New Formula One track in Texas launches ticket sales

Officials for Circuit of the Americas, a $300-million racetrack being built in Texas for Formula One’s return to the U.S. market, said Sunday they have launched the ticketing process for buying premier seats to the inaugural race Nov. 18.

After considerable uncertainty in recent months about whether the track would get Formula One approval to put on the race, the series put the race on its 2012 calendar and construction has accelerated at the site southeast of downtown Austin.

The public has until Feb. 13 to join a “select seating wait list” to buy a personal seat license that entitles its holder to buy tickets to the U.S. Grand Prix and other racing and entertainment events at Circuit of the Americas for the next 15 years.

The personal seat licenses will cost between $1,000 and $5,000 per seat and mostly apply to the 9,000-seat main grandstand, where ticket buyers receive covered seating, priority parking and other amenities.

Prices of the actual grandstand seats, along with prices for all seats and general admission to the race, will be announced later this year.

Organizers have said the track will have an overall capacity for 120,000 spectators, with many general-admission patrons sitting on grass berms at different elevations around the 3.4-mile track.

“We are receiving great interest in tickets every day from fans around the world,” Geoff Moore, the track’s chief marketing and sales officer, said in a statement. “We want every fan to get the ticket that is right and affordable for them.”

There hasn’t been a Formula One in the U.S. since 2007, when the international series held the last U.S. Grand Prix on a curvy road course built within the Indianapolis Motor Speedway oval.

james.peltz@latimes.com