We’re here, traffic way worse than anticipated. I can’t imagine a repeat performance, luckily I have the DVR set so I’ll be able to watch it next week. Tomorrow will be a better indicator of how many hours before 7AM we’ll need to leave to get there, we have a 4AM wakeup in the morning.
Enjoy the race! Are you going to FP 3 and Quali as well?
Unknown. We are heading that direction at 5AM, but we don’t know if that’ll get us there in time for FP3. I think we will be able to catch qualifying.
Wow. How far from the track are you?
Maybe 20 miles. The problem is closer to the track, at least from the direction we are coming from, there I just a single 2 lane road leading to the track. That road is partially blocked to limit access so the flow is pretty slow. They should close the road, but it passes through several miles of rural population and they want to allow those people access as well, best we can tell. All traffic control is by hand, the National Guard has been called out to assist the hundreds of police on the site. And this is just to deal with the scant few parking spots at the track. It’s just going to take a really long time to make the trip, and it’s only practice today. We’ll know more after tomorrow when the crowds are larger, we never actually made it into the circuit today.
Hell’s bells! You might want to spring for a helicopter ride in.
Wow. A Texas Cluster-Fuck!
Strange thing is, watching qualifying, some of the helicopter shots show a half-empty parkinig lot.
Maybe all the cars are out stuck on the road ala Woodstock.
Wow… My experience is absolutely the opposite of Duke’s. I have seen zero traffic approaching the track via the 130->21->812 route coming daily from San Antonio. I bought a parking pass for Lot Q a few miles east of the track. Our shuttle drops us about 200 yards from Turn 1. The only bus line I’ve stood in was a ten minute wait getting out on Friday.
I’ve left my house at about 6:30 each day and I’ve found a good GA spot on the downhill run out of Turn 1 before the 9am opening practice each day. It also has a nice view of the approach into Turn 19 which has proved critical.
The $40 I spent on my Lot Q pass and $70 on the Fanvision handset were absolutely money well spent. I just wish the Speed broadcast was one of the audio options, though I’ve been enjoying the BBC crew with John Watson. The Sky feed is the other option.
It wasn’t nearly as bad today, I think our timing was just against the flow yesterday.
We got to the track a little after 6 and got right into our parking lot. The track was open by the time we made our way up there, we walked basically the entire perimeter of the track while things were getting underway.
I think the buses were bringing most of the people in, we went out to the car between the end of practice and the start of qualifying and there were huge throngs of people coming in from what I guess was the bus stop. And this was right before qualifying. I didn’t see any of the parking lot to gate shuttles they mentioned., lots of golf carts and even stretched golf carts, but I didn’t see any way to get one. Lots of people doing a lot of walking. Our lot was fairly close and it was 15 min. each way at a brisk pace.
We stuck around for the Ferrari spec race right after qualifying and were able to get right out, didn’t take 1/4 the time to get to the hotel today as it did yesterday, less than 30 minutes lot to room.
Weather was perfect, I bet we walked 10 miles. I predict less sight seeing tomorrow. Food was kind of high, we saw $14 hamburgers and $15 turkey legs, but beer was $8/domestic, $9 import. Worth it to not have to walk to the car to chug a couple.
So yeah, much different day today. I’m hitting the hay soon and we’re going to shoot for the same time table for tomorrow.
I just watched Quali on the DVR. At the end of the intro, they showed what I assume was the road Duke was referring to, looked like one lane, bumper to bumper. I thought a shuttle would be the way to go.
Sounds nice. Is that in the bleachers or on the grass?
What’s the Sky feed, from the helicopter?
I envy you guys, the track looks fantastic!
Just missed seeing your post, Duke. Glad it went well. Enjoy!
There were lots of really nice grass areas you could set up on, many on the sides of hills with great views. We saw them on our morning walk, no idea how populated they were later on. We had a Jumbotron and PA where our seats were, but lots of folks were using electronics of some sort.
I was impressed with the percentage of filled seats, even for qualifying. I always hate to see empty seats at a race on TV. A good amount of the fans around us were from outside the US - Brits behind, Mexico in front, Italy to the side.
My view of the experience is a world apart from what it was this time yesterday. I’m looking forward to tomorrow, but I’m still glad I set the DVR for all the sessions before I left.
Sky is a UK satellite-based broadcaster, which shares the F1 rights in the UK with the public BBC.
One other thing about the track “from the ground” is that it is a good thing its been just wet enough to grow the grass they’ve put down and not wet enough to turn the areas which aren’t more than dirt and mulch (the food and port-a-potty areas) into muckholes. And some GA areas have next to no grass on them to begin with (I spent FP2 sitting in one at the back end of the “Silverstone” complex"). A folding chair that I can sling over my shoulder was another thing I’m glad I brought with me. The General Admission section come down from Turn 1 and the section at the start of the Silverstone complex are both great spots to watch the race if you don’t want to pay for a seat in the bleachers.
The International mix of the crowd was great. The only jerk I’ve personally observed looked to be a native Texan who was impatient in trying to force his way through the crowds in the footbridges. My favorite person I saw was a guy wrapped in a Finnish flag with the words “Kimi: He knows what he’s doing” on it. Not sure if he was actually a Finn, but it was cool, nonetheless.
My experience today coming up from San Antonio was essentially flawless. We took I-35 to 130 to Lot L and did not even slow down until turning into the parking lot. This was at 10:30 AM. The walk to the Turn 11 gate was less than 5 minutes and we were inside. Amazingly easy. Leaving was just as painless. We left after the Ferrari Challenge and had only about a 5 minute delay leaving the parking lot itself. After that it was smooth sailing. I think the shuttle buses are taking most of the strain off the on-site parking lots.
Weather was perfect as mentioned. Crowd was great - lots of international visitors, everyone very friendly. Beer was $9, but for that you get a guy bringing a 16-oz Stella or Guinness to your seat (if you can flag him down). Same price at the tent vendors.
Great experience today, can’t wait for tomorrow. Our seats are in the bleachers in Turn 5, but I somehow lucked out and got the top row. We can stand up and see the cars enter the next complex and also go down the back straight. Almost too much too see with a lot of cars on track!
Thank you Houston for an incredible race.
Austin had a great one too 
Terrific course, venue, race. Lewis did himself and his team proud. Fernando appreciated it too.
Championship goes on!
We decided to head on out of the area after the race Sunday, so after we left the track we made our way to Waco to eat and get a less expensive room. At the restaurant that evening, the booth next to us was F1 fans. At the breakfast at the hotel the next morning, F1 fans.
We really enjoyed the whole experience, even the traffic wasn’t too bad once we got in the groove of things. Drank a lot of $9 beer (the guy I went with rarely drinks, so driving under the influence wasn’t an issue).
Highway 130 - highest posted speed limit in the country! 85 mph! Except that coming from the north, it’s only 80 mph for the first 15 or so miles. And even after you get up to the 85 mph zone, you still have to stop every few miles to pay $1.50 toll if you don’t have a pass. You could make a lot better time on I-35 if not for the traffic. Ah, the traffic on 130. It was very sparse, most of the cars we saw were DPS troopers. One on either side of each toll plaza, going both directions, plus several others randomly spaced. This is all for about 30 miles of lightly traveled toll road. Maybe 10X the troopers of a similar stretch of I-35, and I-35 had way more traffic on it.
I’m glad to see the driver’s championship isn’t settled yet, especially after last year’s blowout. I’m glad Austin and COTA were up to the task, everybody we talked to was having a great time.
That was certainly a spectacular end to probably the best season in many, many years. A lot of the new tracks (Abu Dhabi, Singapore) have been pretty awful, but hopefully Austin is a sign of better racing to come.
What’s wrong with the Singapore circuit?
Hamilton’s only consolation from being the victim of a poor piece of driving is that it didn’t cost him the championship. If he’d had a more reliable car this year, it could have.