I doubted that the huge taxpayer funding would survive the departure of former Texas governor Rick Perry. To put it into perspective, the U.S.G.P. got $25 million. The NASCAR Cup race at Ft. Worth gets $1 million. The X-Games in Austin get $1.5 million.
But how many international travellers drop in for NASCAR or the X thingummy? Domestic vacationers get counted under a different system - no foreign exchange earnings.
It can be cheaper than running big Texas tourism marketing campaigns in other countries - at least that's the way FOM sells it.
Shame though if we don't get another race in Austin, IMHO it's the best track that F1 has run on in the US - and that's including Indianapolis.
In fact I wish Silverstone would take note and create a f**king big hill, a la Austin, to break up the boredom of the Northampton flatlands.