Today we’d like to introduce you to Sydney And Jason Popovich.
Alright, so thank you so much for sharing your story and insight with our readers. To kick things off, can you tell us a bit about how you got started?
Our story really starts with the land itself. Before there was ever a racetrack, there was Stoney Point Farm—our family’s property for over 70 years. Long before the roar of Formula 1 engines came to Southeast Austin, this was just a quiet stretch of pasture on Elroy Road.
When Circuit of the Americas (COTA) was built quite literally in our backyard, our quiet world changed overnight. Instead of fighting the massive changes happening around us, we decided to embrace our new neighbors. We realized that hundreds of thousands of fans were going to be driving out to our neck of the woods, and we knew the local infrastructure was going to be pushed to its limits.
We officially started Austin Race Parking back in 2021 to give fans a ‘local’ alternative to the massive, corporate lots. We saw the gridlock and the hours people spent just waiting to leave the track, and we knew we could offer something better. We utilized our farm’s layout to carve out a dedicated, 5-minute pedestrian path directly to the Turn 11 gate, and we engineered our own exit lane to get our guests out of the traffic and on the road in about 15 minutes.
Today, what started as parking a few cars in our field has grown into a highly organized, 1,200-spot facility at 8027 Elroy Road. But despite the growth, we are still completely family-owned and operated. We are out there in the safety vests on race weekend, greeting fans from all over the world, parking their cars on the same land we grew up on, and making sure their Grand Prix weekend starts and ends smoothly.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
It definitely hasn’t always been perfectly smooth—growing pains are a very real part of running a family business!
Our biggest learning curve happened during the 2022 US Grand Prix. Formula 1’s popularity in the states absolutely exploded that year, and the demand for parking skyrocketed. We grew much faster than we had anticipated, and to be completely transparent, our infrastructure at the time just wasn’t ready for that kind of volume all leaving at once. When the checkered flag dropped on Sunday, our customers ended up experiencing much longer wait times to exit the lot than we ever wanted them to.
As a family that prides itself on offering a premium, stress-free experience, that just didn’t sit right with us. We knew we had to fix it immediately.
So, rather than just accepting that ‘race traffic is bad,’ we went to work. We literally moved earth on the farm and invested heavily in building a brand-new, dedicated exit lane system. We completely overhauled our traffic flow strategy to ensure that kind of bottleneck never happened again.
Looking back, that struggle was actually a blessing in disguise because it forced us to innovate. Today, that new exit lane is our biggest competitive advantage. While attendees in the official corporate lots are notoriously stuck in gridlock for anywhere from one to three plus hours after the race, our system now gets most of our cars off our property and headed toward the highway in about 15 minutes. It was a tough lesson in 2022, but it made Austin Race Parking the well-oiled machine it is today.
As you know, we’re big fans of you and your work. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about what you do?
At our core, we specialize in taking the absolute most stressful part of attending a massive event like the US Grand Prix—the traffic and logistics—and making it seamless. We provide a premium, private parking experience right across the street from the track at 8027 Elroy Road.
If you ask our regular customers what we are known for, it comes down to two things: the walk and the exit. Because of where our farm is situated, we have a direct, 5-minute walking path to the COTA Turn 11 gate. You don’t have to wait in line for a packed shuttle bus; you just park, walk across the road, and you’re at the track. And as we mentioned, our custom exit lane means that while people in the official lots are sitting in gridlock for hours, our guests are usually on the road in about 15 minutes.
What sets us apart from the others is that we treat our lot like an extension of the event itself. We want you to be comfortable before you even cross the street. We partner with our local neighbors to run a fantastic food truck right on the property, so fans can grab a bite while they tailgate. We also keep plenty of clean porta-potties on site, ensuring you don’t have to wait until you are inside the track gates to find a restroom.
We are also incredibly proud of the trust people place in us. Our lot is a flat, meticulously maintained field, and it’s fully staffed by our family and team. We safely park everything from family SUVs to low-clearance supercars like Lamborghinis and Corvettes.
But honestly, what we are most proud of is the community we’ve built. We aren’t a faceless corporation scanning barcodes. We are the ones out there in the high-visibility vests every morning, directing you in, and asking who your favorite driver is. We have fans who have been parking and tailgating on our farm every October since 2021. Welcoming them back to our home year after year is the best part of what we do.
Can you talk to us a bit about the role of luck?
We always joke that we won the geographical lottery. When our family put down roots at Stoney Point Farm over 70 years ago, it was just quiet Texas countryside. We certainly didn’t have a crystal ball telling us that one day, a world-class Formula 1 track would be built quite literally across the street. Having our front gate sit a 5-minute walk from the Turn 11 entrance of the Circuit of the Americas is pure, undeniable good luck.
But as the saying goes, luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity.
While we were incredibly lucky to have the location, turning a family farm into a highly efficient, 1,200-vehicle parking facility took a massive amount of hard work. You can’t rely on luck to safely park a convoy of low-clearance sports cars on a grass field, and you certainly can’t rely on luck to safely get thousands of fans onto the highway after a massive race. That took serious planning, engineering our custom 15-minute exit lanes, and putting in long hours in the Texas heat.
We actually tell our guests the same thing: don’t leave your Grand Prix weekend to luck! Hoping you find a spot on race day, or hoping you don’t get stuck in a three-hour plus gridlock in the official lots, is a stressful way to experience F1.
With the massive 2026 technical rule changes and legendary new teams like Audi joining the grid, this October is going to be one of the biggest races in Austin’s history. We want fans to guarantee their spot and their peace of mind.
As a thank you to the local community that has supported us, we’d love to offer Voyage Austin readers a special rate. If you book your 2026 F1 parking pass at austinraceparking.com and use the promo code VOYAGE26 at checkout, you’ll get $10 off our already discounted rate. Come park at the farm, skip the traffic, and let us handle the logistics so you can just enjoy the race!
Pricing:
- Yes, absolutely! We pride ourselves on offering transparent, flat-rate pricing that saves fans a significant amount of money compared to the official corporate lots across the street. We don’t believe in hidden fees or surge pricing.
- 3-Day Weekend Pass: $224.50 (Includes all taxes and fees. This saves you over $125 compared to the official COTA lots!)
- Sunday Only (Race Day) Pass: $111.25 * Saturday Only (Qualifying) Pass: $89.80
- Transparent Pricing: All of our online rates are “all-in.” We never use surge pricing or tack on hidden service fees at the final checkout screen.
- Exclusive Voyage Austin Discount: Readers can use the promo code VOYAGE26 at checkout on austinraceparking.com to get an additional $10 off any pass!
Contact Info:
- Website: https://austinraceparking.com/
