(Words and Photos by Brad Klaassen) Unless you’ve been hibernating through the winter under a rock, most of you know I love to shoot and write about drag racing. So, why were you at a race track that requires turning left and right to traverse the course you ask? Well, it’s really pretty simple. On our way down south last month to cover the IHRA’s Nitro Jam Race at San Antonio Raceway we came upon a strange looking but beautifully lit tower shining brightly along side the new Texas toll roll in the middle of nowhere just outside of Austin, TX. My wife Phyllis aka Bad PK asked me what we were looking at. At first I was clueless as usually until somewhere in the nether region of my brain I had stored some old track data about a new multi million dollar road race course that was built near Austin that had already held a couple of Formula 1 U.S. Grand Prix races and believe it or not I was right.
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So, after attending the IHRA Nitro Jam race at San Antonio Raceway and taking in an epic show, on our way back home this shooter had to make a stop of the Circuit of Americas just outside of Austin, TX to check it out. Here’s the only word I could come up with to describe this place when driving through the gate. WOW! After closing my gaping mouth after laying eyes on this place in person for the first time I grabbed my camera and was going to attempt to shoot some shots from behind a locked gate. About that time a gentlemen wearing a track uniform approached me to talk. I thought great, they don’t want me shooting this place. But, I couldn’t have been more wrong. The man turned out to be Gibb, a track tour guide, and told me for a mere $30 both me and bad PK could have a look see of the place and that there were also cars running on the track the day we were there. My response was sign us up!
Our Circuit of the Americas tour guide, Gibb, couldn’t have been nicer and possessed a wealth of knowledge about the track because he’s been working there since it opened. The brightly lit tower we had seen a couple of nights earlier was the 22 story observation tower at the track and Gibb took us to the top. Once elevated that high, the view was amazing and a shooters paradise. You could see the entire 1,500 acre facility and the 3 ½ mile road course with its 20+ turns in plain view, plus a great skyline view of nearby downtown Austin. The almost 5 billion dollar Taj Mahal of road race tracks is amazing. Our tour guide, Gibb, let me shoot to my hearts content and photographing race cars from 22 stories up proved just as amazing for me as the track tour itself. A drag racing tie in to this track also comes in the form of NHRA Funny Car driver Alexis DeJoria’s father John Paul Dejoria being an investor in the Circuit of the Americas.
So, I’ll readily admit drag racing will always be #1 for me, but attending an F1 race has been on my bucket list for a long time. And after taking a tour of the Circuit of the America’s track outside Austin, Texas, my dream is going to become a reality later this year because we’re going back to see the race for ourselves and can’t wait. So until then, see you at the drags. –Bad Brad
