Club Arnage

Are there any organised tours? or is it a matter of flydrive and booking a hotel nearby.  Is it a Friday to Monday, or is there practice too?  Is there anything else worth seeing/doing?  How do I find out?  All ideas gratefully welcomed.

was looking at cheapflights.co.uk, but it looks like a package might be a better deal

GBP 450,- return is not very cheap ::)

Just looked at flying to Atlanta in October for the Petit. £330 return from Gatwick on BA. Not bad I reckon.

Whats the gameplan from Atlanta airport?

£330 is the trainfare to Glasgow, or the plane fare to Tampa next March

Come on Andy (and Mark, Rick, etc.) book that flight to Atlanta.  Your presence is going to be sorely missed at Road Atlanta if you guys give it a pass...And you know you'll be hating life if Aston wins and you missed it.
Fax

I've been to Sebring three times now.

The track opens on the Wed before and there is plenty going on, both on and off track, to keep you amused the whole time.

I've always left (at least) the weekend before and each time have ended up in Daytona for a few days.

I'm not aware of any packages. I've always booked flights through Air Miles, using some Air Miles to reduce costs a bit). I've flown into Tampa twice and Miami once - not much to choose, except there is a fairly high surcharge on car rentals from Miami.

You can buy the race ticket on line (www.sebringraceway.com) and collect on arrival (Will Call). (Just an aside - it would have been cheaper for me to book BA from Muncih to Miami via Heathrow than direct from Heathrow to Miami!!)

Camping at the circuit is, well, camping. We have some great friends out there who assist with some of the more difficult things. And of course an increasing numbers of CA members from the UK will be there...

For the "holiday" part of my trip I've usually just found a hotel wherever I happen to be, except this year, when we were able to catch a few days of Daytona Bike Week and booking was essential (and quite dear). I understand Bike Week is adjacent to Sebring weekend again in 2006.

I *think* my costs for 2005 were arounf the £1100 mark, for 10 days away with hire car, race tickets, the lot. Of course if you want to just go to the race and can scrounge lifts etc then the cost is really quite reasonable. The dollar was very cheap this year.

Road Atlanta is about 35 miles north east of downtown Atlanta. The airport is about 10 miles south of downtown.
Best bet is to hire a car at the airport and head for the track. I'll be blazing through Atlanta on the Friday - on my way to the circuit from central Florida. I could scoop you up, if I'm not loaded-up with other CA members who're planning to be over for the Petit. It's a great event - get over here for it if you can.

Hi Lorry,
             Smokie has pretty well covered it. The 12 hour is Saturday with a full set of support races on Friday. Practice and qualifying starting on Wednesday morning. No races on Sunday just packing up and moving on. I recommend a car and seeing some of the state of Florida. March is a nice time to visit. Find the cheapest airport and plan your route from that Tampa and Orlando about 1 1/2 hours from Sebring. Miami more like 4 hours. Petrol is cheap and no mileage charge on the cars.
Camping is the way as in Le Mans supplies are readily available and loan of equipment can be arranged closer to the time.
Road Atlanta is also very nice in October.
Canada Phil

Many thanks to all for the comments. 

I've been looking at sites for flights, cars, flydrive hotels etc, and it doesn't look difficult or expensive, but couldn't quite fit in the camping bit, (and this does avoid driving) as tent/bed/cooker is a bit heavy as hand baggage.  At worst, "Carrefour will provide"

The two major issues now (other than she who must be obeyed) is cold beer.  Warm Budweiser  ugh!

Walmart will provide and it's half the price of Carrefour too. The CA campsite set up is pretty organised, the US contingent, Pidge etc, bring gazebos cookers and all the other crap needed. You just need a tent and sleeping bag and maybe a chair. They sell ice on the site. It's all very do-able.

As Andy says, we got things from WalMart.

About £5 for a half decent folding chair. I bought a new tent for about £20. Rolling Igloo Cool Box £30 (has been used many times since as we took the wheels and handle off and brought it home filed with the tent etc as checked in luggage) Take your own sleeping bag. Hopefully the rainy weather experienced this year will not return in 2006!!! Filling the igloo with ice from the hotel before we hit the circuit lasted about 3 days so no warm beer!!!!!

The group from TURN 10/TEAM IMPALA is always willing to help in any way possilble.Well almosy any way.

And I promise no more Becks Non/alcoholic.


Did I mention I met JPChenet at Sebring!!!

Hi Lorry,
            Standard operating procedure for visiting Florida by air: Fly to airport where you pick up your car parked right outside the terminal (as it should be)drive to WalMart/ Grocery store where you pick up a cooler and the pre chilled Beer to go in and lastly the ICE which goes on top. Drive to your motel/camp ground and PArty On. Bags of Ice are available at petrol stations food storesn and onsite at any venue. American Beer must be cold to drink.
Canada Phil

The convenient thing about Sebring is that all surrounding airports are equally inconvenient.  ;D  It's really in the middle of nowhere, yet in the center of everything.  Nothing is close, including hotels.  (Not including the chateau).  This means you can fly to just about anywhere - whatever's cheapest.  Compare distance to savings for a risk vs. benefit.

I don't know what the UK equivalent to Expedia is, but keep checking it for rental car rates.  If you're traveling with only 1-2 people, rent the smallest, cheapest car you can find.  I've yet to end up with the car I reserved.  You always get something bigger.  2 years ago, I reserved a Hyundai Accent, but ended up with a Ford Taurus.  While still unpalatable, the 4-day cost was $70.  This year we reserved a Dodge Stratus and by dumb luck ended up with a minivan (which we needed).  4-day cost - $95.  A 4-day camping/parking pass is $10

Shared cooler/grill space wouldn't be a problem, I'd imagine, nor would a borrowed chair.  Just make arrangements in advance.  A stop at Wal*Mart (white trash hell) for food and beer and you're set.

I'd suggest a trip to the Petit as a test run.  ;)

The last few years I have flown into Tampa and rented a car, which is not bad at all.  That way you get to experience exotic Zolfo Springs on the drive over  ;).

If you are going to do fly, drive and camp, it's not much more than an hour difference to fly into Tampa, Orlando, Ft. Lauderdale, West Palm Beach, or even Miami or Ft. Myers.  Sebring is equally in the middle of nowhere from all of those places.  Get a few togehter and split a rental car. 

I have found that flyaway camping works well by packing gear (tent, sleeping bag, rollaway, etc) in a hard sided golf bag carrier.  It's on wheels, the airlines can handle it and during the week it even makes a workable cooler in a pinch.

My suggestion is to take a few extra days and spend it on the Gulf coast in St. Petersburg, Clearwater or Sarasota.  They all have excellent white sand beaches.   

Chop, are you a golfer? Me Steve Brown, and JPC shot a round in Orlando when we over for Sebring. I had me a hole-in-one! They had never seen anything like it at the Congo River Mini-golf course...

Anyway I'm looking to play a proper game when I come over for the Petit. Is anyone up for it? Surely Augusta National is not far away?

I think you've confused me with Downshift.

I do golf, but unfortunately I'm only skilled in the drinking and cigar smoking parts of the game.  Augusta national is a private club, so I'd assume you can't just walk in and play.  :(

Sorry, apologies. Upshift, Downchop69, it's all the same to me.  ;)

Andy,
Chop hit it on the screws pretty well regarding Augusta National. Its a VERY, VERY exclusive club and even the members have to get on a long waiting list to get a round in.  The Masters is probably the toughest ticket in all of sports, the paying punters consider themselves quite fortunate to get a ticket to the practice rounds.  Augusta is a beautiful town though, one of the fews cities Sherman didn't torch on the way through Georgia and the Carolina's (rumor is the reason he didn't was because he had a girlfriend in Augusta)  It has very much an Old South, "Gone With The Wind" feel about it.  My sister lives in Augusta and we've stood outsides the gates of Augusta National and looked down Magnolia Lane, thats about as close as the regular folks can get.
Fax

Who are you calling Andy?  I'm Andy!  ;D ;D

You can get in to the Masters if it is your desire to get in the Masters.  Like in anything else, it's all in how you play your cards.  Playing Augusta National on the other hand is a different topic.  That is one round of golf that can't be bought.

I love golf, but shamefully I have not picked up a club in a year.  I grew up on a course (http://www.nicklaus.com/design/muirfieldvillage/) and my house is in a golf course community now (http://www.lakesclub.com/) but most of my time and funds are now devoted to motorsports. 

I still will hack it around every now and then though  :)

I love going to tournaments too.  I have been to The Memorial Tournament 21 years, one Ryder Cup, U.S. Amateur and one lone Greater Greensboro Open.

Hey Downshift,
Been to a few Memorials, its just up in Columbus so its close enough to day-trip it.  My Uncle used to live in Dublin near the course (Bobby Rahal was one of his neighbors) and he'd scrounge up some passes for my brother & I.  Always a great time, followed Tiger around a few years ago.
Fax

Fax, Andy, anyone else? I can feel a CA US Golf Challenge coming on! Openning round in Georgia. BTW I did hear it was impossible to play the National. You can play the Old Course at St Andrews if you book far enough in advance, but you have to take piece of astroturf around with you and play your fairways shots off!

I think there's a public course in Augusta, might that not be fun? Or is it too far away from the racing?

Actually I might be up for a round of hacking up the countryside time permiting.  Augusta is a pretty fair hike from Atlanta though, every bit of two hours east.
Probably some nice courses in the Atlanta area, or up in Athens.
Fax

I used to live in North Carolina while in college.  There are a ton great, inexpensive, natural terrain courses all over the South. 

Extensive research has revealed that the hire cost for a 29 foot campervan is the same as that for two Harley Davidson Fatboys.  Difficult choice, but the bed and the aircon will probably win.  If only you could buy Commers in Florida.

One thing to be aware of is you usually can't hire a motorhome on the day of arrival in the US as they are worried about jet lag and crashes etc. There is often a HUGE excess on MH's aswell. Besides this I would hire a MH when going to Sebring!

Hi Lorry,
             Some of the Motorhome rental places offer delivery to the track so you could have the Bikes and the comfort. $$$$$$$$$$$
Canada Phil