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Originally posted by Kyle T
After a 5am flight, mammoth hangover then 2/3 of a day of work in Atlanta - I'm now back at a hotel so thought I'd do a bit of a write up of the weekend in case anybody is bothered. I may repeat a couple of pics.

It really was fantastic from start to finish, but I was actually struggling to get excited about it because of the 11hours of flying needed to get there and the fact I was leaving home again.

I was flying out to Texas on my own, but meeting an Atlanta work colleague (another British fella, Matt) sometime during FP3 on Saturday.

I landed on Friday night and checked into our Motel, absolute dive right on the interstate... but meh. We survived.

After checking in at around 8pm, my body was telling me it was 2am but I was detirmined to go walk downtown and scout out the shuttle pickup point for the morning. The walk was just under 2 miles, and had to traverse the famous "6th Street" which is where all the bars/clubs are and it was MENTAL on halloween. 30,000 people within a 3 block area apparently, heaving it was.

Found the shuttle pickup point, had a crappy burger then walked back - collapsing absolutely knackered.

Thanks to jet lag I was up at 5am, so got up and made the walk for the shuttle. Caught the very first shuttle at 7am and was at the circuit by 0730.

USA Grand Prix by Kyle Townend, on Flickr

Queued at the gates and was in within 2mins of gates opening. Legged it for the autograph sign-up area, the place which they were handing out 80x wristbands per team for an opportunity to go on stage and have your shit signed by the drivers of "your" team. I of course queued for Mercedes but they ran out when I was about 50 people back. I made a ninja switch to Williams, then they ran out when I was about 10 away so then ninja switched to McLaren and they ran out about 3 people ahead of me

I shrugged it off and went for a beer and a kebab... at 0830

I cut across the track over a bridge and got to T1 first. I really liked the look of the GA grass bank here as it had a clear view all the way down the pit lane, right up to T1, down to T2 and then you could see the T18-19 section at the back of the track too. I watched the Ferrari Challenge cars do qualifying from T1, saw some very red brakes and one of the cars dropped it on turn-in and ended up facing the wrong way. Lovely sounding cars though but almost a minute slower than the F1 laps!

USA Grand Prix by Kyle Townend, on Flickr

USA Grand Prix by Kyle Townend, on Flickr

There was one other spot I fancied on T19 so went round there to watch FP3.

FP3 was my first experience of the 2014 cars in the flesh, and I really liked the way they sounded. The V8s were much louder, but they lacked the character that these new hybrids have - lots more subtleties can be picked up and there is a clear difference between the Ferrari sound and the Renault/Mercedes sound. I could also hear the commentary and hold conversations with the people sat close to me.

The T19 spot was good, saw the quite high speed exit of T19 and the cars were all loose on the exit of 19 - with a few (including Alonso) having scary looking moments on the way down to 20.

There would be however minimal overtaking opportunities and the amount of track I could see was relatively small.

USA Grand Prix by Kyle Townend, on Flickr

USA Grand Prix by Kyle Townend, on Flickr

Matt arrived during FP3 so we sat through the rest of the session and Matt was suitably impressed (his first Grand Prix). Beer money count at this point was already $50 and I wasn't even merry... criminals!

I'd walked about half of the track at this point, so we decided to check out the (long) back straight and complete my circuit. Grabbed a hot dog on the way.

There was a good spot at the fair end hairpin which we watched the Porsches from for a bit.

USA Grand Prix by Kyle Townend, on Flickr

USA Grand Prix by Kyle Townend, on Flickr

Ultimately we both decided that T1 was the place to be, so we settled in for Quali.

Qualifying was good, Lewis most definitely getting the lions share of the cheers/shouts - with Ricciardo and Alonso close behind. No Booing though for any driver, which was nice.

Nico smashed it, really good lap - didn't see/notice any of Lewis' locking up problems but really didn't bother me too much - I had confidence in Lewis for Sunday.

USA Grand Prix by Kyle Townend, on Flickr

USA Grand Prix by Kyle Townend, on Flickr

USA Grand Prix by Kyle Townend, on Flickr

USA Grand Prix by Kyle Townend, on Flickr

Went to check out some of the local culture next:

USA Grand Prix by Kyle Townend, on Flickr

I mentioned the on-stage autograph signing earlier, but we decided to go to the stage anyway to try and get some photos. To our amazement the crowds weren't too bad, the group of people at the front was only about 4-5 rows deep, so we stood in position about 10-15feet from the stage just in time for Ricciardo to come out:

USA Grand Prix by Kyle Townend, on Flickr

He did a quick Q&A, then sat down to sign the autographs for the wristband "winners" for RBR. After he chewed through them, he stood up at the front and through a few signed postcards into the crowd. Nothing came our way.

One of my real F1 heroes was also on stage whilst Ricciardo was throwing things around. He was live filming Ted's Notebook, I've watched the footage back on a stream and Pete pans across us - but we're too blurry to see if paused.

USA Grand Prix by Kyle Townend, on Flickr

Lewis and Nico were due out next, but not for half an hour or so. The crowd was steadily building behind us so we stayed put. Nico eventually came out first, and same as Ricciardo did his Q&A before signing stuff for the wristbanders.

That's the killer look of confidence for somebody about to go lights to flag in P1

USA Grand Prix by Kyle Townend, on Flickr

Nico got down off the stage, and started signing stuff IN the audience. Pretty cool, but these racing drivers really are short and I couldn't see anything other than the top of his stetzen bobbing around.

My boy came out next, looking relaxed and confident.

USA Grand Prix by Kyle Townend, on Flickr

Took his shades of which everybody knows means he is in a happy bubble.

USA Grand Prix by Kyle Townend, on Flickr

Lewis went on to do his autographs, then as Nico did before him he clambered down into the crowd - right in front of us at the right side of the stage and started slowly moving left. He moved past our "section" and I had no chance of getting close to him.

As Lewis continued on, Kevin and Jenson came out - they were handed their stetsons and in turn threw their baseball caps into the crowd. Kevs' went far left - but Jensons came right towards me, I leaped up - took an elbow in the face and got my right hand on the hat, but another lad had two firm grips on it so I let him have it. Matt commented on how close I was, but believe me I would have beaten the kid to death if it was Lewis' hat.

USA Grand Prix by Kyle Townend, on Flickr

We backed off to get out of the heaving crowd, and stood back in the sun a bit. Lewis kept plodding along - he must have done a couple hundred autographs over 45mins... The McLaren boys came and went and Lewis was still at it. I didn't realise it, but the little pathway he was in extended really far left - and the crowd was really thin there so I waddled over and found myself about a foot away from Lewis - thrust my hat out towards him and he grabbed it, scribbled an almost perfect signature (compared to the stitched one already on the hat) and handed it back. Shocked I said "thanks for that mate" and he looked me in the eye, half nodded and said "no worries fella". LEWIS TALKED TO ME

Like a schoolgirl a skipped back to Matt and I never thought I would be so happy about an autograph

We headed back to the shuttle, and I got a picture of my new favourite thing:

USA Grand Prix by Kyle Townend, on Flickr

Back in Downtown Austin, we popped into the Hilton. I'd clocked it in the morning on my walk, and the McLaren and Williams team were clearly staying there based on the livery splashed all over the place... oh this gave it away too!

USA Grand Prix by Kyle Townend, on Flickr

COTA put on a festival event type thing on downtown, was pretty good - loads of live music. Got a tweet from COTA at 190 saying that Lewis was about to pop on stage to do some more autographs!

Had a look around the various stands, took some photos then found food.

USA Grand Prix by Kyle Townend, on Flickr

USA Grand Prix by Kyle Townend, on Flickr

Don't tell Chris_UK what brakes Williams are using:

USA Grand Prix by Kyle Townend, on Flickr

ECTO1 was also knocking around:
USA Grand Prix by Kyle Townend, on Flickr

After food, walked past a resteraunt and Matt LeBlanc came wandering out with two mates. Clearly he was hiding in plain sight, typical Joey roll neck jumper thingy on Didn't get chance to get a photo, as he vanished off into the restaraunt.

Got a cab back to the Motel, fucked.

Up again at 6 this time, but clocks went back to gift another hour in bed.

We figured out the bus timetable and so for the cost of $1 saved the 45min walk to the shuttle. Met a local F1 fan Blaine on the bus, who we would spent the rest of the day with.

Blaine also intended to watch from T1, so we all headed up to an already heaving grass stand. We got a cracking spot though, so just sat for a bit and enjoyed the scenery.

USA Grand Prix by Kyle Townend, on Flickr

USA Grand Prix by Kyle Townend, on Flickr

Ferrari race was on before we knew it, absolute carnage and only did about 2 racing laps - rest were under the SC

USA Grand Prix by Kyle Townend, on Flickr

USA Grand Prix by Kyle Townend, on Flickr

Porsche race was much cleaner, some great battles all down the field and we saw some cracking overtakes into T2. The inside line up T1 rarely worked, but led to some great counter moves on the switchback down into T2.

USA Grand Prix by Kyle Townend, on Flickr

Drivers' parade next, love you Lewis

USA Grand Prix by Kyle Townend, on Flickr

Our view looked right over the infield and we could see the stadium section, where Lewis and Nico got out to throw some hats around:

USA Grand Prix by Kyle Townend, on Flickr

Martin Brundle is in there somewhere

USA Grand Prix by Kyle Townend, on Flickr

Navy skydivers were bloody epic, not sure if they got any TV coverage. Whole crowd was chanting USA USA USA. Good stuff

USA Grand Prix by Kyle Townend, on Flickr

USA Grand Prix by Kyle Townend, on Flickr

Spotted some dedicated brits, they had their GP history listed on Tshirts and a rather fetching tatt.

USA Grand Prix by Kyle Townend, on Flickr

Time for some nerves:
USA Grand Prix by Kyle Townend, on Flickr

The first stint Lewis was just about hanging on, had a lad in front of us running the live timing app and sharing the deltas which was much appreciated. Lewis let the gap drop a little bit on the run up to the pits, so no Hammertime this time around.

After the pits Lewis looked like he was in a different car, attacking the T1 apex much more and you could visibly see him rotating the car through the corner more than Nico who seemed to be taking a more conservative route of not steering so much with the gas.

This is about as close as we saw them, then a few seconds later the crowd erupted as Lewis nailed Nico down the other end of the circuit

USA Grand Prix by Kyle Townend, on Flickr

USA Grand Prix by Kyle Townend, on Flickr

Was no drama from our perspective after that, but some cracking racing down the field. The T1/T2 section had some excellent wheel to wheel stuff, really did seem like we had the best seats in the house.

USA Grand Prix by Kyle Townend, on Flickr

USA Grand Prix by Kyle Townend, on Flickr

After Lewis took the flag, elated we just sat and baked for a bit in the sun. The track invasion started but it was really quite horrible compared to Spa/Monza as there only seemed to be one entrance on the whole track We waited for the crowds to thin and then we headed down.

USA Grand Prix by Kyle Townend, on Flickr

Walked along the pit wall a bit, and had a look into each of the garages before getting to the crowded Merc garage. The team were just getting together for the victory photo and the Sky/BBC crews were all getting ready.

Said "Eyup DC" and I got a nod and a wave back. Eddie Jordan was pacing up and down next to a container mouthing stuff to himself.

Suzi Perry looked alright.

USA Grand Prix by Kyle Townend, on Flickr

I thought this was as close as I'd get to Johnny Herbert and Simon Lazenby...

USA Grand Prix by Kyle Townend, on Flickr

A Merc mechanic (called Kyle) came out and gave a few of us a can of Monster. Minging stuff, left it at the Motel

USA Grand Prix by Kyle Townend, on Flickr

Our view of the team photo was horrible...

USA Grand Prix by Kyle Townend, on Flickr

Lewis came to see us, and had a wave. Good lad

USA Grand Prix by Kyle Townend, on Flickr

Just as we were about to head off, Matt pointed out the backpack aerials of a camerman bobbing up and down in the crowd. I snuck in, and it was only a Sky camera man and Johnny Herbert, soon to be joined by Bruno Senna... and me!!

This is what being on TV looks like:

USA Grand Prix by Kyle Townend, on Flickr

Now then Johnny
USA Grand Prix by Kyle Townend, on Flickr

Sure enough, cracked it

USA Grand Prix by Kyle Townend, on Flickr

Security wanted us off track, so we headed back to the shuttle. One more shot of the timing board.

USA Grand Prix by Kyle Townend, on Flickr

Shuttle queue was insane, took us ages to get back - but once back Downtown we headed into the sports bar right opposite the shuttle drop-off.

Sat round the back, and found ourselves right next to three Sky Sports crew members.

I toddled over, said hello and asked if they wanted a drink. After some encouragement they obliged and I sat and asked them all sorts of geeky questions - it was great. After a couple of minutes, across the bar - Damon Hill, his son Josh and Simon Lazenby walked in. I asked the Sky Sports crewmembers if Damon would be likely to get pissed off if I went to say hello and they said "of course not, he loves it" - so off I went.

Introduced myself, apologised for interupting and just said that I was a huge fan of the Sky coverage - watch all the features every single weekend and I think they're doing a cracking job. Simon seemed to like that, so photo time happend

USA Grand Prix by Kyle Townend, on Flickr

How's that, a bloody WDC stood right with me.

I went round back to the Sky crew and we continued the conversation. We talked for about an hour, bought each other a few rounds and just had a really good talk - about the sport, the venues, the sound of the V6s (they all love the new sounds). All three guys were camera men, you can recognise one from the grid and the only Sky camera man absent was Pete, Ted's Notebook buddy.

I asked them about Ted, said I loved his features and they dropped him a text for me - but he didn't come out to play

Johnny Herbert walked in and stood with Damon and Simon, I had explained to the cameraman who was on the grid that I was part of the surging crowd and so he went to go tell Johnny. Johnny came round, shook my hand and we did introductions. I apologised for my part in pushing him around the grid, but he said it's his fault for being so small

The camerman had a marker pen, as you do - so handed it to Johnny and he signed his half full pint glass, and told me to take it when he left. He also signed my Mercedes shirt

image by Kyle Townend, on Flickr

Simon and Damon popped back round, said they were off to "the piano place" and that they would meet Johnny there. A few mins later, Johnny left - not before we had a group shot:

USA Grand Prix by Kyle Townend, on Flickr

Johnny said - check out the piano bar on 6th street, and off he went.

We finished up with the camera crew, two were ex-FOM so had some fascinating stories. Really enjoyable night with them.

Matt and I headed out, and couldn't resist finding this piano bar. We found it after 10mins or so, paid $5 to get in and sure enough the place was fucking empty

Went for a piss, came back into the bar and decided to at least have a couple of beers. There must have been 5 people in there max.

Just sat down at a table, looked over Matts shoulder and Daniel Ricciardo and his partner Jemma walked in could not believe my luck.

Went over for a chat, offered to buy them a drink but they declined. Daniel asked me how my weekend had gone, he said "obviously you're a Mercedes dickhead but do you follow a driver or the team?" Explained I was a Lewis fanboy but I (honestly) said I classed him alongside Lewis and Alonso any day. He seemed to like that.

I had a photo, then talked to Jemma for a bit. She's a low-profile girlfriend and also does some of his managerial work. I had an interesting chat to them about the RBR deal and the build-up to that, and I asked if he still see's much of Webber. Daniel just said quite coldly, "Mark offered me a bit of guidance once but I don't really see him anymore". I sensed tension and I plan on selling that to the Daily Mail.

Extremely friendly guy, very funny - and was drinking beer! These driver weight limits can't be so bad.

USA Grand Prix by Kyle Townend, on Flickr

Had a few more drinks, then was just about to head out when Graham Lowden walked in - so bugger it, went to talk to him too!

He said they were trying their best to get Marussia back on track - and we talked about Jules but he said the same as the news. I wished them the best of luck, got the photo then decided it was time for off.

USA Grand Prix by Kyle Townend, on Flickr

Got back to the hotel, plugged my phone in to find on Facebook that I'd been spotted on Sky by a few people. Topped off an absolutely amazing weekend. Not sure how it could have gone any better!

Austin is a fantastic venue for F1, and it's got the perfect mix of diehard fans (mainly from Europe) and people just going to "check it out". I think that's how I lucked into a bit of exposure with DR and the Sky guys, as they're not quite household names and so could just wander around only being disturbed by me

The Sky team really made my night, had some cracking conversations and talked/joked with Johnny as if he was any other punter.

Bring on Hungary 2015

[Edited on 04-11-2014 by Kyle T]

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Originally posted by Kyle T
Ben I'm sure your phone will have cached the images by now

Please just let me keep reliving that weekend for one more page?

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