F1 organizers must come up with $300M

AUSTIN (KXAN) - Later Wednesday we'll know if Formula One racing will roar into Austin.

F1 boss Bernie Ecclestone said local race organizers have until Wednesday to come up with a reported $300 million in financing to secure the rights to Formula One.

Ecclestone said he wants a guarantee in the form of line of credit that Austin’s race organizers will be able to pay a reported $300 million in sanctioning fees throughout the next 10 years.

Local race organizers said they have the first payment, reportedly between $25 million and $30 million ready to go and a plan to pay the rest.  

But, local race organizers led by Bobby Epstein, have not signed a contract because they said it contains “unreasonable and unfeasible demands.”

Instead, they rewrote the conrtract and sent it back to Ecclestone -- who told a reporter in Brazil that’s not how it works.

Many publications have already written Austin’s F1 race off, saying Ecclestone is ready to drop the race altogether, especially now that construction has started on New Jersey’s F1 race set to take place in 2013.