Grand Prix

[Sa_artman]

Anybody else irritated San Antonio didn't get the Grand Prix?

http://www.racer.com/us-grand-prix-f...rticle/170972/

Love or hate Henry C., I think we had more coming our way and visibility nationwide (aside from the scandals).

[oden]

Yes, I hate loosing out to Austin. Last time it was here it was great but sure tore the heck out of the streets!

By the way, I did find the Thor trailer. Had to look hard because it was leaked and they are taking it down as fast as they can find it.
It looks great but I guess we have to wait until May for the movie.

[Prowordsmith]

Formula 1 was never in San Antonio. What was here were three races in three years (1988, 89 and 90) for the Camel IMSA Grand Touring prototypes (GTP over and under 3 litres). These were the predecessors to the cars that run in the Daytona 24 Hours (not NASCAR).
The downforce the cars created can suck the pavement right off the roadway base. The city had to weld the manhole covers down or the cars would pull them up and flip them into the air.
The problem was that the spectator prices were just too high. The races lost money each of the three years.
Placing a F1 track in the Austin area makes sense as it is centrally located between 3 of the top 8 US population centers as well as providing easy international airline access.
Also, it takes 25 million just to have the F! organization agree to come to your track. And that doesn't include the cost of the track which, these days, has to be top notch. Look at what's been created in China, Japan and another in the Far East. Millions and millions and millions!

[Sa_artman]

Originally Posted by Prowordsmith

Placing a F1 track in the Austin area makes sense as it is centrally located between 3 of the top 8 US population centers as well as providing easy international airline access.

Yeah, but have you driven through Austin lately? Austin has, and I think will always have, the worst freeway system. San Antonio is a tourist city and has better hotels and accommodations, not to mention freeway upgrades. Now I'm not dissing Austin as I spent better part of my youth there and have always been bleeding orange, but I just never took it for the Formula 1 type city and I frankly don't think they're going to pull the numbers consistently. Time will tell but I'm willing to bet a beer successive years start to tank rather quickly.

[Prowordsmith]

Relative thetraffic through Austin - can't disagree with you, Artman. Horrible! There's a lot of infrastructure that will have to be accomplished let alone the track. They figure they will be filling hotels at least 100 miles around Austin.
Personally I can't see it happening. The one time Dallas had F! it was a bust. Can't remember the attendance figures but I'm sure they weren't what was hoped for.

[500sl]

Prow,
The Government is going to pay the $25 million out of some "Tax Deal". So, it looks like the guys building the track have put together a heck of a deal. Also, the prices at San Antonio's Grand Prix were very affordable, what killed it was the expense of making the track safe downtown along with a rainout in its early stages.

[BigTee]

There are many reasons why Austin got the GP.
Austin is/has:
1) known holding large events each year (SXSW and ACL)
2) relatively in the center of the state and the country
3) Incredibly close to the border (compared to NYC or Indy), so they can milk the Latin American money
4) a great airport (compared to SAs) with a lot of area to park aircraft for all the VIPs

Last week they announced their website along with the location of the track (http://formula1unitedstates.com/index.html). Notice how close it is to the airport, much like the track in Malaysia. Not only that but its right off the new tollway.

Personally I can't wait until 2012, and now that they've gone to see Red McCombs the deal is going to get done