kotomile

iTrader: (24)

"Spare some change for our F1 effort, sir?"

jacob300zx

Man, what a fun weekend. I probably walked 50 miles in three days carrying a chair, water, whiskey, granola, etc. I got really good at smuggling illegal items and there might be a carreer oportunity for me there soon. The F1 practice was OK, but the Porsche and Ferrrari practices were action pack with spins, smoke, and dive bombs. I think I want to go to V8 Supercar with the wife. I got pics let me load them. We took over turn 11 for Sunday and got crunk. Bastrop cabins were pimp for the price. I really wish they would figure out all the trams and bus situation for next year. It could have been way worse, but standing in line for 1.5hrs to go home, then a 30min bus ride, then bumper to bumper traffic sucked.

Doppelgänger

iTrader: (12)

I'll type up my report when I get home. Heading to port now.

Efini~FC3S

iTrader: (4)

Who's going to the Grand AM / Rolex race in March? All you Texas closet gehs should get together and party with a "Pro" driver.........

Translation - I'll be there, maybe driving, maybe just drinking

gospeed81

iTrader: (51)

What a weekend.

Between crappy service and being there with family I didn't even have a chance to try and find you guys. I think a couple of ya'll were up there in T1 pretty close to us, so kind of a shame, but it was a busy weekend and we never stopped.

Pedometer showed that we covered 10-15mi/day. They hardly checked bags and we snuck in lots of snacks. Still spent over $100 on food, and probably twice that on alcohol. Definitely smuggling in vodka in water bottles next year.

The track is awesome. Lots of great vantage points and viewing areas. Watched pretty much everything from different spots except F1 qualifying and all day Sunday in T1. One Ferrari Challenge driver left some mile-long skid marks up T1 that from the straight made it look like he took flight. I completely expected Grosjean to do the same thing (and actually fly) at some point, but he didn't.

The cars were amazing to see (and hear) in person. The Historic Gran Prix made me even happier though. Nothing like seeing cars that are usually relegated to museums being driven in anger. There were a couple of cars there that were contemporary when my grandfather (who was with us) first saw them. That's a neat connection to make, hearing a sound he once described to me as a kid, there with him.

Definitely going back, just hoping they disperse the johns a little better. Nothing like hiking 1/4 of the way around the track with 3 Stellas in your bladder.

GraemeD

iTrader: (1)

Fun weekend, next year they should have the little crowd details sorted. Trying to walk out the turn one gate took too long, but I was looking at the walk bridges and thinking I was lucky.

Defenitly going next year.

Almost got run over by Jessie James walking in, but after a quick conversation, neat guy.

golftdibrad

*Luby's

Just to make sure no one makes that mistake.

I LOL'ed

Cabins were pimp. At the last minute I did not drive, so had little control of the schedule, and it was a cluster. Which angered me a little, but alas....

I'm glad I bought the parking pass. Worth every penny, BUT,
They need more onesite parking next year. Like, its in the middle of no where there is plently of room. If nascar (in TMS, taledega, etc) can stuff 150-200k people and their cars at a racetrack, that is smaller i might add, COTA certainly can too. The trams were a cluster because of the parking lots were jammed. No one REALLY expects to attend an event with 120k people and be on the interstate in 20 mins.

I'm glad the '**** in your bag' restrictions were light. perhaps next year they will be loosened even more. At the drag races its a 10 minute walk to the truck with beer and snacks, and they still sell the **** out of food and 8 dollar beer.

I do wish they had the PA on a scanner freq. though. I was able to find alot of stuff, the bes was the sky f1 production radio that had the broadcast on in the background. I have mad respect for Martin for doing what he does during the gridwalk with all the bullshit in his ear. I listened to the race on the one in bold. GREATLY added to the experience. And holy crap there is alot of data OTA during an F1 race.


Anyone thinking of MOTOGP?

gospeed81

iTrader: (51)

Oh, and the Fanvision was well worth it. We all pitched in and passed it around. It was quick and easy to use.

jacob300zx

Yup, a buddy had the fanvision and it was really neat.

psreynol

never heard of fanvision before now. looks awesome.

jeff_man

iTrader: (7)

T4 sucked *** but after 2 days of rolling my ankle and walking on a bad leg. I wasn't going to deal with standing around or fitting over a better spot so I sucked it up and watched my fanvision from the bleachers. T15 top row for V8 supercar I think. Perfect view of t12-t16 and can stand up and turn around to see some T18-T20.

jacob300zx

I'm going to have to disagree, after walking the whole track it seems the best seat excluding private/$$ are the T9-T10 stands.

Bryce

iTrader: (24)

Fracking F1 Austin. I had to pay over $100 more to get a hotel in Bastrop for my secret rendezvous with my hayyyy lover. I hear that people who booked months in advance payed over $100 more than I did. lolol

Doppelgänger

iTrader: (12)

T1 grandstands provided a spectacular view...



and one of my 2,300 pictures taken lol


Jensen Button @ F1 USGP COTA by AnonymousNamelss, on Flickr

jacob300zx

From the T9-10 stands you can see the exit of T5 all the way to the entry of T12. There was some great passing in T10 and under breaking for T11. We snuck into about 3/4 of the stands to check views. If your GA then I heard T1 was awesome and T11 ( center left and high) was great for us.

kotomile

iTrader: (24)

Second choice for GA, for me, was 19.

You get 18-20, pit entrance, and 1 in the distance. The sounds with the exhausts pointed at you were great.

hustler

iTrader: (6)

BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM URGGGGGGGGGGG WAHHHHHHHH WAHHHHHHHH...

So ******* awesome at 19, you couldn't hear that anywhere else, and you got to see the cars sliding on exit.

Here's an example. I know this is a "blown diffuser" vid, but I don't think the Caterham had the BD back then when this video was shot and it's the most similar sound I can find. That Caterham sounded the best at 19, the Force India sounded the best at #1.

For anyone looking that didn't go, the downshifts from the Force India car sounded like a ******* cannon and 100' away you could feel the concussion in your chest. The Lotus made a weird fart noise on corner exit that no one else did, I suppose due to "the best torque mapping". The Redbull, Ferrari, and McLarens were relatively quiet with no strange sounds, probably due to the superior aero. When the Ferrari would come off DRS, it made strange whistling sounds for an instant, so maybe there is some validity to the idea that Ferrari has diffuser problems so it doesn't work right with the DRS-braking transition.

hustler

iTrader: (6)

Here is my "F1 Sensory Overload" vid. The helicopters flying around really drive-home the insanity of F1:

hustler

iTrader: (6)

One of the corner works in #1 was hilarious. He'd blow his whistle when the back markers approached and coaches us into taunting/cheering them, lol.

rharris19

iTrader: (41)

We where driving the bus from College Station over to Dripping Springs and somehow ended up at the racetrack at 2:00pm on Sunday. It just had that much a of a natural draw. No matter what we did, we could not convince the wives that we didn't do it on purpose. They laughed a lot. I wanted to be nowhere near it but the route we were going got blocked off and we got directed toward the track. It was really cool to stop off for a second at a spot where we could see the track fairly well and just listen. Next year is probably going to happen for us.