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F1: A Track Grows In Austin
United States Grand Prix officials say F1 facility construction is on schedule…
Austin Formula 1 CEO Bruce Knox stands near the Turn 1 area of the Austin Formula One track under construction. (Photo: Mike Hembree SPEED.com)
Formula One’s spotty and, at times, downright depressing history in the United States is on schedule to begin renewal next year in what many observers would rank as a most unlikely location.
Six miles southeast of the Texas music – and state – capital of Austin, the planned 2012 site of the United States Grand Prix is taking shape from a 1,000-acre wasteland of mesquite brush. On a hilly slice of Texas terrain just off state highway 812 and within two miles of the Austin airport, hulking earthmovers are reshaping the land into a 3.4-mile road course that is scheduled to host some of the planet’s fastest racing vehicles sometime next summer or fall.
As spring and the bluebonnets arrive in Texas, work on the F1 facility has accelerated. Evidence? Sixty workers from an Austin construction company that is rearranging the 350-acre core of the track property to facilitate the track construction already have encountered – and dispatched – 14 rattlesnakes. And a cottonmouth moccasin or two.
The construction timeline is on schedule, officials in the downtown Austin F1 office say.
“All of our milestones for construction, we’ve hit,” said project CEO Bruce Knox, fresh from taking delivery of the next solid sign that there will be world-class racing next year in Austin – black “Formula 1 United States-Austin, Texas-2012” caps.
“Since we got involved in this project about a year ago, the original timeline is basically where we’re tracking right now. We’re on pace,” Knox said.
“It’s amazing to see the activity that is going on and see the amount of equipment at work. People are laser-focused on this project. It’s ambitious, but this is Texas.”
And there you have it. They do things big in Texas. They have the world’s most outrageously over-the-top stadium in Dallas. They host the Final Four in Houston. They race stock cars on one of the sport’s biggest platforms in Fort Worth.
As the local T-shirts proclaim, “Texas Is Bigger Than France.”
The concept is that Austin, world-renowned for its excellent music scene and listed on almost everybody’s rating sheets as one of the best places in the United States to live, despite not even being one of the biggest cities in its own state (Houston, San Antonio and Dallas are considerably bigger in population), is an ideal spot to welcome the F1 circus.
It’s not Monaco, but what is? And besides – does Monaco have the Broken Spoke and Gruene Dance Hall and a university/downtown scene bubbling with life?
Las Vegas? Indianapolis? Watkins Glen? No, Austin.
“This is all a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity in motorsports in general but really in the sporting world overall,” Knox said. “What it will do for innovation and growth in technology in the state of Texas is big. It’s a big, audacious project but one that I think will have a big return.”
The instigator behind the $200-250 million project is Tavo Hellmund, an Austin entrepreneur with a long and deep background in motorsports and – most importantly – a long and deep friendship with F1 kingpin Bernie Ecclestone. Ecclestone and Hellmund’s father were associates in racing circles, and Hellmund, who has driven in Formula racing, has had a strong relationship with the often-difficult-to-impress Ecclestone for years.
“I think Tavo had a vision, and he had the relationship with Bernie,” Knox said. “Bernie was able to see and translate that vision to be sure it made sense. There have been other cities and states that have positioned themselves to get a Grand Prix. Bernie understanding Tavo’s reasons why Austin would be ideal and supporting those reasons got us the sanctioning agreement.”
The agreement is for 10 years. The date of the first race probably won’t be known until autumn, when F1 typically releases the next year’s schedule. Logical months would be June, to slide in with the Montreal date, or November, to fit with the Brazilian Grand Prix.
Austin doesn’t get its pick of dates, but early summer might be preferred over fall, which could put F1 promoters in competition with NASCAR racing at Texas Motor Speedway (several hours to the north) and college football, a near-religion in the Lone Star State.
Why Austin? Because Hellmund lives here. Because it’s within the travel orbit that includes Dallas and Forth Worth to the north and San Antonio and Houston to the south and east.
And because of the continents.
“Tavo has been working with the F1 people for years as far as looking at his focus on Austin as the perfect location,” Knox said. “It has proximity to the East Coast, the West Coast, Mexico, South America.”
With F1 fever a considerable factor in Mexico and Central and South America, the anticipation is that a significant slice of the Austin spectator base will be international.
The track’s target attendance number is 120,000, very realistic considering Austin’s location.
Knox said the construction schedule calls for completion in time for a June race.
“Everything we’re doing from a construction, business, ticketing, planning standpoint is based on June,” he said. “Once we have a date, we’re in full-execution mode.”
Any concern that the timeline won’t be met and that a Texas-side embarrassment could result? None, according to Knox.
“With Red, failure is not an option,” he said. “Just get it done.”
“Red” is Billy Joe “Red” McCombs, one of America’s richest businessmen, a San Antonio resident and the sort of individual a project of this magnitude must have. McCombs carries so much influence across the great landscapes of power in Texas that the business school at the University of Texas in the capital carries his name. Now 83, he built a fortune in the automobile and media businesses and has had ownership of NFL and NBA teams. He is the lead investor in the F1 project.
The track, at least as it looks on paper, already has fired the interest of the F1 community. Molded by Tilke Engineers and Architects of Germany, the world’s premier designer of such facilities, the 3.4-mile track features striking elevation changes, long straights and turns that attempt to replicate some of the best of other F1 landmark facilities around the world.
The first turn, which already has been roughed out at the track site, features a 140-foot elevation gain into a sharp left-hand turn. Spectators on the high hill overlooking the turn will have a long-distance view of downtown Austin.
For those trying to rebuild F1’s rather embarrassing recent past in this country, the hope is that their view also will be long distance.
Mike Hembree is NASCAR Editor for SPEED.com and has been covering motorsports for 29 years. He is a six-time winner of the National Motorsports Press Association Writer of the Year Award.
Six miles southeast of the Texas music – and state – capital of Austin, the planned 2012 site of the United States Grand Prix is taking shape from a 1,000-acre wasteland of mesquite brush. On a hilly slice of Texas terrain just off state highway 812 and within two miles of the Austin airport, hulking earthmovers are reshaping the land into a 3.4-mile road course that is scheduled to host some of the planet’s fastest racing vehicles sometime next summer or fall.
As spring and the bluebonnets arrive in Texas, work on the F1 facility has accelerated. Evidence? Sixty workers from an Austin construction company that is rearranging the 350-acre core of the track property to facilitate the track construction already have encountered – and dispatched – 14 rattlesnakes. And a cottonmouth moccasin or two.
The construction timeline is on schedule, officials in the downtown Austin F1 office say.
“All of our milestones for construction, we’ve hit,” said project CEO Bruce Knox, fresh from taking delivery of the next solid sign that there will be world-class racing next year in Austin – black “Formula 1 United States-Austin, Texas-2012” caps.
“Since we got involved in this project about a year ago, the original timeline is basically where we’re tracking right now. We’re on pace,” Knox said.
“It’s amazing to see the activity that is going on and see the amount of equipment at work. People are laser-focused on this project. It’s ambitious, but this is Texas.”
And there you have it. They do things big in Texas. They have the world’s most outrageously over-the-top stadium in Dallas. They host the Final Four in Houston. They race stock cars on one of the sport’s biggest platforms in Fort Worth.
As the local T-shirts proclaim, “Texas Is Bigger Than France.”
The concept is that Austin, world-renowned for its excellent music scene and listed on almost everybody’s rating sheets as one of the best places in the United States to live, despite not even being one of the biggest cities in its own state (Houston, San Antonio and Dallas are considerably bigger in population), is an ideal spot to welcome the F1 circus.
It’s not Monaco, but what is? And besides – does Monaco have the Broken Spoke and Gruene Dance Hall and a university/downtown scene bubbling with life?
Las Vegas? Indianapolis? Watkins Glen? No, Austin.
“This is all a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity in motorsports in general but really in the sporting world overall,” Knox said. “What it will do for innovation and growth in technology in the state of Texas is big. It’s a big, audacious project but one that I think will have a big return.”
The instigator behind the $200-250 million project is Tavo Hellmund, an Austin entrepreneur with a long and deep background in motorsports and – most importantly – a long and deep friendship with F1 kingpin Bernie Ecclestone. Ecclestone and Hellmund’s father were associates in racing circles, and Hellmund, who has driven in Formula racing, has had a strong relationship with the often-difficult-to-impress Ecclestone for years.
“I think Tavo had a vision, and he had the relationship with Bernie,” Knox said. “Bernie was able to see and translate that vision to be sure it made sense. There have been other cities and states that have positioned themselves to get a Grand Prix. Bernie understanding Tavo’s reasons why Austin would be ideal and supporting those reasons got us the sanctioning agreement.”
The agreement is for 10 years. The date of the first race probably won’t be known until autumn, when F1 typically releases the next year’s schedule. Logical months would be June, to slide in with the Montreal date, or November, to fit with the Brazilian Grand Prix.
Austin doesn’t get its pick of dates, but early summer might be preferred over fall, which could put F1 promoters in competition with NASCAR racing at Texas Motor Speedway (several hours to the north) and college football, a near-religion in the Lone Star State.
Why Austin? Because Hellmund lives here. Because it’s within the travel orbit that includes Dallas and Forth Worth to the north and San Antonio and Houston to the south and east.
And because of the continents.
“Tavo has been working with the F1 people for years as far as looking at his focus on Austin as the perfect location,” Knox said. “It has proximity to the East Coast, the West Coast, Mexico, South America.”
With F1 fever a considerable factor in Mexico and Central and South America, the anticipation is that a significant slice of the Austin spectator base will be international.
The track’s target attendance number is 120,000, very realistic considering Austin’s location.
Knox said the construction schedule calls for completion in time for a June race.
“Everything we’re doing from a construction, business, ticketing, planning standpoint is based on June,” he said. “Once we have a date, we’re in full-execution mode.”
Any concern that the timeline won’t be met and that a Texas-side embarrassment could result? None, according to Knox.
“With Red, failure is not an option,” he said. “Just get it done.”
“Red” is Billy Joe “Red” McCombs, one of America’s richest businessmen, a San Antonio resident and the sort of individual a project of this magnitude must have. McCombs carries so much influence across the great landscapes of power in Texas that the business school at the University of Texas in the capital carries his name. Now 83, he built a fortune in the automobile and media businesses and has had ownership of NFL and NBA teams. He is the lead investor in the F1 project.
The track, at least as it looks on paper, already has fired the interest of the F1 community. Molded by Tilke Engineers and Architects of Germany, the world’s premier designer of such facilities, the 3.4-mile track features striking elevation changes, long straights and turns that attempt to replicate some of the best of other F1 landmark facilities around the world.
The first turn, which already has been roughed out at the track site, features a 140-foot elevation gain into a sharp left-hand turn. Spectators on the high hill overlooking the turn will have a long-distance view of downtown Austin.
For those trying to rebuild F1’s rather embarrassing recent past in this country, the hope is that their view also will be long distance.
Mike Hembree is NASCAR Editor for SPEED.com and has been covering motorsports for 29 years. He is a six-time winner of the National Motorsports Press Association Writer of the Year Award.
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