MotoGP Austin

[oVTo]

My wife and I are in. Some suggestions I've gotten from locals are Manuel's Downtown for Mexican and the Elephant Room for jazz/blues/drinks. Both are close to the Congress Street Bridge if you want to see the bats. But we'll go anywhere. See all y'all at Bull McCabe's.

Dan and Jamie

[Expat]

Maybe, not sure of plans yet. Who is going to the track on Friday?

[Pittenger5]

Leeza just discovered this place, said it was freakin sweet!
http://24diner.com/

[pontifex]

Besides the racing I'm going for BBQ.

These are the places I plan on trying:
http://www.yelp.com/biz/snows-bbq-lexington
http://www.yelp.com/biz/smittys-market-lockhart
http://www.yelp.com/biz/blacks-barbecue-lockhart
http://www.yelp.com/biz/kreuz-market-lockhart

Based on what I have read about the length of the lines I'm not sure if I will make it to all.

I rented a car for Thursday to get BBQ. If anyone wants to join me they are welcome.

[oVTo]

We have an office in Austin so I asked some friends for restaurant advice, not necessarily for the Saturday night meeting. Here's what they said -

BBQ - Stubbs (already mentioned) or Ironworks
TexMex/Mexican - Iron Cactus - this was recommended as the only good TexMex downtown, named one of top ten tequila bars in the US.
TexMex outside of the downtown area - Chuy's (chain), Matt's El Rancho, Trudy's.

[Sheppo]

I just read they are stepping up security for this event and to plan on longer than usual times to get in and get around.

[pontifex]

I thought there was shuttle service from downtown to the track? Or was it only for F1?

[DucDave]

Still on... See some of you at 7:00 in Front of

Bull McCabes
714 Red River Street
Austin, TX 78701

[wheelieman14]

Have a Great Time Dave! Looking forward to watching MotoGP qualifying tonite on Speed at 9 pm.

[Pittenger5]

Not gonna make it tonight Dave, gotta do dinner with the parental and our neighbors. Hopefully we'll meet up at the track tomorrow.

[oVTo]

We're in. See you at 7.

[Tricky Mike]

We're going to try to make it but are running a little (a lot?) late.
I ended up getting guest-listed for that show at Stubbs, so we'll be there for a bit tonight.
So, where's the general Admission crowd watching from tomorrow? T1 looked dope, but it's likely to be a zoo. we might hang in t11 (?) that hairpin before the back straight... Open to suggestions.

[jwm2k3]

Good race.....man them Hondas have lots of power down the straights...211-212mph!!

[trider143]

Course looked great (as far as SPEED HD can show)!

[wookie]

Great track, great weather, great crowd, great races. Had an fantastic time and I have the sunburn to prove it. Awesome to see NERS in Texas.

[oVTo]

That was a great weekend! Nice to meet a few people I only knew from the forum until now. I hope we were the only ones to drive back up to Dallas. What a nightmare. 5.5+ hours.

[a13x]

I saw Richie & Leeza!

[Pittenger5]

I saw Alex and met Colin Sr.

Believe it or not, the two were related!

[a13x]

I saw Alex and met Colin Sr.

Believe it or not, the two were related!

heh. You also met a dude from NASA in that 5 minute span.

[DucDave]

Just got back home! What a trip!

We, (me, Gilly, and Hannah), got to Boston at 7:30 Thursday morning for our Flight to Dallas then connection to Austin. Flight was cancelled. While standing in line to figure out what our options were...they had booked us on the same flights Friday which we didn't really consider an option...I noticed a guy next to me who looked familiar! I leaned over, said, "I know you", and shook his hand! It took another 15 seconds before I blurted out, "John. John Owens!". To which he replied, "Batman"! Turns out we were able to rebook on Jet Blue to Dallas then John rented a car and we all drove to Austin! John and his son Chris were awesome and dropped us at our hotel around midnight!

We slept in on Friday then headed to the track around 11:00. Spent the day watching the various practices and walking the whole perimeter of the track trying to scope out where we wanted to be Sunday. Friday night we took a cab down town, watched the 'bats' which was really cool, and had a fine meal at Lamberts downtown.

Saturday we had a late breakfast at the hotel (Hilton Airport - nice and convenient) then headed to the track to watch qualifying and practice! Another beautiful day. We spend of of the time in the Grandstands at 15. Good view of of the back straight and the tight section of 12, 13, 14, and 15. Really loved watching the Rookies and Moto3 practices. Those 250 singles sounded awesome and the kids were inspired!

Back to the hotel to shower and change then off to 6th street and Bull McCabes. This is an Irish Pub according to John the passionate Futball player and owner! It reminded me more of any of the Bars in Key west! We met Mike (Tricky) and his brother Matt and Dan and Jamie. We hung out for an hour while Gilly got a Tat then Hannah, Mark (her cousin), Dan, Jamie, Gil and I went to dinner at The Iron Cactus!

Sunday we got to the track at 8:00 and were at T1 by 9:30. Stayed the whole day. Great racing. Moto1 and Moto2 were awesome to watch. And no doubt Marquez is going to make the season interesting even if most of the racing is a bit staid.

Great to see Kevin (Wookie) too after all these years! I told him if he ever found himself back at NHMS for a track day we'd find him a bike!

Sunday night Hannah, Gil and I went to a cool little Venue, The One World Theatre and saw Dan Hicks and His Hot Licks! Guys been around forever...clever and really entertaining.

Trip home was uneventful and we're already thinking about next year....!

[Pittenger5]

heh. You also met a dude from NASA in that 5 minute span.

Ha yah, that was some cool shit, I gotta take a trip to Houston someday.

Sucks I missed Dave, Tricky One and the Wookster though, disappointing. Didnt even think to get in touch with wookie ahead of time, and when I got home I had a PM from that morning trying to meet up. Sucks.

[jwm2k3]

The track looks amazing.....the race was boring as shit though.

[Pittenger5]

The track looks amazing.....the race was boring as shit though.

At least for once there was a battle for 1st, as opposed to someone running away with it and watching a battle for 3-4

[DucDave]

At least for once there was a battle for 1st, as opposed to someone running away with it and watching a battle for 3-4

Yeah...and it was cool seeing the next phenom win his first race at the first race at COTA. But the Red Bull Rookies, Moto2 and Moto3 were way more entertaining.

BTW, heard nothing about the two kids who were airlifted out. Taking that as a good sign that they're fine....

[Tricky Mike]

good times, good times. Great to see a handful of familiar faces. Good times on Sat night with Dave, Hannah, Dan, Gilly, etc. Track was great, weather was perfect, saw tons of live music, etc...

Ended in pretty nutty fashion for me too... My bro Matt woke up Sunday morning with food poisoning. I think he must have eaten Satan incarnate. Felt really bad for him. That slice of pizza on 6th street probably wasn't the best idea. It was the only thing he ate all weekend that I didn't eat too.

Hit some pretty crazy turbulence on the way home over NYC. I've flown enough to not get the least bit nervous until I see the veteran flight attendant get nervous. Well, we're still just over NYC and it gets pretty bad and I see the attendants looking real serious. Ok, still no big deal. Then the pilot comes on the PA and says "flight attendants prepare for landing." The fuck? Land?!? Where!?!?!?! It eventually smoothed out and we flew to Boston without issue, but that kind of scared the shit out of most of us on the plane. My guess is that he just wanted seat backs/tray tables ups, everything stowed, etc and "prepare for landing" is the easiest way to communicate that, but fockin' hell it got me a little riled up.

I may try to do Laguna next year just for something different.