[Eric S]

Originally Posted by savowood

If anyone wants to get together and go to some local places on the opposite side of town away from the mayhem, let me know. Paul and I will be enjoying http://www.bonedaddys.com at least once while he's here.

Bonedaddys in Grapevine, TX has some seriously hot young waitress talent (better than Hooters IMHO), and Austin should be even better.

[MatP]

From what I hear, the entire city is full of hot young talent.

[John]

Originally Posted by MatP

From what I hear, the entire city is full of hot young talent.

I'll be interested to see how the talent compares to Montreal. Take lots of pictures.

[BMAN]

Originally Posted by John

I'll be interested to see how the talent compares to Montreal.

Ahh... Rue Ste Catherine. Much talent.

[Casey914]

My wife and I are flying in tomorrow and we are meeting a few clients while there so unfortunately we wont be able to add ourselves to the dorki dinner. Will certainly take a bunch of photos though!

[MatP]

Originally Posted by John

I'll be interested to see how the talent compares to Montreal. Take lots of pictures.

Indeed. The long lens will be deployed with much success.

[Lt. Dan]

Any viewing parties locally?

[ausgeflippt951]

Great day today! With the exception that my phone decided to kick the bucket.

Track started out very dusty, and drivers were very squirrely. Track looks like a super fun surface to race on: tons of elevation change (much to the chagrin of the spectators having to continually hike up-and-down mountains). Could definitely tell the parts of the track they decided to "just leave as-is for now"...i.e., everything other than the track surface. Lots of dirt.

Regardless, everything went great. Was a real treat to see the vintage Formula 1 ('68-'83 years) out there; really brought back memories of the vintage races we used to participate in at Road America. I realized the biggest thing I missed: the smell. Oh my how I love that smell. For me, the best part was seeing a REAL 6-wheeled Tyrrell, a Gilles Villeneuve-era McLaren, and a throng (no joke, there were like four of them) of John Player Special Loti.


Lap times dropped considerably from first practice to second practice. It was especially apparent in our section (we're in T4), a very high-speed series of esses which are apparently very hard on the tires. Really looking forward to qualifying tomorrow; lotsa people getting squirrely.



I'll try to throw up some pics and video. Got some good ones, though I'm wishing we would've borrowed the telephoto lens for our Canon...

[Rick K]

Originally Posted by ausgeflippt951

I'll try to throw up some pics and video. Got some good ones, though I'm wishing we would've borrowed the telephoto lens for our Canon...

That's so cool, hope you guys are having a blast. I managed to watch practice this afternoon and the track looks awesome. Seems like the city is really welcoming of the race which is great to hear.

[Dvb0415]

COTA is awesome. What a great track. As said before the drivers are complaining about lack of grip. But they are putting down some good times. Vettel qualified first with a 1:35. Hamilton was close behind.

Turn 1 is one of the best turns I have ever seen on a track. Significant uphill from start and a very tight left hand 180 hairpin then downhill to right hander. The start of the F1 race will be very interesting. The esses are very fast. Our seats are at T12 at the end of the long straight. There should be good passing opportunities in T12 - T16. These turns will be interesting to watch. Our seats are in the T12 The grandstand seats offer a good view of the esses and of course T12 - T16. The braking and accelleration of the F1 cars has to seen to be believed.

Watched a Ferrari Challenge Race. A ten lapper. Some of those drivers weren't very good. I think our CR and DE drivers are better than some of the Ferrari drivers. Lots of fun to watch. GT Cup qualifying was good. Much better drivers than the Ferraris.

My last comment is about parking. Our house is in Leander, about 45 minutes. We arrived late at the track both days and had absolutely no problems parking. The shuttles are another thing. While they run regularly, there are long lines at the track to get on and long lines at the terminals to get out of the parking lots. Hope this holds true for race day. But we plan on leaving earlier.