Lone Star Le Mans: World Endurance Championship
September 2026 Monthly Adventure
Austin is uniquely positioned to host major international racing events thanks to Circuit of the Americas (COTA) being located just at the edge of the city. Racing events require time, money, and a lot of sunscreen, which means I'm usually not going to COTA for a major event. However, I got an email from COTA about the Lone Star Le Mans a couple of months ago and decided it might be worth checking out.
Background
If you previously read my blog post from last year about going to Circuit of the Americas to experience a ride-along with a professional driver, then you know I love fast cars and motorsports. Back in 2018 when F1 weekend at COTA was roughly half the price it is these days for a 3-day general admission ticket, I bought a weekend ticket and only went to the concerts because I was a busy college student that could only go to the evening shows for Bruno Mars and Britney Spears. That ticket purchase meant that I was officially signed up for marketing emails from COTA and I have been checking those when they come to my inbox ever since.
This year, I happened to pay closer attention to the title of an event called Lone Star Le Mans which is hosted annually at COTA. This World Endurance Championship (WEC) race sounded familiar and I realized it was because I learned about Le Mans -- a 24-hour endurance race in France -- earlier this year when I watched F1 (2025) on Apple TV. Although it was briefly mentioned in the film, I immediately searched the internet for more information about it and knew it was an event I wanted to watch. Little did I know that a few months later I would have an opportunity to experience the 6-hour version right in my own city's backyard. Seeing that the WEC race would be taking place over Labor Day weekend and would give me Monday to recover, I knew I had to take a day to experience Lone Star Le Mans!
Tickets
If you are planning to spend the whole weekend at Lone Star Le Mans and plan to pay to park in an on-site lot, you can complete the entire transaction through the COTA website via their integrated Ticketmaster marketplace. If you only need a single-day ticket like I did, you have to go through the main Ticketmaster website to complete your purchase. However, you still have to go through the COTA website to purchase parking. All parking must be purchased in advance. That all being said, tickets for parking and the WEC Lone Star Le Mans event were cheaper than I expected given the high cost of other FIA-regulated events like F1.
All tickets are general admission and give you access to all but a few areas of The Circuit. My single-day ticket was about $68 with all the taxes and fees included. Parking was about $45 with all the taxes and fees included and that's because I chose to park in Lot C which is the new parking garage at COTA. It was hot all weekend and I determined that parking in a garage on a 100 degree day just across from the venue entrance was worth the extra $10-$20 compared to the prices of other lots. It certainly felt justified as the end of my 8 hours at The Circuit came to a close and I was just ready to get home as quickly as possible to shower and relax.
Parking
There are a handful of onsite parking lots that require purchasing a ticket in advance to be able to park at Circuit of the Americas. The prices vary depending on the lot location and type. For example, there was a lot that was just under $30 and it was just a standard, open-air parking lot. There is also a new parking garage at COTA that was about $45 and situated directly across from the entrance for all the attendees. I opted to pay for the convenience of the parking garage which provided cover for my car on a hot day and gave me the shortest walk to my car. I preferred the garage because I would be leaving COTA by myself just as it was starting to get dark outside and wanted the shortest possible trek back to my car. I also found multiple recommendations on Reddit for Lot C (the parking garage) and those proved to be very helpful.
My Lone Star Le Mans Experience
The Lone Star Le Mans was a very enjoyable experience and it was only possible with some careful planning. To get through the day, I made sure to have the following items on hand while at Circuit of the Americas:
Small backpack
Reusable water bottle
Sunscreen
Bucket hat
Sunglasses
Portable personal fan
Other people brought camping chairs, umbrellas, and other items to help them keep cool, comfortable, and organized. I would not recommend bringing a lithium ion battery as a way to charge your phone. It is far too hot outside (even in the shade) and those devices will overheat. My phone on its own was overheating and I barely used it while keeping it in in low power mode the entire time I was at COTA.
With those insights in mind about how I prepared for attending Lone Star Le Mans, here are the other key details to know about my race day experience.
Activities and Brand Activations
Lone Star Le Mans featured family-friendly activities all weekend such as driver autograph signings, giveaways, a car parade, and more. When I arrived late Sunday morning ahead of the race, I walked in and immediately gravitated towards team and brand activations for automakers with teams competing that afternoon. Teams like Ford, Toyota, Cadillac, BMW, and Porsche had vehicles to check out, team merchandise to sell, and even simulation games to play.
As I slowly made my way towards the grandstands, I realized I was missing the exotic car parade and happened upon the area where the cars were parking as the parade concluded. I watched many of the drivers of these cars struggle to back into the parking spot that they were being directed towards, and many people clamoring around the more unique supercars as soon as they were parked. In general, I'm less impressed by the designs of exotic cars, but there are a few that will always catch my eye: Lotus, Ferrari, and Aston Martin. Lucky for me, all three were featured in this parade and they were beautiful!
Food & Drink
There are numerous food and drink options available at Circuit of the Americas -- most of which are local businesses. After checking out the team activations, I began to make my way towards the track and immediately came across a Fage brand activation trailer serving up free samples of Greek yogurt with honey and pomegranate seeds. Fage is a major sponsor of Lone Star Le Mans and they were also giving away swag items. Some people received clear stadium bags at one point, but I walked up during the time when they were handing out free embroidered crewneck sweaters. Pretty ironic to give out free sweaters on a day with humidity and feels like temperatures of over 100 degrees, but I decided to take one anyway because it was free and I could always find use for it in the future. It came in handy about an hour later when it began to rain at the conclusion of the exotic car parade and I needed to dry off.
Just to the right of the Fage trailer was a large tent with plenty of seating and space available for those who brought their own camping chairs to hang out. That was a location featuring several food and drink options available for purchase. There were similar tents offering a full bar in other areas of COTA along with various concession booths and carts that had the classics such as hot dogs, soft pretzels, and kettle corn. COTA also had some food trucks behind the grandstands featuring items like ice cream, corn dogs, and Brazilian-style cooked meats. I decided to get a personal size pepperoni pizza from Austin's Pizza at the grandstand concessions and went to the Austin Scoops ice cream food truck directly across from it because I saw they had flavored lemonade and a watermelon lemonade was calling my name!
The WEC Lone Star Le Mans Race
I want to make it very clear that I knew absolutely nothing about endurance racing prior to attending the WEC Lone Star Le Mans, and it took me a while to figure out some of the basics as I spent 6 hours watching this non-stop racing event. Settling in at the grandstand was the best way for me to stay locked into the race from beginning to end. As the race began, I walked up the hill along Turn 1 to see the cars fly by after Chris Bosh (who lives in Austin and is a legendary 2x NBA champion of my Miami Heat) gave the call for the drivers to start their engines.
Then, I went to the grandstands to find a seat that initially was a bleacher seat in the sun that I quickly realized was a bad spot and moved into a more interior, shaded stadium seat. This was a perfect location to sit because I could see the pit stops and watch what was happening on the other side of the circuit using the massive screens outside the paddock. The grandstands were also an ideal location to watch the race because it was a "cool zone" and had indoor plumbing restrooms! Once the race was over, I had a perfect view of the podium for the trophy ceremony with the gorgeous Central Texas sunset making for a beautiful scene to bring Lone Star Le Mans 2026 to a close.
So what did I figure out about the basics of WEC endurance racing? If my understanding is correct, these are the six things I learned while watching the race:
There are two types of cars racing simultaneous: hypercars and LMGT3s.
There will be two sets of champions based on the car type.
Lone Star Le Mans features a team of 3 drivers for each car.
The pit crew will swap out seat inserts for each driver that are custom designed for ergonomic comfort while driving.
Each car is equipped with technology that shows what position the car is in throughout the race which is super helpful for everyone watching all the cars drive by.
The race operates on a timer of 6 hours rather than a lap count, so a race can technically run slightly longer than that time if the first car set to cross the finish line still has yet to do so at the 6-hour mark.
Wrap-Up
This concludes my condensed recap of an 8-hour day at Circuit of the Americas for the 2026 WEC Lone Star Le Mans. It was a day in which I spoke to exactly 3 people to simply say "thank you" and had plenty of time to sit with my own thoughts as I watched extremely fast, loud cars cross my line of sight every 90-120 seconds once the race began. More importantly, it was one of the more affordable racing events that comes to COTA each year and offered an opportunity to combine my love for professional driving events with my goal of finding something new each month to do in the Austin area! This is certainly an event I would recommend to people who love motorsport events. Will I go again next year? I'm considering it, but the weather will be a significant factor as it was for me this year in deciding to attend Lone Star Le Mans. In the meantime, I'm working on making plans for my next activity in Austin.
On to the next adventure!
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