GTPlanet Community Meetup in Austin, Texas, this Thursday for the 2012 US Grand Prix

This weekend marks the return of Formula 1 to the United States, in Austin, Texas, at the 2012 United States Grand Prix, and if the chatter in our forums is any indication, lots of GTPlanet community members will be attending.

To help get everyone together, we’ll be hosting a free event at Opal Divine’s Freehouse at 700 West 6th Street in downtown Austin, kicking off this Thursday, November 15, at 10:00pm local time. It’s going to be a great opportunity to meet, greet, and enjoy some food and drink with other members of the site.

We’ll have a big, projector TV playing the latest episode of GT Academy 2012 as it airs on Spike TV, and several of the show’s finalists have already confirmed their attendance.

If you’re coming, you can RSVP for the event on Facebook; feel free to bring friends and family. You can also check in via this topic in our Local Gatherings forum. See you there!

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Comments (32)

  1. DaSixSixOne

    NoonenF1, my friend, will you be there? I have a seat at turn 9 but won’t arrive until late Friday. Hope to see you and other GT5’rs there!

  2. Gran_Turismo

    I live in Austin. Just 20 minutes away from Opal Divines. In Fact. I work downtown, but I work the PM shift, so if the event starts after 5, I won’t be able to attend! Wwaaaahhhh!

  3. Whodoyouthink

    How I would absolutely kill to go to an F1 event…

    I wish SPEED was in HD where I live (New England). I hate watching SD. No other channels seem to broadcast F1 :(

    Abu Dhabi was pretty descent. Was also my first time ever watching F1. I’ve only seen montages and highlights my whole life. for like the 2 years I’ve known of F1, I would go, okay I’m gonna watch a race, only to find out it’s at an inconvenient time or I just forgot some how.

  4. vrossi

    Would love to join ya, but I wont be there ’till Friday.
    I’m flying out from Seattle on Thur. Meeting up w/a bud who lives in Dallas, & we’re driving down to Austin Fri morning. Been to 4 MotoGP’s, but this is my 1st F1.
    vrossi? ha ha ha. I’M A STONER FAN!

    1. Amac500

      They are bringing an F1 GP to New Jersey with the New York skyline as the back drop. It was scheduled for 2013 but has now been postponed until 2014, but they are doing it.

  5. Amac500

    Wish I could be there and see this facility. In general, the whole F1 pop-up track boom has done nothing but create a bunch of crappy Herman Tilke tracks, but Circuit of the Americas looks nice. Looks like they did it right! It’s challenging, not just a bunch of turns. The elevation is nice as well, the track has the 3rd most elevation change on the F1 calendar, behind 1, Spa, and 2, Suzuka. As Mario Andretti said “elevation changes give a track character. Only problem is the dang run-off area around the whole track. It’s not as bad as Yas Marina or nothing, but still to much. That ain’t Texas-tuff man, lots of wimpy run-off incase you can’t stay on the track and might crash, wahhhhhhh :( Racing use to take balls!… Sorry I got off topic, can’t wait to see race cars going through their paces out there :)

    1. NoonenF1

      It’s hard to tell until the cars hit the track. I think the layout has mainly the same characteristics of other Hermann Tilke tracks. The esses look neat but there is a very slow left at the turn 8 which ruins the flow of that sector.

    2. Amac500

      I like the first part of the track a lot, through the eases and all up to the long straight. From the end of that straight to the line I think is “lacking”. The arena part is kind of cool, although it wont produce passing, with that left hand turn where you break looking straight-out and then right when you feel like you have missed the turn you turn in, it’s alright. Otherwise that second part won’t produce passing and won’t be that cool, the last turn onto the main straight is fine. Otherwise I hope I’m wrong but that section will be bland and I hope it doesn’t bring down the whole course. I’m stunned that by this point, when passing is a major problem in F1 with only around 70 on track overtakes all year, they don’t look at other tracks on the calendar and evaluate what produces a good passin zone for an F1 car. One of the main problems though is the F1 car itself. It’s so high downforce and can carry such a high cornering speed that not as much time is spent under breaking, which is obviously needed to set up a good pass into the corner. When the only passing is on a straight with a DRS system that honestly isn’t fair to competition, I’m not interested. I wish that would just totally relook the F1 rule book and make it so cars are lower downforce. Seems to me the on track passing ability started to leave when the raised noses came, I would just say that the front wing must be connected directly to the sides of a front nose cone.

  6. McClarenDesign

    I’m counting down the minutes! I leave Thursday morning at 1a, and will be stopping by DeLorean in Humble, TX on the way. See you guys there!!!

    1. M0NSTER97

      The good about that DeLorean factory is that it is about 10 minutes from my house.

      My life sucks, if only I haded a break from school this week, and I have been one year older I would drive myself to Austin. I hope I have better luck next year (maybe).

  7. speedrcr

    Sweet! I’ll be at the Draught House first for the Jalopnik.com meet up at 6pm first! Perfect timing and less then 5 miles away!

  8. SVT Cobra GT

    If I lived in Austin, I’d attend!

    Hope the event goes great and every one has a good time at the track!

    I’ll be watching the race and praying for a Hamilton win!

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