The 24 Hours of Lemons Forums → Drivers Lounge → GrandAm at COTA, March 1-2: Who's Going?
Ross and I are planning to make the trek down to the sports car race on Friday morning. Anybody else?
I'd like to go but haven't made any plans (or purchased tickets). Are you grabbing GA or grandstands?
Dunno yet. Ross is in charge of ticket procurement, I'm in charge of lodging.
My understanding was that the track was pulling down all the seating that was erected for the F1 race other than the permanent grandstand seating along the front straight. Any idea if that's true? If so, then I suspect we'll just go GA and watch from T1 or something. That might be the most fun turn, but we'll probably walk around all day on Friday finding a better spot. Apparently the esses are really treacherous and if you don't get it just right, then you're effed, so that might be a good spot.
I also heard on a radio ad yesterday that admission includes paddock admission. And the $30 on site parking is nowhere near sellout. So it might be a great opportunity to see this race and the track without gigantic crowds. Lemme know if you guys decide to go and we'll meet up at the track.
I hit the ticketing website and you're right, none of the grandstands at T3-6, T9, or T11 are listed this time, but T1 and T15 are.
GA seems tempting. I'll be in touch if we opt in.
Let me know how you guys like the track and all of the general stuff about it (the area, where to go, what to do, where to imbibe, etc.).
My girlfriend is hooking me up with tickets to F1 and apparently has a friend down there who is working on getting us a tour. I've never been there or to any large format/professional race where people serve food not made with copious amounts of bacon and butter. Pretty sure I'm not going to be allowed to hover over Grosjean's car offering unsolicited advice with beer in hand while they complete the inevitable repairs either.
Oh, the track is great and we had a blast there for the inaugural F1 race. The shuttles to/from downtown actually worked well except for the long walk from shuttle lot to our seats.
Austin is a fun place to visit. Drink local beers, eat a ton of BBQ and Tex-Mex, and enjoy it.
I wonder if we can bring in lunch with us for this race? It would be nice to avoid the $18 hot dog.
I wonder if we can bring in lunch with us for this race? It would be nice to avoid the $18 hot dog.
Whatever you can fit in your pockets. Also, this:
Mulry wrote:I wonder if we can bring in lunch with us for this race? It would be nice to avoid the $18 hot dog.
Whatever you can fit in your pockets. Also, this:
Dont forget the wine rack. http://www.thebeerbelly.com/SearchResul … h=winerack
Time to raise the zombie thread. Anybody else going? We're driving down Friday morning and then back after the races on Saturday. Chris? DJ? Bueller? Bueller?
We are going, though Dr. Wife has to work Friday so she'll miss some of the fun.
Chuck, Juan, & Rob (from SNAFU Racing) are also going.
I'll email you my phone number for the inevitable "what turn are you at?" text messages.
guess i should have planned ahead, tickets still available?
Time to raise the zombie thread. Anybody else going? We're driving down Friday morning and then back after the races on Saturday. Chris? DJ? Bueller? Bueller?
I'd have to drop into my New Braunfels office at like 7am and work until lunchtime to even be able to consider it. Buit I have an obligation at 6 on friday in Arlington that would require me to head back home around 2, so I'm out.
guess i should have planned ahead, tickets still available?
Yep, I had no problem buying on Sunday.
cool, i'l get some today and drive down Saturday.
You. All. Suck.
[(Austin food*drink*music scene) + world class road racing]^Lemons spectators=nirvana
Have a blast, y'all. I will be green.
You. All. Suck.
[(Austin food*drink*music scene) + world class road racing]^Lemons spectators=nirvana
Have a blast, y'all. I will be green.
yah, you've gotta make it in for one of these down the road. Review http://www.circuitoftheamericas.com/moto-gp and http://circuitoftheamericas.com/v8-supercars/ and we'll hope for some kind specials for you from the Southwest Airlines web site.
I will be there along with another team member. This will be my first trip to the new track
So...all...how was it? Where did y'all sit? Did you pick a turn or meander around the track? How are the grandstand views? General admission views? The Rolex crowd looked a little sparse...were you able to move around? I assume F1 will be a little more strict about where I can go when, but if I have to pick a turn, I'd like a little more insight than the renderings they provide. Where did everyone stay? Eat? See? Whatever else you can tell me would be great.
The crowd was sparser than F1 but not bad -- I heard they were expecting somewhere around 20K people but I don't know if they hit it. The grandstands for turns 3-6, 9, and 11 were all disassembled, in fact. No shuttle service to downtown either, but parking was 1/10th of the F1 price!
At F1 they were quite diligent about checking tickets for the grandstands but for this it was free-range. We tend to move around during races if possible, so for Grand-Am we watched the start from the main grandstand and watched there for a bit, moved to T1, then T4 to watch the Esses for a short time, and finished the race from T15.
The views from the main grandstand seats are honestly a little boring. T15 grandstand is great and that's where we spent most of our time this weekend, so we bought tix for there for the Aussie V8 race in May.
The turn 1 stands and the general-admission area by them have a really great view too. During F1 we found that the GA berms at T19 and T9 were good spots.
For F1 my preference order is now T15, T5, T1, GA... we'll see how the prices are this year. Lodging is going to be a bitch for 2013 b/c the race is the same weekend as a University of Texas home football game. Luckily we have friends in Austin who are accepting of well-behaved gearhead houseguests.
I think each CoTA weekend we should pick a restaurant in Austin upon which all Lemoneers should descend on a given evening. There's just so much real estate and stuff to do at the track that it was tough to connect with everyone during last year's F1 race.
Oh, and as for the racing: very fun to watch. I've gone to ALMS stuff and Le Mans but hadn't seen Grand-Am or Continental Challenge in person, and it was very good racing to watch.
I wish they'd add FM broadcast of the PA system like lots of tracks do.
The crowd was sparser than F1 but not bad -- I heard they were expecting somewhere around 20K people but I don't know if they hit it. The grandstands for turns 3-6, 9, and 11 were all disassembled, in fact. No shuttle service to downtown either, but parking was 1/10th of the F1 price!
At F1 they were quite diligent about checking tickets for the grandstands but for this it was free-range. We tend to move around during races if possible, so for Grand-Am we watched the start from the main grandstand and watched there for a bit, moved to T1, then T4 to watch the Esses for a short time, and finished the race from T15.
The views from the main grandstand seats are honestly a little boring. T15 grandstand is great and that's where we spent most of our time this weekend, so we bought tix for there for the Aussie V8 race in May.
The turn 1 stands and the general-admission area by them have a really great view too. During F1 we found that the GA berms at T19 and T9 were good spots.For F1 my preference order is now T15, T5, T1, GA... we'll see how the prices are this year. Lodging is going to be a bitch for 2013 b/c the race is the same weekend as a University of Texas home football game. Luckily we have friends in Austin who are accepting of well-behaved gearhead houseguests.
I think each CoTA weekend we should pick a restaurant in Austin upon which all Lemoneers should descend on a given evening. There's just so much real estate and stuff to do at the track that it was tough to connect with everyone during last year's F1 race.
Prices are supposedly coming out this week. We managed to lock down a spot in a Radison downtown, but they told us in advance about that game as well (it's Oklahoma btw...should be a blast downtown). Airfare booked as well!
Higher up in the stands at T15 I would imagine? And I'd totally be down for meeting up with people...hoping to actually. I really had to think hard about V8 supercars, but I only got to pick one and chose F1 (timing and whatnot).
Also looking forward to picking up a metric shit ton of 24HOL stickers at NJMP in August...you know...just...because.
I had a great time this weekend, mostly because of the company we kept, but also due to the track and the race itself. I highly recommend going to a Grand-Am race to those who haven't done it. The access to the garages, paddock, and the teams is really awesome. I was able to have a couple good conversations with crew members during the pit walk before the Rolex race and get some questions answered about little technical things on the cars that are probably basic knowledge around any DP car but hard to find out otherwise -- like how they get the wickers out of the rear wing to change those, what spring rates the GT 911's are running, that sort of thing. Pretty cool to be able to be basically right inside the driver's compartment of the cars too and see how they do their dash layouts, panels, etc. You get that same kind of access at NASCAR (if you can get into the paddock), but you don't have to buy an extra pass to do it at the Grand-Am race, it's just part of what they do. Good luck finding that experience at any Indy car race. I suspect that King Bernie would fall right over and die if you even suggested that kind of access at an F1 race.
I can't say if I liked T1 or T15 better, to be honest. The main grandstand is nice for the start, but that's about it. Top of T1 is really cool, the photos and TV of the track really can't capture how steep that hill is going up to T1. It's neat to see the cars charging up the hill and then making that crazy turn. There really seem to be several ways to make that turn work, depending on traffic. The seats in the lower-numbered sections of the T15 seats are the best ones in T15 because they permit a long look down the back straight, and then you have a good view of the heavy braking zone into T12 and the entire T12-13-14-15 turn complex. There was a ton of action in all of those turns, but especially T15 as that's the last really good chance to pass before the long sweeper. If I were going to buy tix for another race, I'd look to get in section 1 through 8 of the T15 complex, or just sit GA in T1, I think.
On top of which, it's one hell of an impressive facility, and every driver I've heard talk about it loves the track. Lots of elevation change, crazy esses, great surface. I can't wait until we can get 140 Lemons cars out there all at the same time. It'll be a blast 
...The access to the garages, paddock, and the teams is really awesome. I was able to have a couple good conversations with crew members during the pit walk before the Rolex race and get some questions answered about little technical things on the cars that are probably basic knowledge around any DP car but hard to find out otherwise -- like how they get the wickers out of the rear wing to change those, what spring rates the GT 911's are running, that sort of thing. Pretty cool to be able to be basically right inside the driver's compartment of the cars too and see how they do their dash layouts, panels, etc. You get that same kind of access at NASCAR (if you can get into the paddock), but you don't have to buy an extra pass to do it at the Grand-Am race, it's just part of what they do. Good luck finding that experience at any Indy car race. I suspect that King Bernie would fall right over and die if you even suggested that kind of access at an F1 race.
ALMS paddocks & grid/pit walks are similar. I hope we have our s*** together enough in terms of Lemons prep for the September MSR race to be able to take a weekend off and go to Austin for the ALMS race at CoTA.
I can't wait until we can get 140 Lemons cars out there all at the same time. It'll be a blast
ditto.
I can't say if I liked T1 or T15 better, to be honest. The main grandstand is nice for the start, but that's about it. Top of T1 is really cool, the photos and TV of the track really can't capture how steep that hill is going up to T1. It's neat to see the cars charging up the hill and then making that crazy turn. There really seem to be several ways to make that turn work, depending on traffic. The seats in the lower-numbered sections of the T15 seats are the best ones in T15 because they permit a long look down the back straight, and then you have a good view of the heavy braking zone into T12 and the entire T12-13-14-15 turn complex. There was a ton of action in all of those turns, but especially T15 as that's the last really good chance to pass before the long sweeper. If I were going to buy tix for another race, I'd look to get in section 1 through 8 of the T15 complex, or just sit GA in T1, I think.
On top of which, it's one hell of an impressive facility, and every driver I've heard talk about it loves the track. Lots of elevation change, crazy esses, great surface. I can't wait until we can get 140 Lemons cars out there all at the same time. It'll be a blast
I did enjoy seeing Rolex at NJMP. I'm so accustomed to seeing racing on TV like F1 and NASCAR and thinking that it must be difficult to get so close to the cars...it almost makes Rolex seem like it's not as great a series as it really is...if you know what I mean. Unfortunately, it looks like Rolex is skipping NJMP this year.
Looks like there are 34 rows in sections 1 thru 7, and 8 starts the upper section. How restrictive is the view as you're lower/closer to the track? Without seeing it or being there of course, it seems like higher up in T15 would be the way to go (and the prices reflect that).
I'm seriously tossed between T1 and T15. Tickets go on sale this Thursday, so I need to make a decision. I feel like T15 is in the lead, but we'll see what else is available. I kind of like the idea of T1 high as well though, seeing them work towards the esses and hopefully a view of the pits. I still need to see a 2.3 second tire change in person...that's unreal.
The lady is on ordering duty as I'm out in the field during the day, so we'll see what she can come up with.
She's a good egg getting into racing and asking honest questions about it. Depending on the seats we get, I think I'll keep her.
The 24 Hours of Lemons Forums → Drivers Lounge → GrandAm at COTA, March 1-2: Who's Going?