Atlanta city officials approved permits for the Red Bull Showrun on Hank Aaron Drive over the objections of MARTA and two separate votes against the event by the Neighborhood Planning Unit covering Summerhill. The Formula 1 demonstration ran along roughly half a mile of the corridor — a backup location chosen after an earlier plan near Piedmont Park drew opposition from Midtown residents.
The core conflict is what sits under the course. The route puts F1 cars doing high-speed runs and donuts on top of the dedicated bus lanes for MARTA's Rapid A line, the region's first bus rapid transit route, which soft-launched in April and is still under construction. Transit officials told city staff earlier in the month that the event would require rerouting buses for days and disrupt active construction on a project already months behind schedule.
MARTA implemented detours starting Wednesday to accommodate setup, relocating three stops. The A line runs faster than a typical route largely because of that dedicated lane on freshly repaved Hank Aaron Drive; the detours pushed it into mixed traffic and slowed it considerably. Deputy General Manager Rhonda Allen told city officials the rerouting and construction pause could cost MARTA as much as $123,150. Spokesperson Stephany Fisher said the agency requested reimbursement but as of Thursday did not know what, if anything, would be covered — and that any shortfall would be paid out of More MARTA, the fund Atlanta voters approved specifically to build projects like the Rapid A line.
Residents voted against the event twice, in March and again this month after an amended proposal. \"I can see this could be a fun event, but this is not the place that it should be happening,\" NPU Chairperson Caitlin Barringer said. She said residents were bracing for disruption and frustrated that permits were approved over the concerns of both the NPU and MARTA, adding that it was disappointing to see event setup underway before the city had approved anything. The event organizer listed on the permits, Michael King, declined to answer questions, saying he was not authorized to comment. A city spokesperson did not answer questions about why the permits were approved.
The event itself ran from 4 to 7 p.m., with organizers expecting as many as 49,999 attendees held back by barricades. Drivers did not race each other but ran up and down the street at up to 75 miles per hour, performing donuts and burnouts — moves tightly regulated in actual competition — with three cars on the course at once for the finale. A revved F1 car hits 120 decibels, slightly louder than standing beside a chain saw. Organizers requested that manhole covers be welded shut, because the downforce of F1 vehicles can pull them upward, as happened during a practice session for the Las Vegas Grand Prix last year; the permits do not say whether that was done.
Part of the neighborhood's concern came from precedent. At a similar demonstration in San Francisco earlier this year, one of the cars caught fire during a series of donuts. The driver was unhurt and the fire was quickly put out, but residents cited the reported disorder there in their opposition. Parking was described as \"extremely limited\" on the event website, which encouraged attendees to use rideshare or take MARTA — the same system being detoured to make room for it.
Original reporting: The Atlanta Journal-Constitution (2026-07-23)
