Nov 152012
In case anybody is looking for me this weekend, I’ll be at the new Circuit of the Americas (COTA) all weekend watching Team Red Bull at the inaugural Formula 1 (F1) Grand Prix race this weekend.
I’m a huge racing sports fan. And this will be my first opportunity to watch an F1 race live, and I’m as excited as a kid on Christmas morning for this weekend’s racing events. I’ll be on the third row of Turn 15, which over looks several the triple corkscrew turns 13-14-15 and can look right down the long back straight away.
There were a lot of naysayers when this race and this track were announced. A lot of folks who said that there was no way Bernie Ecclestone could pull this off. Well…they were wrong.
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It isn’t that some of us doubted whether this could be pulled off – it’s whether it was a good idea and a smart investment for the state, and whether it will continue long-term. Ecclestone has been hostile to the idea of an American race for a very long time, and whether this becomes a long-term tradition in Austin remains to be seen. Furthermore, I’m disgusted by the way the deal happened, and as a resident of Austin I’m saddened that there is yet one more weekend that the city becomes completely unsuitable for young families and everyday residents trying to go about their business (less a problem of F1 itself than the unthinking city planners who haven’t built the transportation infrastructure necessary to handle large-scale tourism events).
Sounds like a great time, Robbie.
F-1 is one of the few remaining motor sports that I enjoy. Still, this event isn’t enough for me to break my 26 year boycott of Austin, but next year could well be the year I do. That is when my most favorite motor sport of all comes to this track, MotoGP. Which includes the “paddock girls.”
I already have my tickets for MotoGP, and am infinitely more excited about that race than the F1. A high school friend of our Colin Edwards (the Texas Tornado) will be racing in the MotoGP, so we’ll have a hometown boy to root for in that one (from Conroe).
Did you see the final race of 2002 for the Super Bike Championship? The most intense and action packed race I have ever seen in any sport. Colin had to win the final race at Imola to be champion or nothing. If he finished 2nd or 3rd he finished out of the top 3. He was racing against two team members who were 1 and 2 in the points, and after racing wheel to wheel, elbow to elbow, passing when it wasn’t possible through the tiniest of windows, Colin won it on the heavy(but fast) Honda SP1.
I have ridden many/most of the roads in East Texas that you and Colin grew up riding, so I know where he developed his skill, but he has the heart of a champion which makes all the difference. Colin “Texas Tornado” Edwards rode the #2 Honda.
He hasn’t had the success in MotoGP that he did in WSB. Valentino “The Doctor” Rossi has dominated that group, with Casey Stoner providing most of his championship competition.