So I went to the F1 race in Austin!

[Robert Nixon]

Oh man did we have fun! I'm not a high roller that bought seats in the VIP areas or team garages, just had seats at Turn 12. At the end of the longest straight, we figured there would be some passing going on there, and there was. Also we had a good view of the next sequence of turns over to turn 16 or so, plus we could see the top of turn 1 off in the distance. During practice we walked around most of the track, and man that elevation up to turn 1 then back downhill is bigger than it looks on TV.

Can't say enough about how much fun we had, and the overall experience. Great weather, awesome BBQ outside the track (it is in TX!), and spending time with our son and some of his racing friends from SC. Also one night we got together with some of my Army friends that live in the area, so it was a fun fun weekend all around. Too much to mention here, but I've been blogging about it on my little blog, the link is below.

Here's a few photo highlights. I just have a camera phone, so nothing world class here.

One of the Haas cars goes into the pit
Looking back down from turn 1 to the start/finish, this would be a blast to drive this track
During practice 1, a Ferrari passes another car with the big COTA tower in the background
Hanging out in the Military Outpost area, met the "Ferrari Pope", what an outfit! This was the day after Halloween too!

[Robert Nixon]

Some more photos:

--Practice 2 I think, that's now 6 time world champ Lewis Hamilton in the Mercedes
--The view from our Grandstand, great weather, although very cold for TX on Friday morning
--Alfa Romeo had an awesome display (the only team to do so) with this F1 car from a previous year. They also had free coffee, an older race car, and some photo ops.
--Speaking of photo ops, while I was in the Alfa area, I spotted Antonio Giovinazzi next door doing photos with fans, so I got over there and was the last person in line. That weekend the team also announced that they re-signed him for next year, so I'll be cheering for him and Kimi with the Alfa team.

[Robert Nixon]

Heck, a few more shots:

--Pietro Fittipaldi, Haas reserve or test driver was doing an interview in the Haas area, he's next to cardboard stand ups of MAG and GRO
--I'd seen these characters on TV at a race or two, so we ran into them just walking around
--One of the Masters cars, these older F1 cars sounded nice and had their own practices/qualifying/races during the weekend
--Out in front of the main grandstand is the Kart Track, that's where i spotted these Audis that you can drive on track when it's not F1 weekend.

Man it was a great time!

[mattsnapz]

ugh im jealous. being a brit f1 is my favorite sport. i WILL make it to either the u.s or canadian gp...someday

[tvmaster]

I can highly recommend the Canadian Grand Prix - the whole city of Montreal gets behind it for four days - street parties, concerts, events - and if you book through Grand Prix Tours out of Newport Beach, Ca., they do every race, every year. There are packages that include attending driver/team conferences, meet and greets, team parties at night, and you usually end up in a hotel with some of the teams and broadcast crews, so you can get some casual chat in.
I definitely plan to go to Austin next.

And wouldn't it have been great publicity and marketing for our 500's if they could have brought the 500 Abarth Racing League to these tracks, before the F1 races.

[CoachRick]

Even though I live here, I've not attended F1. I WAS a guest of Volvo for a Super V8 event a few years back and got to hang around the paddock with all the folks. It's a great facility and "they" dodged a weather bullet by squeezing in a really nice(but cool) weekend, much like this past weekend. We are dropping below freezing tonight with 45mph wind gusts expected!!! You never know what weather will show up in central Texas in the fall!!!
Thanks for the pics and update!IMG_0313 (2).jpg

[texanbrit]

Even though I live here, I've not attended F1. I WAS a guest of Volvo for a Super V8 event a few years back and got to hang around the paddock with all the folks. It's a great facility and "they" dodged a weather bullet by squeezing in a really nice(but cool) weekend, much like this past weekend. We are dropping below freezing tonight with 45mph wind gusts expected!!! You never know what weather will show up in central Texas in the fall!!!
Thanks for the pics and update!IMG_0313 (2).jpg

I'm always a bit surprised they hold it in the fall as the weather is very unpredictable.

[tvmaster]

lol. The first year, they had it on the schedule following Canada, second week of June. Maaaaaybee a little too warm? Hence, the fall date.

[Robert Nixon]

Yeah, and one year they were delayed by fog, and another Saturday was totally wiped out, so they did qualifying on Sunday. Regardless, the BBQ is always awesome!

Montreal is a good possibility for us, just a one day drive. The only negative right now is that it seems to always be the last week of school, before graduation, so getting away from work is the only challenge. Man, we had a blast.