn 19 seemed to be the one with the most action if you like run-offs and slides. I was shocked that the 1st corner came away clean for everyone.

 

I would definitely go back for the GP if the locals back off of their "rip off the tourists while you can" mentality.

 

-- charles

 

 

From: bglarson [at] transystems.com [mailto:bglarson [at] transystems.com]
Sent: Monday, November 19, 2012 5:53 PM
To: Charles Perry
Cc: ferrari [at] ferrarilist.com
Subject: Re: [Ferrari] USGP in Austin

 

George,

I am a lurker/very infrequent poster.  Not an infrequent spectator of NA open wheel (f1,indycar and ladders) and a multitude of sports car series races.

I was at the race all day Sat and Sun with fca seats in T2 and parking in lot H.

·         The track itself (driver comment/layout/visual appearance) and the permanent structures are well beyond anything else in NA.  Well done.  No Barber Motorsports manicure yet, but that the overall design is excellent, just needs filling out and installation of remaining permanent seating structures, landscaping, etc.  I can’t fault anything they did except for forgetting the dust suppressant.

·         The on-site logistics were well beyond other races with only shortage of food (sometimes long lines) and COTA souvenir kiosks (long lines).  The critical items (water, toilet and safety personnel) were in abundance.

·         Traffic management.  On and off-site----the best I have every experienced including police escort. 

·         Personnel consistently friendly, available and helpful.

·         Great support events with GT3/458C/vintage GP.  F1 was telecast.

Next year, I would pick GA and bring a chair and park myself between T17 and 18 (you have a great view of both T1 and T20 from here), with second choice above T11 (hairpin).  I would then explore getting a pit pass in addition.

 

 

From: George P. [mailto:ygpz4re [at] hotmail.com]
Sent: Monday, November 19, 2012 6:59 AM
To: HQ-Brian Larson
Cc: The FerrariList
Subject: [Ferrari] USGP in Austin

 

Ok, so can any F-listers *WHO WERE ACTUALLY *IN* AUSTIN* comment on the event?  Ticket prices, crowd, commute in/out of the track, etc etc etc???
 
Thanks,
 
gp