The battle between the Circuit of the Amercas and Tavo Hellmund – the original driving force behind the US GP in Austin – continues to rumble on.
COTA says that Hellmund committed himself and his companies to settling any disputes by arbitration. It quotes a partnership agreement as saying “any controversy, claim or dispute between or among the Company and any Member or among Members arising out of or relating to this Company Agreement or any other matters pertaining to the Company, shall be settled by binding arbitration.”
To that end, COTA says that it has “today filed with the District Court of Travis County, Texas, an amended plea in abatement and motion to compel arbitration.”
COTA has also agreed to release to the public information related to the dispute that had previously been sealed by the court.
Circuit Chairman Robert Epstein said: “Our intent from the beginning has been to resolve this matter efficiently through the agreed-upon binding arbitration process, and we feel that unsealing the court records moves us closer to this goal.”
COTA attorney Michael Whellan added: “We believe the facts made public through today’s filing strongly support our position that Mr. Hellmund’s claims and accusations—and his misrepresentations to Circuit representatives and the public about his ability to assign Formula 1 race contracts—only serve to undermine his case.
“We believe the tactics Mr. Hellmund and his legal team have employed to date are meant to purposely generate negative public sentiment about Circuit of The Americas in hopes of extracting a large settlement. Unfortunately, we do not expect these tactics to end anytime soon. Nonetheless, we are prepared to arbitrate this dispute as the parties have agreed to do in writing.”
Adam Cooper F1 
Gee good to see everything is normal in my Amerika, should have placed this race in Long Beach, Calif. Airports everywhere and a short distance from LB. There is more rooms within a walking distance from the track then needed. The food, well what can be said, long day at the track outside the hotel then walk to a great place to eat. Then there’s Hollyweird star power and Bernie could stop in on the daughter over in Beverly Hills to make sure she being pampered. Then there’s the Automotive world that has major design studios in Calli. Hell I bet Calif. corp. would be happy to pay the bill with no cost to Calif. or Long Beach, that’s if smart people handle the promo. Oh well may be we’ll have a race here in Amerika someday. Yes, I live in Northern Calif. but I would still watch it on TV and hopefully not fuax but Speed.
Sure, that’s what we need another boring street course. Have you even seen the CoTA? It’s going to be a first rate facility and America will be coming here to watch. Nobody cares about California, you’re falling off into the ocean (with debt)
I hope you are right that the race will be held in Austin. I also hope Tavo comes out with something to show for all that his done to get this off the ground.
Austin is a great town with a great attitude — and it’s a “can do” place. It has world class music, great food, and a strong appreciation of the technology at the core of F1. If the track ends up being as good as COTA and Tilke claim it will be, there’s a management team in place that is committed to making this work over the long term.
As a resident of both Austin and California, I have to say that the odds of getting an F1 race approved and running, in California, are about the same as convincing Bernie Ecclestone to become this decade’s Mother Teresa…
jo6pac… please leave the discussion to the folks with something intelligent to say. COTA is going to be greater than any long beach street circuit… and the people and the location is better too. The airport here is literally in COTA’s backyard. Anyhow… I do hope that this ends well for Tavo. Bobby Epstein is a real piece of you know what.
The dispute between Helmund and COTA has been going on for some time and, though surely an undesireable distraction for the promotion of the Austin circuit; at this point it doesn’t appear to have any effect on the circuit’s construction. And every time there’s a bit of news good or bad about CoTA someone is saying “why don’t they just have a race at ‘x’ (name the place)?” Well, because there aren’t any people who are willing to go negotiate with Bernie Ecclestone (as Helumnd did) for a venue and then come up with enough money to prepare a venue as well as pay the fee to have the circus come to town. And after having done that, suffer the slings and arrows of environmentals complaining that those smelly old race cars are going to kill a rare species of crickets that just happen to live on the site you’ve chosen for your race. If you are able to mollify the greenpeace wannbes, and prove that you don’t hate the ozone, there’s always the local politicos who are looking for a piece of the action and will do everything they can to keep your little race from happening until they do. When you consider how much Helumund was up against its not surprise that many (but not all) of the new venues in Formula One tend to appear in countries ruled by Dictators or Princes who not only have the means, but the ability to order something done and it is. I’ve never been a fan of Tony George, but after seeing the CoTA soap opera play out I can see how he was able to get the Grand Prix circuit built at IMS; he had sole control and he was playing with Hulman family money. No such luck in Austin, but it is getting done. And frankly if a bespoke Grand Prix circuit can’t get done in Texas it can’t get done anywhere in the United States.