Will Formula One be the next big thing for Austin?

live in the metropolitan region that includes Austin, Round Rock and San Marcos.

The track is being built in southeast Travis County near Elroy, a ranching community of several hundred people on lots ranging up to 50 acres. Elroy has largely been bypassed by the growth that has developed other parts of the Austin metropolitan area, and its residents complain of inadequate services and the lack of basic conveniences like a supermarket or bus service.

But at Wild Bubba’s Wild Game Grill, a half-mile from the track’s main construction entrance, the proprietor Wyman Gilliam, aka Wild Bubba, has decorated the restaurant with Formula One posters. He refers to Elroy as Speed City.

“It’ll be the economic engine that gets southeast Travis County going,” said Gilliam, who came close to moving his restaurant into Austin because of slumping business before plans for the track were announced in 2010.

Now he enjoys a brisk trade from construction crews and Formula One personnel while he awaits an influx of spectators. Gilliam and his father, Wyman Sr., plan to rent two renovated cabanas on their nearby farm to spectators for $400 per night.

Cathy Olive, a goat rancher who leads the Elroy Neighborhood Association, said the track was a far superior option to widely opposed earlier plans to use the oncevacant site for tract housing. But she acknowledged that some residents had contemplated moving because of the potential traffic and noise.

“We’re very fractured out here about how we feel about it,” she said. “I’m just not sure one or two races a year will get us a Walmart.”

The $350 million Circuit of the Americas project has encountered its share of controversy, including a lawsuit between its principals, an earlier construction delay, and disputes about state and local subsidies. Circuit of- ficials nevertheless say that work at the 1,100-acre site is on pace for completion this fall.

Veteran race fans will notice design elements reminiscent of other Formula One tracks as the course winds through 20 turns on hilly terrain with a view of downtown Austin. One signature feature is a 133-foot rise in elevation from the starting line to Turn 1. Speeds are expected to reach up to 200 mph on the straightaway between Turns 11 and 12.

The man who brought Formula One to Texas is the Austin racing promoter Tavo Hellmund, a longtime friend of the Formula One chief Bernie Ecclestone. Hellmund, a former race car driver, once competed on European Formula 3 tracks with “Visit Texas” emblazoned on the side of his Dallara.

Hellmund, 46, said he spent years trying to convince Ecclestone that Austin would be an ideal stop for Formula One.

“At the time, Bernie just had this picture of Austin as being what all of us who have grown up in Austin have — the sleepy, hippie college town,” Hellmund said. “I probably made over 20 trips to pitch him.”

After Ecclestone embraced the concept, Hellmund formed a partnership with Red McCombs, a San Antonio businessman and former professional sports franchise owner (San Antonio Spurs and Minnesota Vikings); and Bobby Epstein, an Austin developer who owned the land for the track site.

“I was asked by Tavo and Bobby if they could get an audience with me and I set aside an hour on a Saturday morning,” McCombs said. “And that hour turned out to be about two and a half and I realized from that conference there was a chance that we might be able to do something that would really be an international event. There wouldn’t be anything similar to it.”

McCombs said that international and out-of-state visitors would find a “very cosmopolitan atmosphere with a Western flavor” in Austin and that such a world-class facility would bolster the state and regional economy by hosting events throughout the year. In addition to Formula One racing, the track is scheduled to host three days of Australian V-8 Supercar racing next year.

But lofty visions were clouded by hard feelings. Hellmund, who was pushed out of the project, sued Epstein and McCombs. The case was settled this month, clearing another hurdle as the circuit gets ready for race day in less than six months.

The track recently announced a host committee of more than 50 central Texas community leaders and highprofile residents, including golfer Ben Crenshaw and the chief executive of the Lance Armstrong Foundation, Doug Ulman.

Of the more than 115,000 requests for information received by late May, about 35 percent were from Texas, 60 percent were from elsewhere in the United States and about 5 percent were from other countries, primarily Mexico, Canada and western Europe, said Geoff Moore, the circuit’s chief marketing and revenue officer.

Kevin Granger, a 41-yearold realtor, was in the Circuit of the Americas downtown sales offices recently to consider a block of seats to use to entertain clients and family members.

“I think it’s going to be a very exciting sporting venue that Austin’s never seen before,” he said.