Austin Formula One circuit
Encyclopedia
The Circuit of the Americas is a 3.4 miles (5.5 km) motor racing circuit in Travis County, Texas
, near Austin
, currently under construction and due for completion in 2012. It is due to hold the Formula One
United States Grand Prix
on November 18, , the penultimate round of the 2012 season. Plans have been unveiled for a race of the MotoGP
World Championship from 2013, called Texas motorcycle Grand Prix
. V8 Supercars has also announced that they will hold a race on the track in 2013.
The track and race were first proposed in the middle of 2010, the circuit will be the first in the United States to be purpose-built for Formula One. It is designed by German architect and circuit designer Hermann Tilke
, who has also designed the Sepang
, Shanghai
, Yas Marina, Istanbul
, Bahrain
, Yeongam
, and Buddh circuits, as well as the reprofiling of the Hockenheimring and Fuji Speedway
.
announced their plan to build the track on about 890 acres (3.6 km²) of undeveloped land in southeastern Travis County
. The majority of the site was previously planned for a residential subdivision
called Wandering Creek. In the same news conference, Hellmund also revealed that Texas billionaire Red McCombs
is the project's largest investor. McCombs would like to call the site "Speed City", but the owners anticipate selling the naming rights to various parts of the facility for $7 million. The track name "Circuit of the Americas" was later announced at a press conference on April 12, 2011.
In an episode of Speed TV's Wind Tunnel program broadcast on August 22, 2010, Hellmund revealed that the circuit would be 3.4 miles (5.5 km) long and would be made up of more than twenty turns with an elevation change of 133 feet (41 m). The final plan of the circuit was released on September 1, 2010, showing a circuit that was built after the European tradition of sculpting the circuit to the contours of the land. Several circuits provided inspiration for the design, with homages to Silverstone
, Hockenheim
and Istanbul Park
clearly visible in the corners.
The final design was released on September 1, 2010, and draws from several European Formula One circuits, including a recreation of Silverstone's
Maggotts-Becketts-Chapel sequence, Hockenheim's
arena bends and a replica of Istanbul's
Turn Eight. The spectator capacity of the course is estimated to be one hundred thousand, with the use of permanent and temporary seating facilities. One of the unique features of the circuit is a deliberate widening of the circuit in the corners, to encourage drivers to follow multiple racing lines.
The track homologation
design was submitted to the FIA in Geneva
for approval on December 17, 2010. HKS, Inc.
and Tilke Engineers & Architects
designed the track and Austin Commercial, a subsidiary of Austin Industries, was the general contractor
. Construction began on 31 December 2010, and is due to be complete by June 2012. The first tasks were building the silt
fences, taking core sample
s and shredding existing vegetation.
On January 21, 2011, a $900,000 check was posted with Travis County that permitted grading
to begin. The money was to be used to restore the land if FEMA declined to allow the project to move forward because part of the site lies in a floodplain
. FEMA issued a letter on June 28, 2011 stating the project meets its floodplain management criteria.
city council was asked to be the sponsoring municipality for the event. Through being a sponsor, the city could apply for money from a state fund, the Major Events Trust Fund (METF), designed to attract major sporting events to Texas
that would be used to pay the Formula 1 race sanctioning fee. This matter was complicated by opponents of the project who filed a lawsuit against state comptroller
Susan Combs
, claiming that she had promised the funding to the circuit without having been legally authorized to do so, though authorities have responded stating that all necessary guidelines had been followed. On July 1, 2011, a State District Court Judge ordered that there will not be a temporary restraining order against Combs which would have stopped payments from the METF. The attorney for the opponents of the project has stated that he is unsure if they will continue pursuing the lawsuit.
In June 2011, the Austin city council endorsed the United States Grand Prix, with a vote of 5-2. As a part of the endorsement, the sport will pay $15,000 in carbon offsets and $5 million to establish an on-site research project into environmentally-friendly technologies.
expressed what he called "minor" doubt over the future of the United States Grand Prix in Austin after "disagreements inside the [management] company". These issues were later confirmed when construction of the circuit came to a halt because of a dispute between the circuit owners, promoter Full Throttle Productions, and Formula One Management. The situation further escalated when state comptroller Susan Combs described the planned Grand Prix of America
as a threat to the race in Texas, and said that the first $25 million payment from the state sports fund would only be made available after the first Grand Prix at the circuit.
Travis County, Texas
As of 2009, the U.S. census estimates there were 1,026,158 people, 320,766 households, and 183,798 families residing in the county. The population density was 821 people per square mile . There were 335,881 housing units at an average density of 340 per square mile...
, near Austin
Austin, Texas
Austin is the capital city of the U.S. state of :Texas and the seat of Travis County. Located in Central Texas on the eastern edge of the American Southwest, it is the fourth-largest city in Texas and the 14th most populous city in the United States. It was the third-fastest-growing large city in...
, currently under construction and due for completion in 2012. It is due to hold the Formula One
Formula One
Formula One, also known as Formula 1 or F1 and referred to officially as the FIA Formula One World Championship, is the highest class of single seater auto racing sanctioned by the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile . The "formula" designation in the name refers to a set of rules with which...
United States Grand Prix
United States Grand Prix
The United States Grand Prix is a motor race which has been run on and off since 1908, when it was known as the American Grand Prize. The race later became part of the Formula One World Championship. Over 41 editions, the race has been held at nine locations, most recently in 2007 at the...
on November 18, , the penultimate round of the 2012 season. Plans have been unveiled for a race of the MotoGP
Grand Prix motorcycle racing
Road Racing World Championship Grand Prix is the premier championship of motorcycle road racing currently divided into three distinct classes: 125cc, Moto2 and MotoGP. The 125cc class uses a two-stroke engine while Moto2 and MotoGP use four-stroke engines. In 2010 the 250cc two-stroke was replaced...
World Championship from 2013, called Texas motorcycle Grand Prix
Texas motorcycle Grand Prix
The Texas motorcycle Grand Prix is a Grand Prix motorcycle race to be held for the first time in the 2013 season at the Circuit of the Americas. It will be the third MotoGP race in the United States, alongside the United States Grand Prix at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca and the Indianapolis Grand...
. V8 Supercars has also announced that they will hold a race on the track in 2013.
The track and race were first proposed in the middle of 2010, the circuit will be the first in the United States to be purpose-built for Formula One. It is designed by German architect and circuit designer Hermann Tilke
Hermann Tilke
Hermann Tilke is a German engineer and auto racer, who has designed numerous Formula One motor racing circuits.-Racing:...
, who has also designed the Sepang
Sepang International Circuit
The Sepang International Circuit is a racing circuit in Sepang, Selangor, Malaysia. It is located near Kuala Lumpur International Airport, approximately 60 km south of the capital city Kuala Lumpur. It is the venue used for the Formula One Malaysian Grand Prix, A1 Grand Prix as well as the...
, Shanghai
Shanghai International Circuit
The Shanghai International Circuit is a motor racing circuit, situated in the Jiading District of Shanghai, People's Republic of China. The circuit is best known as the venue for the annual Formula 1 Chinese Grand Prix, which was first hosted in 2004....
, Yas Marina, Istanbul
Istanbul Park
Istanbul Park , also known as the Istanbul Racing Circuit or initially Istanbul Otodrom, is a motor sports race track in Akfırat County east of Istanbul, Turkey. It was inaugurated on 21 August 2005...
, Bahrain
Bahrain International Circuit
The Bahrain International Circuit is a motorsport venue opened in 2004 and used for drag racing, GP2 and the annual Bahrain Grand Prix. The 2004 Grand Prix was the first held in the Middle East. Since 2006, Australian V8 Supercar has been raced at the BIC and the V8 races are named as the Desert 400...
, Yeongam
Korean International Circuit
The Korea International Circuit is a motorsport circuit located in Yeongam, South Jeolla, South Korea, 400 kilometres south of Seoul and near the port city of Mokpo...
, and Buddh circuits, as well as the reprofiling of the Hockenheimring and Fuji Speedway
Fuji Speedway
is a race track standing in the foothills of Mount Fuji, in Oyama, Suntō District, Shizuoka Prefecture, Japan. It was built in the early 1960s and hosted the first Formula One race in Japan in 1976. In the 1980s, Fuji Speedway was used for the FIA World Sportscar Championship and national racing...
.
Track
In a news conference on 27 July 2010, Tavo HellmundTavo Hellmund
Tavo Hellmund is an American former racing driver and promoter, who is promoting the United States Grand Prix in Austin, Texas with the first race in 2012....
announced their plan to build the track on about 890 acres (3.6 km²) of undeveloped land in southeastern Travis County
Travis County, Texas
As of 2009, the U.S. census estimates there were 1,026,158 people, 320,766 households, and 183,798 families residing in the county. The population density was 821 people per square mile . There were 335,881 housing units at an average density of 340 per square mile...
. The majority of the site was previously planned for a residential subdivision
Subdivision (land)
Subdivision is the act of dividing land into pieces that are easier to sell or otherwise develop, usually via a plat. The former single piece as a whole is then known in the United States as a subdivision...
called Wandering Creek. In the same news conference, Hellmund also revealed that Texas billionaire Red McCombs
Red McCombs
Billy Joe "Red" McCombs is the founder of the Red McCombs Automotive Group, a co-founder of Clear Channel Communications, a former owner of the San Antonio Spurs, Denver Nuggets, and the Minnesota Vikings, and the namesake of the McCombs School of Business at the University of Texas at Austin...
is the project's largest investor. McCombs would like to call the site "Speed City", but the owners anticipate selling the naming rights to various parts of the facility for $7 million. The track name "Circuit of the Americas" was later announced at a press conference on April 12, 2011.
In an episode of Speed TV's Wind Tunnel program broadcast on August 22, 2010, Hellmund revealed that the circuit would be 3.4 miles (5.5 km) long and would be made up of more than twenty turns with an elevation change of 133 feet (41 m). The final plan of the circuit was released on September 1, 2010, showing a circuit that was built after the European tradition of sculpting the circuit to the contours of the land. Several circuits provided inspiration for the design, with homages to Silverstone
Silverstone Circuit
Silverstone Circuit is an English motor racing circuit next to the Northamptonshire villages of Silverstone and Whittlebury. The circuit straddles the Northamptonshire and Buckinghamshire border, with the current main circuit entry on the Buckinghamshire side...
, Hockenheim
Hockenheimring
The Hockenheimring Baden-Württemberg is an automobile racing track situated near the town of Hockenheim in Baden-Württemberg, Germany, located on Bertha Benz Memorial Route. Amongst other motor racing events, it biennially hosts the Formula One German Grand Prix...
and Istanbul Park
Istanbul Park
Istanbul Park , also known as the Istanbul Racing Circuit or initially Istanbul Otodrom, is a motor sports race track in Akfırat County east of Istanbul, Turkey. It was inaugurated on 21 August 2005...
clearly visible in the corners.
The final design was released on September 1, 2010, and draws from several European Formula One circuits, including a recreation of Silverstone's
Silverstone Circuit
Silverstone Circuit is an English motor racing circuit next to the Northamptonshire villages of Silverstone and Whittlebury. The circuit straddles the Northamptonshire and Buckinghamshire border, with the current main circuit entry on the Buckinghamshire side...
Maggotts-Becketts-Chapel sequence, Hockenheim's
Hockenheimring
The Hockenheimring Baden-Württemberg is an automobile racing track situated near the town of Hockenheim in Baden-Württemberg, Germany, located on Bertha Benz Memorial Route. Amongst other motor racing events, it biennially hosts the Formula One German Grand Prix...
arena bends and a replica of Istanbul's
Istanbul Park
Istanbul Park , also known as the Istanbul Racing Circuit or initially Istanbul Otodrom, is a motor sports race track in Akfırat County east of Istanbul, Turkey. It was inaugurated on 21 August 2005...
Turn Eight. The spectator capacity of the course is estimated to be one hundred thousand, with the use of permanent and temporary seating facilities. One of the unique features of the circuit is a deliberate widening of the circuit in the corners, to encourage drivers to follow multiple racing lines.
The track homologation
Homologation (motorsport)
In motorsports, homologation is the approval process a vehicle, race track or standardised part must go through to race in a given league or series. The regulations and rules that must be met are generally set by the series' sanctioning body...
design was submitted to the FIA in Geneva
Geneva
Geneva In the national languages of Switzerland the city is known as Genf , Ginevra and Genevra is the second-most-populous city in Switzerland and is the most populous city of Romandie, the French-speaking part of Switzerland...
for approval on December 17, 2010. HKS, Inc.
HKS, Inc.
HKS, Inc. is an international architecture firm headquartered in Dallas, Texas . It was founded in 1939 by Harwood K. Smith, a native of Chicago and graduate of Texas A&M University....
and Tilke Engineers & Architects
Hermann Tilke
Hermann Tilke is a German engineer and auto racer, who has designed numerous Formula One motor racing circuits.-Racing:...
designed the track and Austin Commercial, a subsidiary of Austin Industries, was the general contractor
General contractor
A general contractor is responsible for the day-to-day oversight of a construction site, management of vendors and trades, and communication of information to involved parties throughout the course of a building project.-Description:...
. Construction began on 31 December 2010, and is due to be complete by June 2012. The first tasks were building the silt
Silt
Silt is granular material of a size somewhere between sand and clay whose mineral origin is quartz and feldspar. Silt may occur as a soil or as suspended sediment in a surface water body...
fences, taking core sample
Core sample
A core sample is a cylindrical section of a naturally occurring substance. Most core samples are obtained by drilling with special drills into the substance, for example sediment or rock, with a hollow steel tube called a core drill. The hole made for the core sample is called the "core hole". A...
s and shredding existing vegetation.
On January 21, 2011, a $900,000 check was posted with Travis County that permitted grading
Land grading
Grading in civil engineering and construction is the work of ensuring a level base, or one with a specified slope, for a construction work such as a foundation, the base course for a road or a railway, or landscape and garden improvements, or surface drainage...
to begin. The money was to be used to restore the land if FEMA declined to allow the project to move forward because part of the site lies in a floodplain
Floodplain
A floodplain, or flood plain, is a flat or nearly flat land adjacent a stream or river that stretches from the banks of its channel to the base of the enclosing valley walls and experiences flooding during periods of high discharge...
. FEMA issued a letter on June 28, 2011 stating the project meets its floodplain management criteria.
City endorsement and lawsuit
In order for the Formula 1 United States Grand Prix to take place, the AustinAustin, Texas
Austin is the capital city of the U.S. state of :Texas and the seat of Travis County. Located in Central Texas on the eastern edge of the American Southwest, it is the fourth-largest city in Texas and the 14th most populous city in the United States. It was the third-fastest-growing large city in...
city council was asked to be the sponsoring municipality for the event. Through being a sponsor, the city could apply for money from a state fund, the Major Events Trust Fund (METF), designed to attract major sporting events to Texas
Texas
Texas is the second largest U.S. state by both area and population, and the largest state by area in the contiguous United States.The name, based on the Caddo word "Tejas" meaning "friends" or "allies", was applied by the Spanish to the Caddo themselves and to the region of their settlement in...
that would be used to pay the Formula 1 race sanctioning fee. This matter was complicated by opponents of the project who filed a lawsuit against state comptroller
State Comptroller
The power of the Knesset to supervise and review government policies and operations is exercised mainly through the state comptroller . The incumbent is completely independent of the government and answers to the Knesset alone.- Duties :...
Susan Combs
Susan Combs
Susan Combs is a Republican politician from the U.S. state of Texas, currently serving as the state's Comptroller of Public Accounts....
, claiming that she had promised the funding to the circuit without having been legally authorized to do so, though authorities have responded stating that all necessary guidelines had been followed. On July 1, 2011, a State District Court Judge ordered that there will not be a temporary restraining order against Combs which would have stopped payments from the METF. The attorney for the opponents of the project has stated that he is unsure if they will continue pursuing the lawsuit.
In June 2011, the Austin city council endorsed the United States Grand Prix, with a vote of 5-2. As a part of the endorsement, the sport will pay $15,000 in carbon offsets and $5 million to establish an on-site research project into environmentally-friendly technologies.
Dispute between promoters and circuit owners
In November 2011, Bernie EcclestoneBernie Ecclestone
Bernard Charles "Bernie" Ecclestone is an English business magnate, as president and CEO of Formula One Management and Formula One Administration and through his part-ownership of Alpha Prema, the parent company of the Formula One Group of companies. As such, he is generally considered the primary...
expressed what he called "minor" doubt over the future of the United States Grand Prix in Austin after "disagreements inside the [management] company". These issues were later confirmed when construction of the circuit came to a halt because of a dispute between the circuit owners, promoter Full Throttle Productions, and Formula One Management. The situation further escalated when state comptroller Susan Combs described the planned Grand Prix of America
Grand Prix of America
The Grand Prix of America is a Formula One World Championship race planned for June 2013 and beyond. The race will be held on a yet-to-be-constructed 3.2-mile street circuit through the New Jersey towns of West New York and Weehawken, along the Weehawken Port Imperial...
as a threat to the race in Texas, and said that the first $25 million payment from the state sports fund would only be made available after the first Grand Prix at the circuit.