Oh my. We may only have F1 & MotoGP next year, but hey, we get Foxworthy's Redneck Festival. So you know, it's all good. Right? Update: Jeff Foxworthy's Red Fest to take place at COTA on... | Austin Music Source | www.austin360.com
A look inside the mind atop the throne at COTA, one year after the circuit opened: Circuit of the Americas, one year later - Autoweek Racing F1 news - Autoweek "Circuit of the Americas, one year later Exclusive conversation with founding partner Bobby Epstein"
Wow. Very enlightening. The mistake we racers have made is that CoTA was Disneyland for racers when in reality management wants it to be Disneyland Austin. They have an entirely different vision for CoTA. I guess the likes of SCCA recognized that pretty quick and once was enough. While the track is very cool I won't be racing there again until they put out the signs that say, "UNDER NEW MANAGEMENT".
I agree, but would there be 2 P2 classes since the WEC and TUDOR P2's now have different characteristics? If this was touched on already, I missed it.
Hearing through the grapevine now that Dan Allen is out as CFO at COTA. No official confirmation as of yet & no further details.
Is this another CoTA deathnail? 2014 F1 scheduled on same weekend as NASCAR the largest draw of motorsports in Texas
I honestly don't think that's a big deal. NASCAR has, mostly, a totally different fan base. and that race is 200 miles away, in a different market.
I wouldn't call it a death knell, but I also wouldn't really say it's a different market, either, or a good choice for COTA or F1 (not sure who made this choice). But both of these tracks are (or at least should be) marketing to the entire state of Texas and beyond. Epstein and some others seem to think the crossover on this is negligible. I disagree. I think there's probably more crossover between NASCAR & F1 than most people on either side are willing to admit. Once you get past the F1 snobs & the NASCAR snobs, that's where you'll see the effect. The casual motorsport fan or the avid motorsport fan who can't get enough of every kind of racing...those are the fans who will be picking one race or the other. At any rate, the USGP needs every fan it can attract, and going head-to-head with a TMS Cup weekend won't help at all. The Cup race at TMS has never had a problem drawing huge crowds. That place holds almost 200K people and the smallest crowd I know of there is about 150K.
Just so CoTA does not think it is getting all the bashing, here is a funny cartoon dissing the energy saver bathrooms at one of our local race tracks. Image Unavailable, Please Login
Hey BTW y'all, our Facebook page was nominated for the Statesman Social Media Awards, here:The Link If you like what we've done here, at Friends of Formula 1 Austin Texas (https://www.facebook.com/FoF1ATX/posts/724931667541651), & on Twitter (@Austin_F1, @FoF1ATX, @vfacundo), go to the link and vote for us...We might get a cool trophy!
Austin WEC race planned for 4:30-10:30PM running...with nighttime practice sessions: Austin six-hour World Endurance Championship race scheduled... | Formula Austin | www.statesman.com
OBTW, in the latest COTA staff carnage, they've let go EVP Bruce Knox and hired Richard McComb as CFO. We also heard that the head of HR has quit, along with the rest of her HR staff. The hits just keep coming.
So...for those of you keeping score at home: CEO: Steve Sexton out, Jason Dial in CFO: Dan Allen out, Richard McComb in EVP: Bruce Knox out Jason Wade out (Track Ops Dir.) Marty Hunt out (Facilities Ops Dir., left to GPoA) Kevin Tyo out (Dir. of Security) HR director out HR minions out Bunch of accountants out Most of track staff out V8SC gone SCCA gone Historic GP gone World Challenge gone Porsche GT3 Cup gone Track Days almost all gone Pretty sure this is all just in the last year...last few months even. Did I miss anyone?
Autoweek just followed up on what we posted earlier: Longtime Circuit of the Americas executive out, according to reports Executive VP Bruce Knox leaves Formula One venue Longtime Circuit of the Americas executive out, according to reports - Autoweek Racing F1 news - Autoweek So, the bold portion raises a question for me. When we found out about this (we heard he was fired) my 1st thought was, with Knox being McCombs's guy in the COTA project, what does his departure mean in terms of the McCombs investment position?
So what is your appraisal of what this means? Is CoTA one step away from bankruptcy? There were some comments on the Porsche Forum that CoTA was doing some nice things for their event and there was surprise to see those welcome changes. Is that new development too little too late? Is the new crew going to fix CoTA so we can all race? I love that track. As a sidebar: In my last 10 years of racing I have only seen the ambulance have to roll twice. Once was at CoTA during the 2013 SCCA race where CoTA management seemed to have full and exclusive control. The other was last Saturday at the Indie Motorsports SCCA race fully under SCCA control. When I was at CoTA watching their safety crew, I thought to myself, "I don't want to get hurt here", yet Austin is a big city with what should be excellent medical. This Saturday, one of our racers hit a wall at Indie and the report was he was alert and cursing the other driver but had a broken leg and collarbone. SCCA safety had the driver out of the stricken SRF and stabilized in the ambulance then in the medivac helicopter within 30mins of his crash! The only medical facilities are in Tuscon an hour and 45 from the track. That is some response time. The SCCA guys are incredible. CoTA...well...just one more nail...
There's no NASCAR board here, but this also has to do with F1, so I guess this is as good a place for this as any... Texas Motor Speedway put on a big promotion yesterday in downtown Austin with the Daytona 500 winner which, as you all know, turned out to be Dale Earnhardt Jr. Here are some articles about the event and some of the fallout from it, and below that are my photos from the event. Dale Jr. struck me as very reserved and a bit shy, and very likeable. He doesn't seem overly comfortable with all the attention, sort of like he doesn't really get why such a fuss is being made over him. Seems like a genuinely good guy. Gossage was funny, friendly, and was intent on letting the fans know just how much he appreciates them and their business. What a breath of fresh air compared to another track owner whose name shall not be spoken. Racing Today: Junior's victory tour takes him to F1 country Racin? Today » Junior?s Victory Tour Takes Him To F1 Country Gossage upset with F1 scheduling Gossage upset with Formula One scheduling Bernie Ecclestone dismisses Nascar objection to US Grand Prix date clash Bernie Ecclestone dismisses Nascar objection to US Grand Prix date clash | Sport | theguardian.com Went out to Scholz's in the cold, in my shorts & t-shirt 'cause I'm a dumbass & didn't check the weather before I left. Took a few photos. Hope you like 'em... https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.799127313435149.1073741956.157330087614878&type=1 Eddie Gossage with B&E on the horn... Junior gets an honorary official Texas flag...
You know, it's not easy to read, but yeah. My personal take is that they're low on money and are just trying to get into a better position to sell while milking the METF for everything they can in the meantime. Most people who've followed this seem to be thinking along the same lines. Too little, too late? For this management, probably, yeah, imho. The good thing is the track is there. It's not going anywhere. Hopefully the next ownership/management group are more savvy to the racing industry and their market. The emergency crew situation here is a mess, partly due to inexperience, and partly due to weird rules handed down from COTA management. I know for a fact that they've turned down offers from very experienced marshal crews from major racing series. As a FF specializing in vehicle extrication at crash scenes, I'm a little surprised when you say 30 minutes til evac helo loading is fast. But then I've never worked race cars.
I have no experience. It just seemed fast to me considering they had to make the call, someone had to get up out of the sofa and into the chopper, get some kind of clearance to take off, then be an Hr 45 away by car so it seemed fast to me. But if the usual response is way faster that's all the better for us drivers. Fortunately, getting airlifted out seems to be a rare event.
I was thinking as if the helo was already on site. Depending on how far out you were from the helicopter's home base, that's probably not bad.
As a rescue helicopter pilot, I would grade that standard as UNSAT at COTA, given the proximity of the track to hospitals and their helo's on alert. If the helo was at the COTA helipad (next to the infirmary in the main paddock), the standard would be what we call "Single Digit Minutes". From the time of the incident, to the time the helo lifts off with the patient on board, enroute to the hospital, should be less than 10:00 minutes. The helo should be on the hospital pad about 6-8 minutes after that.