Maybe a repost:

http://jalopnik.com/5970719/austins-...ans-everywhere

No track days at the new formula 1 track in Austin.

 

Yeap COTA just pissed a shit ton of people off...Retarded move IMO. They could have made more of a profit running grassroots races during the week on off season than just having skip barber racing school where you have to pay a few thousand for a few days...IMO fuck that.

 

They reversed their decision. All is well in the world of COTA again....

 

Yea unfortunately the damage has been done. THey might have lost quite a bit. I was disappointed to hear such a big track pretty much shoot these guys down. When you can go to any track in California and elsewhere and hop on if there is a track event. Their elite stance fucked themselves over quite a bit and didn't take long. Its just like what happened to cheaper than dirt when they decided to suspend firearms sales after the shootings. People were mad as hell. Kinda same when they announced this crap. We will see how it pans out.

 

Ya, heard that today also. Hopefully all will be good now.

edit: just read the updated article and it seems only 4 organizations are going to be allowed to rent the track. Not sure who the 4 are, but the one I used to run with "thedriversedge.net" does not have their Feb track date listed.

Interesting.

 

They're honoring the 4 they agreed to in the first place from what I've been told. They have other reasons for not allowing anyone else, reasons rumored to be improving the track & preparing to accommodate MotoGP, V8 Supercars, & any other venues they plan to be hosting.

Some people should remember this track was not completely finished by the time F1 rolled around. There's a lot of things I read that they wanted to do, such as more grand stands.

 

Could it also be as simple as an insurance issue?

The report from the Formula 1 guys seemed to be that it was perfect except for it was too green of a track for traction purposes.

 

Any track that new will be slick until a few races stop by and lay some good rubber down.

 

Yep. Thats why they should have had smaller races first to scrub the track. Oh well, still turned out well.

 

Possibly. It may also be due to the costs.

I don't know how much these 4 events are paying, but according to COTA, it costs $50,000 a day to rent the track for a group of 24 & the track comes fully staffed. I imagine if you had people wanting to rent the track throughout the year, these people would become full time weekend employees of the track.

http://circuitoftheamericas.com/visit/track-rental

I imagine the HPDE have managed to cut deals in allowing more people, but I doubt the majority of track folks can swallow a $2,100 bill for 1 day of driving.

 

After reading that link sounds like its more for corporate than hpde. I agree, most people wont pay for that. I know some OG driversedge people would but not the majority. You can pay a tenth of that price and be able to run three days in a formula 3000 style car plus qualify for your racing lic up in Canada!

 

True that. But, it's a F1 track, a new one at that & the only one in the US. Due so, it's no surprise they're going to "milk" - in a sense - that fact as a valid reason to charge so much money for it.

Personally, I won't be able to afford that any time soon or have a car to take to it. I'll just be happy to visit & see my first Formula 1 race. Maybe go see V8 & GrandAm next year now that they've merged with ALMS. Last race I saw was in 2001 when they came to the Speedway.

 

Nice! A buddy of mine entered his RSR in that one. Hot day!!

The last big race I did was when Indy came out in October. I ended up having a great seat, sitting up in the glass boxes with Penske to my right and Rahal to the left. Bad thing is I missed most of the race since I was manually timing my car until his right rear popped causing him to spin into a wall.

No car for me either. Change of career has put me on hold for now.