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http://www.statesman.com/blogs/conte...eady_to_c.html

Ecclestone says he’s ready to cancel Austin’s F1 race

By American-Statesman staff | Wednesday, November 16, 2011, 12:22 PM

Formula One boss Bernie Ecclestone said he’s ready to cancel an F1 race planned for Austin next year and that he needs a guarantee or letter of credit that he will be paid from officials with Circuit of the Americas, according to the Press Association.

If a deal is not reached before the final World Motor Sport Council meeting on Dec. 7 in New Delhi, when the final 2012 schedule is officially ratified, Ecclestone said the race would be axed.

“Yes it will be, for sure, 100 percent,” Ecclestone told the Press Association, a British-based news organization.

Ecclestone today said a contract held by Full Throttle Productions for the rights to the race was canceled recently and that circuit organizers have been negotiating with him.

Developers stopped construction at the facility in southeast Travis County yesterday until a dispute over the contract is resolved. “The delivery of the Formula One Grand Prix race contract will allow construction operations to resume,” officials said in a statement.

Speaking for the investors group Tuesday, circuit investor Bobby Epstein said, “I don’t know why Formula One would want to kill this race. The money is in place; the project is on time. All COTA needs is for Formula One to convey the original contracts that were in place for a long time.”

The Press Association today reported that Ecclestone said: “We’ve done everything we bloody well can do to make this race happen.”

The American-Statesman has contacted circuit officials, who are expected to respond today.

According to the Press Association:

Explaining how the situation has spiralled, Ecclestone said: “We had an agreement with Full Throttle Productions.

“Everything was signed and sealed, but we kept putting things off like the dates, various letters of credit and things that should have been sent, but nothing ever happened.

“Then these other people (COTA) came on the scene, saying that they wanted to do things, but that they had problems with Tavo.

“They said they had the circuit, and that they wanted an agreement with me. I told them they had to sort out the contract with Tavo, which they said they would.

“But that has gone away now because we’ve cancelled Tavo’s contract as he was in breach.

“We’ve waited six months for him to remedy the breach. He knows full well why we’ve cancelled. He’s happy.

“But these other people haven’t got a contract. All we’ve asked them to do is get us a letter of credit.

“We are looking for security for money they are going to have to pay us. That is via a letter of credit, normally from a bank.

“If people don’t have the money they find it difficult to get the letter of credit, and so we don’t issue a contract.”

Texas Comptroller Susan Combs yesterday announced a change in plans to provide a $25 million a year in state financial incentives to the project, saying a first payment would not be made until after the initial F1 race is held as currently scheduled on Nov. 18, 2012. Previously, it was thought that the payment could be made at any point up to a year in advance of the race.

Combs has been a big supporter of the race since 2008, when Hellmund first pitched the idea to her.

Yesterday she introduced some doubt, citing “recently publicized disagreements between the race right holders and the circuit developers,” slowdowns at the Austin construction site and a potentially competitive F1 race recently awarded to New Jersey as reasons for concern.

Speaking shortly before the construction stoppage was announced, Combs said, “The State of Texas will not be paying any funds in advance of the event. Further, as is the case with all (Major Events Trust Fund) events, each application will be reviewed and analyzed for its likely economic impact, and only after the race occurs would any funds be disbursed.”

No state money has been spent on the F1 race project, Combs emphasized.