Y29M

Only the 6!? That's some effort!

FlyingOnceMore

No, you're thinking of Bristol in August.

If you want "Redneck" then it has to be Talladega and you need to camp at the track for the weekend. It's the infield where anything and everything goes, legal or not. Been there, done that, got the T-Shirt! Will never forget it!

I've been doing the "Motorsport Tourism" thing all over the world for the last 25 years and still love it. How many I do in a year, where I go and how I do it varies; everything from a sleeping bag in the car to tent camping to cheap digs to the full five star. Most F1 circuits in Europe can still be done on the cheap by camping at the track, which may be a just local landowner's field with a few toilets and possibly a shower truck, but a lot do have much better facilities these days. It's always a lot of fun, right up to the down right debaucherous in the case of Hungary. For some tracks I wouldn't do it any other way, Spa is one. It sure beats queueing in traffic to get in and out every day. Camping at Speedways in the US varies too from track lots with all the bells and whistles for RV's to local landowners making a few bucks.

pinniped

Dang...probably not late enough in August to also hit a football game.

Looks like there's a Talladega race in October. That'd be prime time for both golf and football...

dmitritony

As alpen1 said, Only 6? I went to Monaco and Singapore.

It looks like there were a few of us in Singapore this year, although, I found Singapore too hot and humid for my liking so may not go back there again.

GregWTravels

I have been going to an F1 race a year for the past few years (well, 4 in 5 years). Have done Spa, Monaco, Britain and Hungary. Haven't decided for next year yet, but will definitely do a GP somewhere.

I grew up watching racing with my Dad. I watch mostly open wheel racing, though when I was younger used to go to the local track which had stock car and midget car racing.

I think the idea of an F1 GP FT Do would be excellent. I'd also love to see a proper NASCAR race like pinniped has talked about.

choster

The only kind of motorsport tourism I'm interested in is the sort offered by www.ducatitours.com .

Sheikh Yerbooty

The 24H of Le Mans and ditto of Nurburgring are fixed entries in my calendar. Does help that I live only 45 minutes away from the 'Ring of course (and go there almost every week-end to trash the old Porsche 944 I bought with a colleague for the sole purpose of having a blast on the Nordschleife).

I try to do at least one F1 GP a year, this year we went to Valencia. One or two is enough though; the price does not fit the experience in my opinion. But an addict's got to have his fix, right?

My first and biggest love is touring cars, particularly the WTCC. Used to do DTM, but all the tech made it a bit boring, and with only Merc and Audi competing that didn't help. But BMW returned this year and won it with Bruno Spengler, and the races at both Norisring, Hockenheim and Zolder were rather good. Couldn't make it to Macau for the season finisher in the WTCC, but did catch a couple of races (Spa and Brands Hatch).

Would love to attend a NASCAR race some day. Not for the racing though, only ever turning left is not my idea of racing, but for the experience and to watch red necks in their natural habitat.

For some reason bike racing doesn't to anything for me, so I'll leave that to my boss who's racing his Kwak 600 at circuits all over Europe.

You might say I'm ever so slightly bitten by the petrol bug

TrueBlueFlyer

That looks exciting... I did the Red Bull Grand Prix at Indianapolis Motor Speedway... my first MotoGP race




Touring cars are one of my favorite too, in fact I like it more than open wheel racing


Besides six F1's this year, I did six Grand-AM series races, five American Le Mans Series races, 3 Indycar races, 2 V8 Supercars races, 1 V8 Supertourers race, 1 NASCAR on a road course in Watkins Glen and of course 1 MotoGP I mentioned earlier.


Would love to do more of course if I can find a way to do it sustainably

TrueBlueFlyer

with the Grand-Am and ALMS merging it will be quite interesting what road racing will be like in USA come 2014

CPRich

I traveled to Montreal for the F1 race three times in the '90s, was at every Indy F1 race, already have hotel reservations for next year's Austin race (had to miss this year) and my parents live about 15 miles from the new NJ F1 race, so I'll be there

I traveled to watch F1 at Spa and to LeMans, and also spent a couple of days at the Nordschleife - driving, not watching.

1010101

I used to travel all over the place both watching racing and actually doing it (including the 'Ring 24hr someone mentioned above). F1, FIA GT and DTM (when it was M3 v 190E) were my three favourites to watch. Rallying is also a great one, but not the easiest spectator sport.

F1 sadly has dropped off and i don't even watch it much on TV anymore. As noted above, the price now doesn't not fit the experience. I remember in 1993 walking around the back of pits and getting to see Ayrton Senna in the flesh. You try that now on a general admission ticket.

TrueBlueFlyer

F1 is getting better, this year was one of the more memorable in recent history

As far as spectator experiences go, its a tough call... but you're right, it is a business and the more you pay the closer you get.


One of the cheapest and best F1 experiences for me has been Malaysia. That was my very first F1 race I watched as a spectator... flew-in in the morning from Singapore, watched the race, and flew back right after it ended. Fantastic experience! Part of the reason it got me more involved... the other part was realizing I lack the 1). Skill & 2). Money to do anything as a driver/racer Marshalling is as close as I want to get to the action.

Maigret

I went to Talladega in April '11 on the recommendation of our US auditor as being the most 'authentic' Nascar experience. I was a bit suspicious being British and having the accent but it was brilliant!
The people are so unbelievably friendly and welcoming - I ended up being adopted by a bunch of guys who worked at a garage or factory making and fixing bits to agricultural machinery who explained everything, showed me the best places to eat, explained the (sparse) rules and just drank beer together. Some of their political views and opinions may be a bit extreme but for a weekend out it beats the hell out of corporate entertaining at F1!

The racing was surprisingly interesting as well.

IMOA

I just looked at your blog, I suspect you might know an australian mate of mine who does a very similar thing to you either marshalling or attending most of the asia pacific F1 races.

Next year I'm thinking of doing the malaysian F1, will definitely do Japan, thinking possibly of Austin and working with my boss to come up with a reason to be in our head office in Belgium at the end of august.

1010101

I cant agree with that. The rules have been changed so much that its difficult to know who the best driver/car is. It's on its way to being a spec series with weight handicaps.

If you're a paying spectator you have to make do with your designated grandstand and whatever waste of time 'F1 Village' they've brought along. Only by virtue of family connections do i get near the pit lane nowadays and that is far from guaranteed. 20 years ago you could go pretty much where you wanted and get far more involved in it all. I realise TV figures are probably rising, but its lost much of its magic for many of the long standing fans i know.