America's only purpose-built Formula 1 circuit rose from Texas ranchland and gave the sport its permanent US home. Circuit of The Americas at 9201 Circuit of the Americas Boulevard, southeast of Austin near the airport, officially opened on 21 October 2012 with Mario Andretti lapping the track in the Lotus 79 he drove to the 1978 world championship; four weeks later, on 18 November 2012, a capacity crowd of 117,429 watched Lewis Hamilton win the inaugural United States Grand Prix at the new facility - the first F1 race on American soil since 2007. The Grade 1 FIA circuit runs 3.426 miles through twenty corners designed by Hermann Tilke's office with HKS, its signature the 133-foot climb into the blind left-hander of Turn 1 and the sequence of esses modelled on Silverstone's Maggotts-Becketts complex. The 330-plus-acre campus was built as a year-round entertainment property: the 251-foot observation tower over the main straight, the Miro Rivera-designed Grand Plaza and main grandstand, and the amphitheatre at the tower's base - opened in April 2013 with Kenny Chesney as the Austin360 Amphitheater, renamed Germania Insurance Amphitheater in 2020 - which seats up to 14,000 and ranks among the largest permanent outdoor concert venues in Texas, drawing headliners from the Rolling Stones to Willie Nelson between race weekends. The racing calendar has stacked championships since: MotoGP's Grand Prix of the Americas annually from 2013, NASCAR Cup Series races from 2021, IndyCar, IMSA and World Endurance Championship rounds, and the F1 US Grand Prix every fall - the 2021 edition drew a then-record 400,000 race-weekend attendance as Netflix-era American F1 fandom exploded. Karting, driving experiences, the COTA Karting track and a trackside amusement area operate year-round. Twenty minutes from downtown Austin, the circuit has become the anchor of the city's October - a purpose-built piece of world sporting infrastructure that turned a Texas capital into a Grand Prix town, with the amphitheatre making it a concert destination the other eleven months.

Type: Stadium / Arena

Address: 9201 Circuit of the Americas Blvd, Austin, TX, United States, 78617

Website: https://circuitoftheamericas.com

Capacity: 120000

Opening Date: 21/10/2012

Serves Food

Outdoor Area

Accessible