Austin Pit Stop - March 31, 2012

// Austin Pit Stop

Seems Austin racing news is coming out on a weekly daily basis. We created Austin Pit Stop as an abbreviated way for you to stay up to date. As always, your feedback is welcome (just use the comments feature below or message us here).

// Children's Shelter Fundraiser

The Austin Children's Shelter held a fundraiser fashion show, "Fashion for Compassion" at SAKS last weekend. The event was a smashing success with sold out, standing-room only attendance! The highlight of the evening was a spectacular Canadian Grand Prix F1 vacation experience package, donated by Tavo and Aryn Hellmund. Here's what John Hogg, MD, Co-Chair of the "Fashion for Compassion" Event, had to say on it's overwhelming success:

The top selling item for the evening was, of course, the Montreal Formula 1 vacation experience package, provided by Tavo and Aryn Hellmund.  The purchaser naturally remains to be anonymous, but we are tickled at the generous auction price paid, which one could say far exceeds the price of a luxury European sports car.  Of course, I'm sure the experience to be had by the purchaser, and the connections and memories created will be a once in a lifetime experience.   The result of this and all generosity from donors and purchasers is that we will be able to continue the important mission of providing emergency housing for neglected and abused children and young adults, and help with their healing process.

Congratulations to the winning bidder and kudos for supporting such an amazing cause!

// F1 USGP Host Committee Formed

On March 22, COTA announced the formation of a Host Committee, led by Sandy West. No details about who is on the host committee just yet, but many large scale events implement host committees to engage community leaders in their area of expertise and help prepare the city for the event. Think of the Super Bowl, Olympics, and the like. We expect to hear more about this, especially as COTA prepares to make tickets available for purchase in June.

// Permitting Items for COTA

The Austin American-Statesman has been keeping tabs on some loose ends for COTA and the Travis County Commissioner's Office to tie up, mainly permitting and planning issues. We've been told it's "pretty much business as usual" so no need to worry. Click here for an update.

// Austin Visitors

You never know who is in Austin at any given minute. During SXSW our streets were flooded with celebrities and big wigs: Leonardo DiCaprio, Jay-Z, Bruce Springstein, Al Gore, Jimmy Fallon, Deepak Chopra just to name a few (Google for more). Two days ago NASCAR champion Tony Stewart visited Austin and slapped his seal of approval on our city for F1. F1-to-NASCAR champ Juan Pablo Montoya also made a literal pit stop in Austin Sunday night, refueling from our airport. And earlier this month, Wild Bubba's Wild Game Grill was delighted to welcome some PR folks from the F1 industry in for some wild game burgers.

F1 at SXSW 2012

The first day of SXSW Interactive Festival included a presentation by Geoff Moore, Chief Sales and Marketing Officer of Circuit of The Americas. You may remember our chat with him at Innotech technology conference last year (if not, here's the video). Geoff was back to talk about the science behind F1 racing.

If NASCAR is about speed and power and drivers, then F1 is about precision, engineering and difficulty.

He went past the COTA venue presentation to get into some neat technical details of the sport. The Austin Chronicle was in attendance and posted a great recap of his preso, so check it out if you missed the live event. Geoff also shared some great photos from a recent visit to the McLaren Technology Centre in Surrey, England, and you could tell he really enjoyed the behind-the-scenes visit.

It was an honor to host the first official F1 Meet Up at SXSW this year. SXSW chooses current issues and topics that are relevant to conference goers and offers a casual networking meet up to foster the conversations. This is another example of how Austin embraces innovation & pop culture on a global scale, particularly during this time in March. The Hilton Hotel & Conference center was the venue, and kudos to them for providing a class act conference setting for not only our F1 Meet Up, but hundreds of official panels, keynotes, presentations and more. It was exciting to meet F1 fans & newbies from Turkey, Spain, the UK, Australia, San Francisco and more. Excitement filled the room as ideas & business cards were exchanged! Thank you to everyone for coming out.

It was also a pleasure to join Social Media Club again this year at SXSW. We spoke with Caitlin Muir, who knows a thing or two about Formula 1 (BTW, 3 cheers for female F1 fans!). Enjoy this video:

Already looking forward to doing it all again in 2013!

Indy Car Series to Expand Calendar With Room for Austin

On this week's episode of Wind Tunnel with Dave Despain, Speed correspondent Robin Miller spoke with Despain about the expansion of the IndyCar Series calendar in 2013. In addition to the recently announced race in Houston for 2013, Miller mentioned that circuit representatives from Austin have reached out to Indy to host a race. Miller said the following about the discussions with Austin and Randy Bernard, CEO of the IZOD IndyCar Series:

AUSTIN: Formula One is making its debut on the 3.4-mile road course in November but Bernard says, "They approached us about having a race next year and we’re evaluating it.’’ Is Texas big enough for an oval (Texas Motor Speedway), a street race (Houston) and a road race (Austin)?

Following up on this story, Dave Doolittle at the Austin American-Statesman reached out to Circuit of The Americas for confirmation of the discussions:

A Circuit of the Americas spokeswoman said officials have been talking to several series that have expressed an interest in racing at the track currently under construction in southeastern Travis County.

“We have no formal agreements beyond those already announced to unveil at this time,” Julie Loignon told the American-Statesman this week."

The potential to host the IndyCar Series here at COTA would be a real treat for many American fans of open-wheeled racing. The IndyCar Series is an American sporting icon with a very dedicated following, drawing as many as 350,000 fans to the Indianapolis 500.

Though of a different ethos than the typical Indy track, COTA would operate more like Infineon Raceway in Sonoma Valley, an exciting track with plenty of elevation change, challenging the teams and drivers on a different level than their more traditional oval, street or tri-oval races.

With an existing oval race in Dallas at Texas Motorspeedway, the newly announced street race in Houston, and a race at an FIA spec road course in Austin, fans would be given the trifecta of motorsports experience, the ultimate gift for an IndyCar fan.

One could argue that these events would be too close and would compete against each other, but I would argue the opposite. Each event gains collective exposure and promotion by the success of each other, thereby accelerating the growth of the sport overall.

Similar to arguments about competition between F1 races in Montreal, Austin, and New Jersey, this argument assumes the sport will not expand its fan base and the attendance will be split between venues. On the contrary, I have and will continue to argue the opposite, that they all stand to gain far more by working together to expand their overall exposure to the entire American market.

Finally, COTA has said in the past that they're intending to expand their motorsports offering beyond F1, MotoGP, and V8 Supercars. Given the large existing market of fans and sponsors in American motorsports like Grand-Am, ALMS, NASCAR, and many others, IndyCar would be a valuable asset to their programming list and a gateway into the existing American fan base and sponsorship markets.

Malaysia Review: An Emotional F1 Finish

Is that a "Hook 'Em" sign he's throwing up? Image courtesy of Sauber Motorsport AGSunday's Malaysian Grand Prix at Sepand International Circuit was exciting and filled with endless complications, making it stressful and thrilling at the same time. Rain plagued the event from the beginning to the end, pushing some behind while opening gaps for others. Fernando Alonso of Ferrari took the lead with Mexico's Sergio Perez of Sauber F1 Team racing just seconds behind. A fight to the bitter end, the potential of Perez to take the podium over Alonso seemed inevitable, with Sergio gaining almost half a second a lap on Alonso consistently.

While pushing the limit to fight with Alonso, Perez made a costly error with just 5 laps to go, ending his chances to take the lead. In post-race interviews, Perez asserted he could have taken the win, and with the exception of his error near the end, his argument was well justified.

Ferrari's return to the podium for first position marks the end of a difficult streak lasting since the British GP last summer, their last race win. With a lackluster pre-season testing session and a significant difference so far this year between Alonso and his teammate Felipe Massa, Ferrari is not firing on all cylinders so to speak. Felipe Massa managed a lackluster 15th place, showing a stark contrast between him and Alonso and putting himself in a vulnerable position for future replacement.

Rumors have been developing over the last several months of Ferrari replacing Massa with Perez.  Ferrari are of course keen to retake their dominance, but as the Red Bull/McLaren threat remains very, very real, it wouldn't be a surprise to see Ferrari looking to replace Felipe Massa with another talented young driver.

Sergio's second place finish just seconds behind Alonso was certainly a harsh dose of reality to the Maranello, Italy based team. Massa, like Perez, got his start in F1 with Peter Sauber's team before making his move to Ferrari in 2005 after a three year stint and two 4th place positions under his belt.

Rumors of a Perez move to Ferrari are still just rumors at this point, but while watching Sergio this weekend, it's clear he's auditioning for a better seat in F1, and that may not be that far off.

Not only are the eyes of the F1 club all over Sergio right now, but his home country is beginning to embrace their future star. Following Sergio's second place finish on Sunday, social networks were full of congratulatory messages, including a tweet from Mexican President, Felipe Calderon.  

Loosely translated: Congratulations to Sergio Perez for second place prize at the Malaysian Grand Prix. Extraordinary race!

Sergio's finish is the first time a Mexican driver has stood on the podium since Pedro Rodriguez in 1971. Seeing Perez with a big smile on his face on the podium brought joy and thrill to his loyal fans and fellow countrymen and women. This position was his best in F1 and hopefully the first of many for the young Mexican.

Perez and the Sauber team took a trip to Mexico last year to put on a street demo at an enthusiastic and well attended event. Though his impact on the culture of Central America is largely under-represented by the European dominated sport of F1, this story deserves far more attention, especially considering the construction of Circuit of The Americas, just a few hundred miles away from the US-Mexico border.

Here's Sergio doing the street demo in his home town of Guadalajara:

SXSW 2012 Recap

//Interactive

This was my first year to truly embrace the Interactive portion of Austin's annual South By Southwest Film, Music and Interactive Festival. It was quite a change for me as the past 7 years I've attended the music portion only, while venturing into a couple Interactive panels last year and participating in the Film portion for our work with SENNA Movie's two screenings in 2011.

For some reason I thought Interactive would be, well, easier - afterall, how much energy would it require to sit in conference rooms all day listening to the game changers of technology and innovation? WRONG! Four straight days of 9AM - 6PM conferences is appealing at first glance, but the work that goes alongside it is what got me: perusing the 112-page "Pocket" Guide to plan (and revise; and revise again) my schedule, coordinating with prospective contacts, Tweeting, fielding emails, scheduling outside meetings, networking, status updating, re-charging (mind, body and devices), and most importantly, transporting, with only 15 minutes between sessions (if you want to insure you have a seat in that session) took it's toll on me. Throw in three straight days of rain and voila - you have SXSW 2012. It was all worth it for the content and connections.

//Transformation

Nokia Lab at SXSW 2012What I really enjoy the most about SXSW is how our city transforms to welcome the world. I extended my evening runs down Congress Avenue and into the heart of the Warehouse and Convention Center districts to see the transformations taking place. On Tuesday night, Nokia was transforming a vacant parking lot across from The Cedar Door into a 3 part inflatable igloo - aka "Nokia Lab." The winter wonderland housed a mix of gadgets, games, good music and fun in the middle of a 70' "Austin winter" day (the rain helped).

Last year, GE built a solar-powered carousel, aka "Carousolar," in the vacant lot across from SIX Lounge. This year, Nike took over the space and hosted a "hackathon" tied into their newest product, the Nike Fuel Band, by changing our iconic Frost Bank Tower into a larger-than-life Nike Fuel Band display, changing it from it's normal blue and white tones into hyperactive red, orange and green tones.

Niek Fuel at SXSW 2012While we realize it may take a few years for our Formula 1 race to transform the downtown Austin area on this scale, these are perfect examples of how Austin embraces social and technological change and showcases it so well in our city.

//Festival Fever

"Festival Fever" Presented by Leadership Austin, KXAN News and 44 Doors

Back in February, Leadership Austin put on a panel entitled "Festival Fever," featuring Geoff Moore of COTA, Hugh Forrest of SXSW Interactive, Jon Roberts of TIP STrategies and Lisa Hickey of C3 Presents. It was neat to hear different perspectives from these community business leaders and their thoughts on how large-scale events impact Austin. More importantly, their comments on planning for future expansion did not fall on a deaf ear. You can read more about the event recap here.

SXSW 2012 Interactive Campus Shuttle Map

One final note on the success of SXSW: the transportaion logistics utilized during the Interactive portion made it possible to navigate between 14 different campuses in a grid-locked downtown Austin. The shuttle was provided free of charge to Interactive registrants and ran every 5-10 minutes at each stop on the route. There were four different routes and the shuttle drivers were friendly, courteous, and provided clean and classy shuttle service. Hats off to SXSW on pulling this off. Another logistic they have completely nailed down and we hope, for your sake, will be emulated during F1 week in November.

Downtown Watch Parties Complete Lap 1

Fans eagerly gathered for the first 2012 Austin Grand Prix Downtown Watch Party on Sunday afternoon to kick off the season with the 2012 Formula 1 Qantas Australian Grand Prix.

One of Austin's most iconic downtown restaurants, Z'Tejas Southwestern Grill, welcomed F1 fans from Austin, Dallas, San Francisco, New York, Kansas City, DC, London, Germany and beyond. Fan enjoyed the delicious brunch buffet of southwestern and Tex-Mex fare, including an item I can't seem to find anywhere outside of Austin - Migas. Migas are eggs scrambled with tortilla chip strips, japanelos, salsa fresca and cheese - delicious! The location was ideal, the staff attentive and friendly, and the food and service, world-class. Thank you Z'Tejas!

In the multi-level private house fans had multiple options for enjoying the race - including a downstairs viewing room with a 10' high-def screen and 60" LCD complete with heart-pumping sound system. Upstairs, guest had the option to stay indoors or venture to the outdoor patio and enjoy the perfect Austin weather while still keeping up with the action on a large LCD screen nearby. Special thanks to IES for outfitting Z'Tejas into a rivaling F1 media center!

Our fans were lucky to be some of the first in Austin to meet the crew from K1 Speed - the nation's largest indoor kart racing chain that runs on high performance, zero-emission European electric karts. In just a few short weeks, Austin's own K1 Speed loction will open and our 15 lucky K1 Speed gift card winners will be able to put them to good use. On Sunday fans were able to check out one of their karts on display and hop on in. Everyone is excited about this new venue and we'll be sure to keep you up to date on their grand opening. I must admit, I can't wait to get out there and take one for a spin...Thank you K1 Speed!

We'll continue to share the F1 excitement with friends and fans throughout downtown Austin this season. We've chosen a handful of races to host watch parties, with China being the next race on the calendar on April 15. Stay tuned for more details.

Thanks to our friends and fans for coming out yesterday and special thanks to
Z'Tejas, K1 Speed and IES for making it a world-class event!