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City of Austin

USGP Emergency Preparations Briefing

The Combined Transportation, Emergency & Communications Center

// Situation

In a secure room in East Austin, a meeting was held to further explain the lesssons learned from the City's recent trip to Silverstone for the British Grand Prix. With representatives in several departments ranging from Transportation and Fire, to EMS and Police, the brefing was a chance to explain the steps being taken to ensure the success of the inagural Formula 1 United States Grand Prix in Austin.

We learned very quickly that the City of Austin and Travis County are working closely with Circuit of The Americas and other governmental agencies to coordinate all aspects of emergency preparations for the race track and Austin. Whether your a die hard racing fan or not, you've no doubt been very interested in how exactly the city will manage such an enormous crowd that expected to dwarf SXSW and ACL Music Fesitival.  In the briefing, we learned first hand that the city and county are taking the preparations very seriously and have been working for over a year on how to make things move smoothly come November.

In order to help desciminate this information to you as concise and clear as possible, we've edited the briefing down to 14 videos with targeting questions to the most important questions. If there are some unanswered questions, please feel free to ask below in the comments and we'll do our best to assist or explain further.

// Introduction

 

Fancy Another Red Bull?

Remember all the Red Bull Racing excitement that happened in Austin, Texas last month? Well here is the final product released from Red Bull earlier today.

 

In case you need a refresher of the roller coaster journey to get to that final product, let me recap:

Your Daily Red Bull Update

Detail of Proposed Red Bull Racing Showcar AreaMore details for you on the loudly rumored Red Bull Racing F1 Showcar and David Coulthard appearance proposed for this Saturday, August 20, in downtown Austin, Texas. (If you want to see a Red Bull car exhibition, click HERE to read our previous post.)

Here are two maps for you to plan your attendance. The street closures requested in the City of Austin Permit lists blocks 1500-1700 north on Congress Avenue and 0-211 east on 15th Street. The permit lists the 100 east block of 15th Street twice, but we believe this is a mistake, and it should be the 0-125 west block of 15th Street and 0-211 east blocks of 15th Street (technicality).

As the Statesman reported yesterday, the requested permit time is from 7:00 AM - 12:00 PM. A knowledgable F1 source believes the exhibition will not occur until around 10:00 AM. It could take anywhere from 2-3 hours to set up the showcar, pit, filming and safety equipment, and secure the safety and related inspections. They will probably do a few laps and pit stops during filming, as well as media opportunities (still photos, interviews). That brings us to about 11:00 AM, when everything will have to be deconstructed and the permit area cleaned up by noon.

As of 1:16 PM today, the Permit filed with the City of Austin is still listed as "Pending."

We will continue to deliver the latest breaking updates for you as they become available.

Here are some planning tips for you:

  • In the maps, the red streets are the proposed showcar streets to be blocked off for the event. The grey streets are Austin's major streets to get you to the event.
  • Parking meters are not effective on weekends (this means they are FREE!). Therefore, watch for metered street parking, or there are paid parking garages - but we make no guarantees that they will be open on Saturday morning.
  • BRING EARPLUGS! I don't care how macho you are; you will be begging for them!
  • This should be no surprise to you: Saturday's forecast is projected to be sunny with a high of 103' F and low of 76' F. But you're in luck: at 10:00 AM it's usually about 85' F. Dress accordingly.
  • Bring water! But hopefully there will be Red Bull for you to drink as well.
  • Bring cash. Austin has over 4,000 food trucks. Someone get the word out and start inviting food trucks to the area (breakfast tacos anyone??).
  • Do you want to book a hotel close to the Capitol and proposed Showcar space? CLICK HERE!

Overview of Proposed Red Bull Racing Showcar Route & Surrounding Area in Austin, Texas

And finally, we went out to the Capitol and proposed Showcar area last night and shot this video for you. Keep in mind, the Showcar DOES NOT have permission from the State of Texas to take the Red Bull Racing F1 Showcar on Capitol grounds, but we love our Capitol and wanted to share it with you.

Trivia question: What makes the Texas Capitol more like the United States Capitol when compared to all other US states? Take a stab at it and we'll give you some free COME AND RACE IT™ gear!

Our lawyers made us write this: *We make no guarantees or assurances to the vailidity of planned events and are not responsible for cancellation or changes to revised event dates. Details provided for informational purposes only and no warranties are made or implied.