Yet another F1 track for Central Texas?

Car enthusiasts might want to keep an eye on Rockdale, where an ambitious plan was recently announced.

In October developers Velocita Holdings Inc. signed a letter of intent to evaluate the purchase of 11,000 acres owned by Alcoa. Velocita wants to build a self-sustaining NexGen community for green research. Central to that plan is the “largest motorsports facility in the world," with everything from state-of-the-art wind tunnels to a variety of tracks.

According to Velocita literature those would include an F1 grade test track and designs and layouts would be done by Emerson Fittipaldi and Tilke GmbH, the German firm that is designing the F1 circuit for the proposed U.S. Grand Prix in Austin.

Fittipaldi twice won the F1 Drivers’ Championship and also won the Indianapolis 500 two times. Fittipaldi has been involved in ethanol production in Brazil. He’s listed as one of Velocita’s team members.

However, on a recent visit to Austin, Tilke managing partner Peter Wahl said of Velocita, “This name is not known to me…I would be happy to have the contract there, but we haven’t. And we haven’t even heard about it." The Statesman

[Editor's Note: This is typical Bernie Ecclestone shenanigans where he always makes a race promoter think there is another option for a race. This 'fake' threat ensures that the Austin government officials approve all the plans for their F1 track in an expedited manner because the threat exists that the race could move elsewhere if they make life difficult. Say what you might about Bernie, he is one shrewd customer. Like any good used car salesman (Bernie's former profession) he'll fleece your pockets faster than you can sneeze.]