Overall it was a great experience. Just hearing the bikes coming round the track makes the hair on the back of your neck stand up. These guys are just amazing to watch.
We really liked Austin as a base, walked pretty much everywhere. The people were very friendly, a nice vibe to it. Lots of green open space along the Colorado in the city centre. Found a couple of bars on 6th street (east side) which were very boisterous! Our preference was 4th and 5th street on the West side, the volume had been turned down a tad for us old folk!
Since I've now been I'll answer my own question regards getting to the track just to help anyone else that goes. The track layout is amazing. Very good views from pretty much anywhere. Just standing on the grass at turn one is a great experience. I had seats in T15 stand which were excellent. Go up to row 16 plus so you have a view over the catch fence. Food and drink at the track is abundant but expensive. At least you can get something to get you through the day. Toilets were generally OK and easily available. They had lots of other stuff on at the track all day, every day. Even wrestling! There are no shuttle buses available for MotoGP from Austin. There is no public transport that goes to the circuit. The only option for us, staying in downtown Austin, was to hire a car and drive. The traffic was not too bad. The journey took 30 mins on the Saturday for qualifying and an extra 20 minutes on the Sunday. Note - most of this extra delay was due to Austin holding its annual marathon run on the same day (why would you do that!) . Lots of the roads in Austin city centre were closed for the marathon, so it was difficult actually getting out of town on the morning of the race. Once out the drive to the circuit was not too bad. Traffic was quite well organised at the track. I decided the official parking for 3 days ($300!!) was ridiculous. I opted for a private spot on the south of the circuit. Just outside Lot T, there are several much cheaper private options. From these, you walk directly into Lot T with a 15 minute walk to turn 1. They were about a 10th of the price. The one I picked even had the facility to pre book and pre pay. The other benefit with these parking spots is you walk past all the queues of cars waiting to exit Lot T, get into your car, and leave. It worked great. They even put free food and drink on for people parking there. Donations accepted.
Overall its a great place to see a MotoGP event, BUT, Austin is very expensive. Hotels, food, drinks everything is very expensive. Especially if coming from the UK and the exchange rate is poor. In down town you could pay $30 for two draft beers (inc service charge).
Our biggest disappointment? We'd booked because we wanted to see Marc Marquez win after all he's been through (don't hate me!). Him not even being there was a poor start. So for the Sat sprint race I was cheering on Fabio and the wife wanted Alex Marquez for the win. That obviously didn't pan out well! I'd spent a bit of time chatting with Jake coming of the plane about his new family so was really looking forward to him racing well. Oh dear. I think the riders would be willing to pay not to have a picture taken with me next time.
Oddly the biggest cheer from the American fans came when Pecco went down. Not sure what he's done to the Americans but he's not well liked.
Overall a great place and easy to watch a MotoGP event there.
Think I'm going to need to book for Sachsenring.
