Quote:
Originally Posted by BimmerAg
Quote:
Originally Posted by spxxx
Just wanted to ask if you've been to any recent F1 races at COTA? I'm considering heading out to Austin this year and want to ask a local!
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I went to the race last year with my wife and had a great time! Bought 3-day tickets for the Turn 12 bleachers, which IMO are the best deal you can get. They're the least expensive bleacher seats, but you get basically the same view as the Turn 15 bleachers that are twice as much. Turn 12 lets you see the end of the back straight, and the turn 12-15 complex where some great racing takes place! While the F1 race itself was great, I honestly enjoyed the support races even more. Last year they had a historic F1 car series and the Porsche GT3 Cup series. Both had more competitive racing and were much less crowded than the main event. For those races, we walked around the entire perimeter of the track and watched from various places. The main reason my wife agreed to go was for the Taylor Swift concert, but she actually got really into the racing for those races! Plenty of food options were available, but prices were fairly high as one would expect at any sporting event. Lines did get quite long on Sunday so be aware of that. For parking, I'd HIGHLY recommend you buy a parking pass. I did not and instead chose to ride the shuttle from a parking lot in town. For $25/person each day, it really wasn't much cheaper than the parking pass. Also, the drop-off point for the shuttle was still about a 25-30 minute walk from the track entrance... NOT what the wife wanted to do after walking around the 3 mile track all day. As far as lodging is concerned, hotels fill up fast and prices are hiked way up for F1 weekend. If being in Austin for the nightlife isn't that important to you, I'd recommend looking in San Marcos, which is a college town only about 30 min South on I-35 (also looks like there is not football game that weekend so you'll have even less competition). New Braunfels or San Antonio would probably be even cheaper, but your looking at a 1 hr or 1.5 hr drive, respectively. Unfortunately, it wasn't in the budget for us to go this year, but I'd love to go again. I'm sure I'm forgetting some stuff so if you have any more questions about the event or the area please ask! |
PMing you! Thanks so much for the info, we'll definitely want to stay in Austin (pre-req for the wife to attend lol)