Formula One Grand Prix - Austin, Tx - November 2012

The weekend of 17, 18 November was the penultimate F-1 Grand Prix of 2012 held in Austin, Texas.   My friend Dave who lives in Austin had secured some tickets and since I had always wanted to go to an F-1 event I splurged on a weekend pass for the three days (Friday practice, Saturday practice and qualifying, and the race on Sunday).   

View of Track from the top of the tower

This was the first time Formula 1 had been back to America since Indianapolis in 2007 and the Austin people had built a fine new track just for the event - the Circuit of the Americas.   It was all very impressive, though I gather there had been all sorts of complications along the way to completing the project and it was touch and go whether things would go ahead for a while.   They pulled it all together in the end and from what I could see they did a fine job.

My outbound trip was not that smooth, I missed a connection in Denver that necessitated a diversion through Houston and a late arrival in Austin.  As a result I missed the Friday practice session.  Nevertheless I did get into Austin on Friday night and had the pleasure of seeing the finishing touches being applied to my friend Dave’s new house on Lake Travis.   It was the first night they had stayed in the house and things were a hive of activity getting ready for guests on that first night.

On Saturday morning we went out to the track for the qualifying sessions.  Dave had a friend who put together a bus to take about 25 of us out to the track.  That was the nice and relaxing way to do it and we didn’t have to worry about driving and parking.  

Looking down to Pit Lane from Turn 1

The track itself was quite impressive and so were the crowds. Formula 1 has some hard core fans that pay some serious money to visit these events.   I avoided paying $50 for a Red Bull T shirt, or $150 for a slicker Ferrari shirt.  As you can imagine all the concessions were seriously overpriced.  I did shell out $35 to get to the top of the tower in the middle of the track.  It provides a nice view of the entire course and the surrounding area.  

We parked ourselves at Turn 1 for the first qualifying.   An impressive tight turn at the top of a hill where they slow from 200 Km/hr to next to nothing (or so it seems) to make the corner.  For the second and third qualifying sessions I went to our seats in the Grandstand area - across from the pits and on a high speed straightaway

Its all very exciting stuff - the kind that makes shivers go down your spine - the speed, the noise, the technology.... wonderful stuff.  Of course, I soon realized I had no clue which car was which - all the Red Bulls and Toro Rossos looked the same, I couldn’t even differentiate the Ferraris.   I had to brush up on the car’s livery and then figure out that a color coding on the camera on top of the car identifies the different drivers on the same team.  

Qualifying looked a piece of cake for Vettel and the Red Bulls, though Hamilton did squeeze in between Vettel and Webber for second place on the starting grid.

That night we were joined by a couple more old friends from the late 70’s when we were all working together in Sacramento.   We had Dave Close (our host), Dave Vaughan (from Sacramento), Mike Meadows (from Houston), Geoff Stephenson (now in Austin) and myself - five old geezers reminiscing about the old days and the good times we had.

Dave Close, Mike Meadows, Dave Vaughan

For Sunday’s race we again went out by bus.  The traffic was quite bad getting in.   They haven’t built any infrastructure like new roads to the track as yet.

It was amazing to see we had protesters picketing outside of the entrance.  The infamous Westboro Baptist Church had decided that the worshippers of F1 race car drivers are evil and will go to hell.  They had all sorts of hateful placards on the road to the track.   Still I suppose that’s better than what they are more notorious for - the picketing of US soldiers funerals.

One of the Red Bulls - Vettel or Webber

The race itself was pretty exciting - the noise alone was amazing.   Ear plugs are essential.  While we did have good seats, across from the pit lane, we didn’t get to see much beyond cars flying by. There was little to no overtaking on our stretch.   The 3 second tire changes in the pits in front of us were impressive to watch however.

Vettel flying by our seats

Vettel and Hamilton were in a battle throughout the race and Hamilton just managed to squeeze by the German about ⅔ through the race.   He then held the lead to the finish.  Alonso was a distant third, keeping the championship alive for the last race next week in Brazil.

My final challenge of the weekend was to find my ride to the airport.   Since it was expected to be a slow exit and since the bus was not going to the airport, I had arranged for another friend to take me there.  All well and good, but where was this person - he wasn’t sitting with us and there were 120,000 people there all rushing for the same exits.  Cell service was so overloaded calls were not going through, texts were taking ages to get through.   I had abandoned the bus way out and now couldn’t find my friend.  That caused me some anxiety, until we finally made phone contact and were able to guide each other to a rendezvous.

All in all a great weekend.  And while watching a race on the TV is the best way of seeing everything and receiving expert commentary, being there was pretty exciting. 

As usual here are some more photos.