Austin. It is kind of a state of mind. It has a cool vibe
that has to be felt to be understood. From the food to the live music, from the
gigantic University of Texas campus to the pink granite State House, it
distills all that is best in Texas. It is not all roses though, unbridled growth
has made Austin traffic tough to deal with and (compared to the rest of Texas)
the housing cost and price of living make cities like nearby San Antonio look
positively cheap.
But a couple of years ago a former racer and promoter by the
name of Tavo Hellmund had the unlikely dream of bringing Formula One to the
Heart ‘o Texas. Really? Austin is known for a lot of things, but racing ain’t
one of them, unless you count racing round town trying to track down and score
admission to the hippest night spot. So against all the odds - working with the
flakey and money grubbing Bernie Ecclstone, navigating Texas politics and a
general population that did not know the difference between Formula One and Tito’s
Vodka - Tavo got the whole project on track…
The bad news? Tavo got it rolling, but big money got it
done. Tavo got kicked to the curb when Bernie Ecclstone (who would kick his own
child out of the way to grab a shiny coin off the ground) finally connected
with the money guys (namely mega car dealer Red McCombs). But $450 Million
later, Austin got its track and the US got it Grand Prix back.
Flash forward to November 18, 2012, the sun rose of a frosty
track just a few miles southeast of Austin now called The Circuit of the
Americas (COTA). The chilly air gave way to a beautiful sunny day in the mid
70’s. A packed house greeted a Porsche GT3 Cup race and a Ferrari Challenge
race before things spooled up for the big show. The F1 boys and their steeds
were getting ready to roll.
Now if you take a stroll back through my previous posts you
will know that I love cars (duh…) and racing (especially F1), so I was eagerly
anticipating this race. I decided not to go and this caused more than a bit of
consternation when I discovered that the Porsche Cup Car race had been added. I
should have been there covering it for 9 Magazine. Lesson learned.
So to compensate, I hit Twitter hard - had three computers
showing different in-car camera shots, plus the Formula1.com lap timer and the
Speed TV coverage, I guess you could say I had it covered. I will tell you that
the track, weather, crowd and the actual racing were top notch. Lewis Hamilton
had the bit between his teeth and tracked down and passed Red Bull racing ace
(and two time defending F1 World Champion) Sebastian Vettel and won the
inaugural race. It was the second time he won in the US, the previous time
being in 2007 at the USGP in Indy.
During the awards podium presentation, I loved the big
Pirelli Stetson cowboy hats that Hamilton, Vettel and Alsonso wore on the
stage. And we were treated to a living legend - Mario Andretti doing the post
race interview (comment by Jeremy Clarkson notwithstanding). Fact was, Texas
does it right and the first race at COTA proved it beyond a doubt.
Hats off to the COTA team, they were awesome. But note, the
bar has been set very high. Hope they can repeat next year. And I hope I
discover that there is a Porsche Cup Car race before race weekend. That way I
can attend and have a hell of a lot more to write about! And a hell of a lot
more fun attending the race, versus watching it on TV, even if I had a
multitude of computers surrounding me.
And on that exhaust note, see you next time.
