avlis

Are good tickets still available? Hotels? Or should I wait until next year and plan earlier?

trench

Both should still be available.

Tickets are available on-line at: www.grandprix.ca I've sat in the silver grandstands down by the hairpin in the past. But I'm taking my GF to her first GP so I thought she'd like to sit down by the Senna S's for the big crash. This year we're sitting in #11 - but I noticed that this one is sold out now.

Last year I waited until maybe late April/early May and was still able to get pretty good tickets in the hairpin. By the way, there were more grandstands available last year than are currently on the map, I think they'll add more next year. With regard to hotels, last year I stayed with a friend and out of the blue his parents showed up the same weekend. I thought they were going to be screwed when it came to finding a hotel room, but surprisingly they were able to find a pretty nice hotel room in an out of the way type place. This year I'm going with a tour group, which is nice for me because I'm lazy and don't have to make any arrangements myself - it's a little more expensive, but there are some perks such as a ****tail party with an F1 driver. The driver's usually a backmarker, but I've been with this tour group before and met Hakkinnen when he drove for Lotus.

Cheers, BT

PS: Hey, do you have any of those floor-jack adaptors left?

avlis

It'd be the first time for the wife and I. If I go I think I'll get he bronze tickets.

Before I decide; what's the deal with the 3-day ticket? What goes on the other 2 days? If I'm only interested in race-day and get a general admission ticket, where would we end up sitting?

trench

I cannot recommend the general admission tickets at Montreal, the problem being that you won't be able to see for crap. Unless you go really early and stake out one of the few places there's a gap in the fencing. When I first went to Montreal in 1991, general admission would have been a viable option. For this weekend, I only sat in my seat for the race itself, while spending Friday and Saturday walking around and taking pictures of cars in the various turns, as there were a number of spots with good vantage points. However, when I went again last year most of these vantage points no longer existed. There was much more signage around the track itself, plus the overall access wasn't nearly as good. Apparantly, in the intervening years the organizers discovered that they could bleed more money out of the race-goer by making them pay for seats. If I were to sit in a Bronze grandstand I'd go with #33, that looks like an interesting corner to me. Plus there are big screen TVs by most of the grandstands so you can see what happens elsewhere on the track. Last year there was also a bronze grandstand just past silver #24 plus another bronze at the chicane before the start/finish, I don't know if they're going to add more later or what (maybe they add these as the others sell out).

Here's what happens on the other two days.
Friday morning: F1 practice session
Friday afternoon (early): first part of the F1 qualifying session
Friday afternoon (late): supporting event practice/qualifying
Saturday morning: F1 practice session
Saturday afternoon (early): second part of F1 qualifying, single car qualifing where they go the opposite order of the Friday results (fastest on Friday goes last on Saturday)
Saturday afternoon (late): supporting event qualifying/race

The other two days usually have good F1 racing (especially qualifying), plus the city of Montreal is a blast during the GP. Car companies close off entire streets that weekend for giant parties that last all day and night. The two best last year were Honda (next to Villenuve's club) and Jag (closer to McGill).

Cheers, BT