The United States Grand Prix in Austin has appointed Steve Sexton as its president. Sexton has been involved in management of major sports venues for more than 25 years, beginning at Santa Anita Park, a thoroughbred racetrack in Los Angeles in 1983, he moved on to become assistant marketing director at Canterbury Downs, and then Golden Gate Fields before being appointed general manager of Thistledown, in Cleveland, In 1991. Three years later he moved to Texas to work on the start-up of Lone Star Park and became the general manager of the facility in 2000 before moving to become president of Arlington Park in Illinois in 2001 guiding the track through preparations for the first Breeders’ Cup World Thoroughbred Championships to be held there. He then became the president of Churchill Downs racetrack in 2002 and ultimately became the head of the Churchill Downs Entertainment Group. Churchill Downs, in Louisville, Kentucky is the home of the Kentucky Derby.
“This project represents a unique opportunity for the City of Austin and the State of Texas to be the focal point for a world-wide audience,” Sexton said. “I’m very pleased to join the talented team the owners have assembled and am really excited to be a part of building a showcase that attracts diverse visitors from around the world and opens new education, innovation and research opportunities to benefit the global community.”
Austin will stage the US Grand Prix in 2012.
joeblogsf1 
Joe, I’m always amazed that your are doing blog posts after midnight your time. I get the RSS feed into my work email during the afternoon here on Pacific Time.
Keep up the good work – I really enjoy your posts.
m
Only so many hours in a day. We might as well use them!
Q/
Sexton said. “I’m very pleased to join the talented team the owners have assembled and am really excited to be a part of building a showcase that attracts diverse visitors from around the world and opens new education, innovation and research opportunities to benefit the global community.”
/Q
Blimey! Did he really say +all that+ without pausing or hesitating? Not even a comma!
Too much Red Bull.
Joe, we need to be very careful giving these meat-jockeys control of how GPs are hosted.
Only last week, at Newbury races, a couple of prime (and not inexpensive) Thoroughbreds, were toasted by an underground electricity cable whilst being paraded before their adoring public.
Imagine that happening to our dear-drivers.
If it can happen at established-Newbury racecourse, could it happen at the inaugural “Radio Shack” Austin GP?
Pre-Season Prep-School Report
Joe, unrelated, but if it appeals as an article topic, I’d be interested in reading your considered thoughts on drivers pre-season psychology. Meaning, an assessment of their deepest thoughts on approaching this year. Not their usual PR guff, but what they are +really+ thinking.
Particularly Mr. Webber, and Snr. Massa… and Herr Schumacher… and well Herr Rosberg too come to think of it.
Turmoil and trouble, or tranquil?
Mark knows he missed his chance last year, despite the in-Team tectonics.
Will this be his “testimonial” year? (In the UK, ageing an football star’s final season is little more than a parade of matches for the fans to cheer, and collect a pocket full of loot for his retirement.)
I suspect Mark has actually conceded already.
Colin,
Mark Webber never concedes until he has lost…
I am so happy that an F1 race is finally coming back to the states! I have waited a while for one to come back. It will be nice to drive the 11 hours instead of having to fly overseas.
Joe,
I do swear to go to the Austin GP to meet you and eat my hat (if it happens)
(-:
Tavo is doing things properly. I truly believe that the Austin circuit is going to be something special…a place worthy of the Formula One circus.
This is great news Joe…Steve Sexton has tons of experience!
Colin: there is a comma after the word “education”.
Dear Joe,
I keep reading/watching the news about the NZL earthquake with disbelief and feel sorrow and sympathy for the families of the victims. I’m horrified to see the Christchurch Cathedral’s devastated front part and tower.
It might be a very sad occasion but I can’t help thinking about Christchurch being one of the regular stops for the Tasman Series when it was in its best form, attracting some of the very best F1 drivers like Clark, G Hill, Surtees, Stewart, McLaren, Hulme and Co.
As a true motor racing fan, I’d be happy to read some of your recollections and some good stories on Christchurch’s former race track and the ambiance of those great races in the 1960s. On your blog, of course.
Motor racing and horse racing.
When Brooklands opened in 1906 there was no model to control the sport.
So they used the horse racing model.
That is why we have:
A paddock
Stewards
and a clerk of the course and others I cant think of at the moment.
In the begining the drivers even wore colours. Although that was changed to numbers for the benefit of the spectators who found it difficult to discern the colours at 100mph
RobbieMeister,
OK< why are the pits called the pits?
I amazed by all the negative comments in the local Austin press with regard to the F1 race, I realise it’s probably the vocal minority bleating about ‘Euro trash’ motor sport happening in the USA, but never the less the hostility is quite open … Only if you frequent the Cool River Cafe bar do you hear positive remarks about the forthcoming GP.
Tenuously related!
In the UK we have a guy called Andy Green, who drove a World land speed record machine , now he’s making a faster one called Bloodhound. Here is an excerpt from a BBC News page:
I flew out to Daytona, Florida, to act as the “Grand Marshal” for the Rolex Daytona 24hr race.
The amazing thing was the Americans’ response to Bloodhound. Everyone out there seemed to know about it and were dying to know more.
It even made the racing drivers stop and think when I explained that Bloodhound would be 10 miles away, from a standing start, in just 100 seconds, and that our third engine is a state-of-the-art 800hp Cosworth F1 engine “just” to drive the rocket pump.
I’m not sure they could get their heads around that one… and they’re not alone.
Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-12552667
One thing I can verify is that it’s gonna be damn noisy, the EJ200 jet engine used, is the same as in the Typhoon (Eurofighter) they live just down the road from me and are much louder than the Tornadoes stationed here before. On a Wednesday afternoon if the weather is good the earth shakes as they practise a fast takeoff with maximum near vertical, climb on afterburner. This was used frequently last year when the bears came too close. (Tupelov TU95) It’s raining today so all is quiet.
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Rogerthedodger2007
Colin: there is a comma after the word “education”.
/Q
Indeed, in fact I noticed it just after I’d posted, but was too blue and breathless to post an addendum.
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Sexton said. “I’m very pleased to join the talented team the owners have assembled and am really excited to be a part of building a showcase that attracts diverse visitors from around the world and opens new education, innovation and research opportunities to benefit the global community.”
/Q
Blimey! Did he really say +all that+ without pausing or hesitating? Save for a solitary comma!
Too much Red Bull.
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joesaward
Colin,
Mark Webber never concedes until he has lost…
/Q
In the final, and Title deciding race of 2010, his head dropped visibly +during the race+ his pace became nondescript and lacklustre, when his Team-mate was busy trouncing him.
He appeared to have decided he’d lost the Title long before the chequered flag fell.
Driving rather than racing. Very surprising.
Other commentators wrote about it.
Colin,
You seem to forget that he was stuck just as Alonso was stuck. And that he had the shoulder problem.
I think Mark is one of the mentally toughest people I have ever met. He can kick when others give up. I think that your opinion is not correct.
But maybe you know him better than I do. Who knows?
Q/
I think Mark is one of the mentally toughest people I have ever met. He can kick when others give up. I think that your opinion is not correct.
But maybe you know him better than I do. Who knows?
/Q
I can confirm that you know Mark better than I do, which is why I’d value the requested “Pre-Season Prep-School Report” on each driver, written by you.
Notwithstanding his sore shoulder, and the “road-block”, I recall both Martin Brundle and James Allen also commenting on the surprising lack of fight in Mark during the showdown race.
They may know Mark better than I do too.
(Just trying to wind you up enough to write the article 🙂
Colin,
I am very difficult to wind up.
Q/
OK< why are the pits called the pits?
/Q
Clearly because that is where you put animals to fight, as in cock-pit. There's one next to my house for fighting cockerels.
Just don't ask how "cockpit" got its name!
Why are the pits called the pits?
I don’t know. But I can have a guess.
A hole in the ground in which a mechanic stands to work underneath a car parked above is called a pit.
Well the above was wrritten before I Googled it.
When I did Google it I found this:
http://www.grandprix.com/gt/gt00184.html
🙂
Robbiemeister,
What does that Joe Saward know?
🙂
Nice to see that the austin GP group has a business person, but is it just because he was available, or was he truly the best person for the job that was available.
Horsetracks make much of their money through gambling, and serving as OTB centers. The other locations which host the last two legs of the triple crown are facing dire financial straights.
There was talk about the possibility to try to move the Churchill downs track to Indiana so they could take advantage of that state allowing electronic casino type games at the track.
So although this person does have experience, will he be able to translate that experience to make the Austin Circuit successful?
Oh come on! All garages in the 20s, 30s, 40s, and probably 50s and early 60s, had pits in order to service the cars in the days before hydraulic or screw lifts (2 or 4 pillar) were invented. After lifts were installed many garages (whose roofs were high enough to accommodate same) just put a wooden cover over the pit. I would guess that many garages of substantial years standing all round the world, indeed the one in our village, still have the pits covered over and probably still containing drums of used motor oil, dropped plugs, screws, nuts, washers and bolts, rags and general detritus. eg. everything you need to start a really good fire, or thermal event, as it is called in racing.
Mind you I still have fond memories of Les Dufty (en ex-Rolls Royce Filton engineer) of the Alfa owner’s club who managed to get a 2 pillar lift in his own back garage. Twin Webber carb Alfas stayed in tune for nearly 600 miles if you were lucky. Ah those were… I wonder what …