I grew up watching and attending Indy Car races. Sunday mornings in my house meant Dad making pancakes and watching the race. I've been fortunate to go to years of races at Portland International Raceway, (Portland, OR) and trips to Laguna Seca Raceway in Monterey, CA, and the Indianapolis 500. Most recently, my husband and I traveled to Austin, Texas for the Formula 1 USGP at the Circuit of the Americas (COTA). After many trips to different race tracks and getting lots of questions, I wanted to share some tips for attending a race weekend, both general tips for any race and F1/COTA specific tips.
GENERAL TIPS: ANY RACE EVENT
1. WEAR COMFORTABLE SHOES. You will be doing A LOT of walking, no matter what track you are attending. It will likely be on both concrete and grass/dirt, depending on where you are. I wore my Asics trail running shoes and they worked perfectly.
2. HYDRATE! I cannot stress this enough. It's typically hot at the track (the asphalt makes it even hotter), and since you're out in the sun all day, you get dehydrated fast. Check the track rules--most tracks allow you to bring a water bottle of some sort. Some have water bottle filling stations. I also carried propel packs to dump into my water to get the electrolytes too. Throughout the weekend the EMT's were very busy with people passing out from dehydration.
3. SUNSCREEN/HAT. Again, you'll be out in the heat and it's generally hard to find shade. Most tracks don't sell it inside the gates, so you'll need to bring it with you. Don't forget to reapply!
4. EXPECT LOTS OF TRAFFIC/PEOPLE. Leave WAY earlier than you think you need to. Be prepared to sit in your car for awhile before getting out of the parking lot. We were staying 22 minutes from the track without traffic and it took us well over an hour with traffic.
5. CHECK TRACK POLICIES AHEAD OF TIME. All four tracks I've been to have different policies regarding bags, what you can/can't bring in, spray sunscreen vs. plastic bottle sunscreen, water bottles, etc. Some allow you to bring coolers/backpacks (Laguna Seca) and some are very strict about what you can bring in (COTA). Check ahead of time so you're prepared. I used on of these belt bags from Cotopaxi for both Indy in Portland and F1 in Austin and it worked perfectly.
6. SEAT CUSHIONS. You'll be sitting in bleacher seats or on the grass, so a seat cushion is a great idea, if the venue allows. We used these ones and they were easy to carry and worked great.
F1/COTA TIPS
1. EXPECT EVEN MORE TRAFFIC/CROWDS. While Indy races do draw a crowd (the Indy 500 draws 325,000) it's NOTHING compared to F1. The 2024 Austin race was expected to draw 400,000+ people. Yes, they're spread out around the whole track, but it still greatly impacts traffic, wait times for concessions, bathrooms, etc. So. Many. People. While you're at it, get TSA PreCheck too because the airport the morning after the race is crazy!
2. EXPECT TO SPEND A LOT OF MONEY. Everything about F1 is exponentially more money. Ticket prices, parking, food/drinks, souvenirs..... exponentially more than any event I've ever been to. An F1 hat cost $110USD. A basic t-shirt cost $75USD. IndyCar merch was significantly less and more reasonable. Luckily we'd bought a lot of F1 merch ahead of time. There's a good selection of stuff on Amazon and Etsy. Also more expensive are hotels, airfare...literally everything. We were lucky to have a friend who lives in Austin to stay with!
3. BRING DRINKS/SNACKS IN YOUR CAR. At COTA, you can't bring in coolers or outside food/drink (other than one sealed water bottle per person)....but you can stock a cooler and leave it in your car. They DO allow re-entry, so on Saturday we packed drinks, lunch, etc. in our cooler. We walked back out to our car in between F1 events, cooled off in the air conditioned car, and ate our lunch. This was also helpful after the events were done for the day when we were waiting to get out of the lot. I got a little hangry (OK, a LOT hangry) on Friday when we weren't prepared.
4. YOU DON'T HAVE TO PARK AT THE TRACK (but it's definitely closer). Parking at the track was ridiculously expensive for three days. I could've had a parking pass for a year at a major university for what we paid to park for three days. Outside the gates, there are several farming fields that opened up their space for parking that was significantly less (closest one to COTA was $60, and less the further away you got). This does require significantly more walking, and makes going out to your car for a break significantly harder, though. They do have shuttles and rideshare options, but the track is out in the middle of nowhere and I'm sure that would be super expensive too. Plus those shuttles have to get through the traffic too.
Overall, we had a FANTASTIC time in Austin for the race! If you have any questions about our experience attending races, or just want to talk car racing, don't hesitate to comment or DM me on Instagram!
Happy Race Watching,
Lori Bree
