Issue link: http://www.e-digitaleditions.com/i/304092
May / June 2014 14 753 miles. That's how far it is from my driveway in Lenexa to my parking spot in the F1 paddock at The Circuit of the Americas in Austin Texas. I am here to tell you the drive is worth every mile if you get a chance to run your track car at this fabulous place. This March, a kind invite from our friends at the BMW club of North Texas allowed a few KCRPCA instructors who had supported a BMW event in Oklahoma the opportunity to sign up early for the 2nd Annual Texas Trifecta at COTA. So yours truly, Dan Margolin, Dave Stadtmueller, Dick Seltzer, Tom Simmons and John Filus from KCRPCA made the trek south to the Promised Land. Having heard that the track was less than friendly to club events, we found that exactly the opposite was true. We were greeted with warm Texas hospitality by every track employee, from the nice lady at the gate to the folks working the lunch place at the track. There were in excess of 250 entrants and with typical BMW efficiency the event was extremely well managed by the BMW team. I have to give them very high marks for being very organized and efficient in the running of the event. The facility is exactly what you would expect for the newest specially built F1 track, everything is top notch from the garages, the paddock, facilities everything shiny and new and in perfect working order. As for the track itself, the condition is quite outstanding, perfectly smooth, no seams, no bumps, no holes nothing but absolutely smooth asphalt. The gaiters are brightly painted with a nice not so little yellow apex bump to keep you from getting too greedy. There is a nice strip of AstroTurf (!) in between the gaiters and the famous red, white and blue striping that surrounds most of the track. Run off areas are generous (with a few exceptions) with large kitty litter traps designed to stop F1 cars so there is little worry of hitting something hard in a DE car. The track is so clean and smooth that your tires look polished when you come off after a session. I attended the F1 race in Austin in November last year and it was a thrill to see the F1 heroes take on the very challenging track layout, but I tell you that pales in comparison to pulling out of the hot pits onto the grandstand straight in your own car. You enter the track and immediately are going up a big (much steeper than it looks on TV) hill to turn 1, then down the hill again into a fast right hander that you just know Put Your Helmet On! More videos found at http://tinyurl.com/q2emeyd The F1 cars went through here flat out upshifting all the way to 6th, geez no way the Pumpkin was ready for that!