Club Arnage

Was talking with someone about the recent USA GP - can any of our American contingent confirm (or deny) that they were giving away free tickets to the race?

Just curious really - no political point to make!

F

P.S.  Also, what other races will they be using the circuit for besides the F1?

Moto GP, Australian V8, ALMS/WEC weekend are already confirmed for next year.

I really enjoyed watching the F1 race on TV, track seemed great and challenging too.  Was planning to go to Abu Dhabi next year for F1, now thinking aboout changing my plans and head on to Austin instead.  Might do the ALMS/WEC weekend instead of F1 though, just have to see I can get my holidays planned at work 'cause I really don't want to miss the last Petit LM at Road Atlanta, which would mean 2 trips to the US in someting like 5 weeks.

Friend was working over at the GP before he flew to Brazil (he works for RB f1) said it was a really good place, talked more about the bikini bar next door tho………………

It looks a pretty good circuit - I actually enjoyed the race!

F

Have a buddy who went, said tickets were dirt cheap, but concessions were very expensive.  They had a packed house, but people will always turnout for the first big event of any kind, will be interesting how many people show up next year.  The first year at Indy they had 200,000+ for the GP, but attendance began to fall off dramatically after that, then of course the wheels really fell off after the '05 tire fiasco.
I thought the circuit was okay, nothing special, to me it looked like just another cookie cutter Tilke track
They have ambitious plans to host just about every form of motorsport known to man, and I really don't see how their going to pull it all off, and stay afloat.
I still don't have much respect for the people in charge at COTA, they really screwed over some good people, but we all know that's not something unique in racing circles
On the plus side, Austin's a fun town.
Fax

It was the crowds that made us wonder if there were "incentives" - we had wondered if the tyre fiasco might have still kept folks away, memories can be long.)

I think if they keep prices down it should sell well next year - there was plenty of action on the track (by F1 standards)!  But they gotta ditch those godawful cowboy hats on the podium - what on earth were they thinking putting giant stetsons on tiny little race drivers....

F

The big downside to keeping ticket prices low, is that unless you sell a huge number of them, you'll lose your shirt (among other things).  Indy always had cheap ticket prices by F1 standards, and still couldn't make it work, despite having the deepest pockets of all US racing venues.  Problem is the enormous fee paid to Bernie & his buddies for the rights to host the race, if you can't offset that, your sunk, especially without either government funding, or a big title sponsor, and I don't think Austin had one.
Agreed about the hats, they looked silly on jockey sized people.  Unfortunately cowboy hats are as much of the scenery in Texas as cattle, and illegal Mexican immigrants.  My luck, I'd go to a race there and get stuck sitting behind some giant dude in a even bigger hat.
Fax

For my money, I thought the cowboy hats were a stroke of genius, well done Pirelli for showing some marketing nouse!

The ticket prices I saw weren't really cheap.  General entry was ok, but a good seat in a grandstand was getting up to 500 $ (and more)

Agreed Dottore, my friend just had GA's for the weekend (which is the way that I would go, never could stand being confined to a seat in a grandstand).
I think he said it was around $160 for a weekend GA pass, which isn't bad by F1 standards.  That said, if I paid that, and then found out they were giving out freebie's to pad the attendance figures, I would be seriously pissed off.
Fax

I want one!

Great fun, at least it puts a glaze of humanity and humour on all this corporate watch and hat swapping bollox after the race. I hate it.

Actually the cowboy hat on the podium thing isn't new, they did the same thing in Dallas back in '84.  Plenty of photos of Keke, Rene, and Elio all wearing stetson's on the podium (as the promoter was headed out of town with the gate dosh).
Once saw a really funny photo of Arnoux standing on the podium, staring straight at Linda Grey's tits.
Attached a photo I pulled from LAT, Keke's wearing a hat, but I know I've seen pics with all three wearing them.
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Footnote to this post, its about 1230 EST, dug through my old GPI's from 1984, and stand corrected, only Keke wore the cowboy hat on the podium, but there's a bunch of photos of Rene wearing a big Marlboro stetson in the paddock...shades of little Art!
A Ferrari driver wearing a big Marlboro cowboy hat, doesn't get any better than that!
Forza Merzario!
Fax