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
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
comcast.net)