Combs enthusiastic about F1 after watching British Grand Prix

About the only thing state Comptroller Susan Combs didn't like about her recent trip to England and the British Grand Prix was the 300,000 frequent flier miles it cost her and husband Joe Duran to get there and back.

"We're still in a grieving process," Combs joked.

A little less than two weeks ago, Combs and Duran, at their own expense, took a six-day vacation to London and Silverstone, a storied racing circuit about 70 miles north of London. She was on the track's starting grid, chatting with Formula One boss Bernie Ecclestone , until three minutes before the start of the race.

Combs, along with promoter Tavo Hellmund, has been instrumental in Austin securing the U.S. Grand Prix for 2012 and beyond. Combs said she was even more encouraged about the project after seeing her first F1 race and meeting with Ecclestone.

"He couldn't have been nicer," Combs said. "He's really excited about the project. He has known Tavo for a long time. He likes him. He wants this to work."

Combs said she expects a U.S. Grand Prix to have an annual economic impact of $300 million for Texas. The state has pledged to put up $25 million in public funds annually for 10 years to pay the sanctioning fees for the race, which is being promoted by Hellmund's Full Throttle Productions.

The first year's amount has already been appropriated; in subsequent years, it will come out of the Texas Major Events Trust Fund, which will use money generated in sales and other taxes by the previous year's race.

State records show Combs has met with Hellmund more than 20 times since he first approached her about the project more than two years ago.

"What a serendipitous moment," Combs said. "He came to me because of my job."

What Hellmund may not have known was that Combs was already a racing enthusiast, having followed it, in a fashion, for more than three decades.

Her husband is a computer scientist who used to race cars in the 1960s and is intrigued by the technological aspect of the sport.

Not long after the Texas F1 deal was announced in May, Combs said, she decided that they should see an F1 Grand Prix. The closest one to Austin — Montreal in June — didn't work because of a scheduling conflict.

The British Grand Prix, meanwhile, looked intriguing. The Silverstone circuit is old and famous; it was the site of the first F1 Grand Prix in 1950 and has hosted most of the British Grand Prix races since then. The area is also home to some of the spinoff businesses that have been spawned by F1 racing.

The British Grand Prix remains one of F1's showcase events. This year the attendance for the three-day weekend was estimated at slightly more than 300,000, with 115,000 ticketed fans on hand for the Sunday race, which was won by driver Mark Webber of the Red Bull team.

One of the first things that struck Combs at Silverstone was the 3.666-mile circuit, which was upgraded and lengthened in the past year.

"It's huge. It's spacious, and it's green," Combs said. "This is not a concrete jungle. It is very respectful of the terrain."

Combs also took note of the crowd demographics.

"I did not see this as a guy's deal. It was a people's deal," Combs said.

She said she saw people of all ages and families, not the jet-setters of F1 stereotype. Recently Ecclestone said that he would like to have two Grand Prix stops in the U.S. and that talks were still going on with some other U.S. sites and cities.

Combs said she would be "very surprised" if F1 put another race in the U.S. and said even if that happened, it would not affect the Texas race.

"This site is the U.S. Grand Prix, and it's in Austin, Texas," Combs said. She added that people at Silverstone "were wildly enthusiastic about there being a U.S. Grand Prix."

There are currently 19 races on the F1 calendar, eight of them in Europe. Earlier this month, at a fan forum in London, influential McLaren team boss Martin Whitmarsh said, "I don't think we should go more than 20 races."

An F1 stop in India is being added next year. There are three sites under consideration in Russia, which could host a race as early as 2012. In the wake of success of the recent World Cup, Ecclestone has said that South Africa could also be an attractive site.

With all those potential sites in play, something might have to give.

"The Europeans are going to have to pay more money or we will have to go somewhere else," Ecclestone was quoted as saying on various racing websites Monday.