Formula 1 - U S A

[dboat]

Well, the date for the race in Austin has been announced. In little more than a year, we will have Formula 1 racing back in the U S A. If you arent a fan of F1, you wont care but to have a race back and so close, that is just absolutely wonderful. I have attended a few of the races at Indy and they were always a great time. If you can afford it and have the time, I do suggest that you get there for every day of practice, the pit access days, the driver interviews, qualifying and the race. It will be great to see a world class track come to life.

The track is posting on youtube their construction progress. Here is the link:

http://www.youtube.com/user/CircuitAmericas

They are apparently posting up a month by month time lapsed progress report.

Dana

[Mika]

I went to all the Indy races except the last one. I had a great time at all of them. Rain, shine, it didn't matter. It's even better now that it's a three and a half hour drive down there. Much better than 16 hours(West Palm to Indianapolis).



Mika

[dboat]

I'll make hotel reservations to stay nearby, and go for the full meal deal.. especially when its at a new track..

[dboat]

I am on the mailing list for Circuit of the Americas to keep abreast of their progress to bringing F1 racing back to the USA. I recieved a recent email asking me to email the Austin City Council to support the track. By doing so, if the Austin City Council would endorse the track, then they might have access to the State of Texas' Major Events Trust Fund. Here is the response I received back from one council member. I thought you might find it interesting.
Dana

Dear Concerned Citizen,

Thank you for your email regarding the City of Austin's impending vote to endorse the use of the State of Texas' Major Events Trust Fund to secure the Formula One United States Grand Prix. My office has received hundreds of phone calls and thousands of emails over the past month, with large numbers of opponents and proponents voicing their thoughts on the matter. This is an important decision and I want to let you know the main reasons for my decision to conditionally support the endorsement request.

1. There must be no financial risk for the City of Austin or its taxpayers. Over the last several weeks, I negotiated with representatives from the Austin-based Circuit Events Local Organizing Committee (CELOC) to get them to hold the City financially-harmless in this deal. The event promoters have agreed to pay out of their own pockets the entire amount of money needed to seed the Major Events Trust Fund (METF). We call this the Local Increment. The way this works is that the State Comptroller's Office will determine how much additional tax revenue is generated by the running of the US Grand Prix and will inform CELOC what the maximum amount of money they can contribute to the METF can be. Through a contract with the organizers and the Comptroller's Office, CELOC has agreed to pay this Local Increment from their profits. Additionally, the City of Austin will receive ALL TAX REVENUES generated during race week. This provision is specified in the contracts with the organizers and the Comptroller's Office. Moreover, there is nothing in the State of Texas laws that would allow the State to either withhold our race week tax revenues or to obligate the City of Austin to put money into the METF.

Allow me to be very clear: as of today our contracts with the Comptroller and CELOC clearly state that the City of Austin will not put one dollar into the METF and that we will collect all tax revenues generated locally due to the event.

2. The City of Austin must be able to terminate all contracts due to non-performance. Since this is a ten-year long deal, we need to ensure that the City of Austin can terminate any and all contracts related to the F1 event in case CELOC, the owners of the race track or the Comptroller do not live up to their end of the deal. The current drafts of all three contracts clearly state that we can terminate the contracts due to non-performance, and each contract has a trigger that allows us to terminate one contract if another has already been terminated. Some examples of performance expectations are:


CELOC must contribute the Local Increment each year
CELOC must conduct annual economic audits and revise prospective impact studies each year
CELOC must report progress on sustainability initiatives each year
Race track owners must comply with the sustainability initiatives

3. Circuit of the Americas must meet the sustainability expectations. We strive to be a sustainable city and major construction projects, auto racing, and throngs of spectators driving in cars don't inherently fit within that image. The owners of the race track, Circuit of the Americas (COTA), must work hard to defend our local environment from significant impact and ensure that folks from all walks of life have an opportunity to benefit economically from this deal. Council Member Chris Riley has taken the lead on negotiating an environmental term sheet to which COTA and CELOC will be expected to adhere. Measures include: planting trees, developing satellite parking and dedicated transit lanes, following the City of Austin's Minority-Owned and Women-Owned Business Enterprise guidelines, working with local educational institutions to provide young people with the opportunity to learn and work at the track, and integrating with our high-tech industry to help develop research opportunities for our local universities.

We are still waiting on the final negotiated sustainability term sheet and I look forward to reading through it closely.

Circuit of the Americas could be economically fruitful for the City of Austin and nearby communities. It could offer opportunities to merge our high tech and environmental sectors with the automotive industry. It could serve as a focal point for significant economic development in southeast Austin. But we have to safeguard against the financial, environmental, and social risks that come with a project of this magnitude. Assuming the finalized sustainability term sheet is consistent with my expectations and the current contracts with CELOC and the Comptroller's Office meet the current legal and financial scrutiny, I intend to vote in support of the items at the Special Called City Council Meeting on June 29, 2011.

Thank you again for contacting my office. I hope you will remain engaged with all the City of Austin does and will let my office know your thoughts.

Best wishes,

Bill Spelman
Austin City Council Member, Place 5

512.974.2256 (office)
512.974.7655 (fax)
http://www.ci.austin.tx.us/council/spelman.htm

P Please consider the environment before printing this

[Silver_2000]

wow
what babble

[dboat]

wow
what babble

yep, and I only thought that level of babble occurred at the national level.

Plant trees, make sure you have everyone included, have a moment to stand around and hold hands and sing together, wear comfortable shoes, etc etc.
Whatever happened to letting private companies putting their own capital at risk being able to run without too much interference as long as they are operating within the law?

[L8 APEX]

As long as they don't have the race in August...

That BS is what happens when you ask for access to public funds.

[dboat]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dUVmX4lF2bg&feature=uploademail

I really like that they are posting up the progress of the track.
Austin gave them the approval for funds they asked for, its just a loan, the city is not on the hook..

And now they have signed Australian V8 supercars to run there. That is something I just might have to check out too.. at least the vid looks cool. :tu:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HuiHYY_Jdys&NR=1

[dboat]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4WRpB1utQXQ&feature=uploademail :tu::tu:

Dana