The Future

[cuda6666]

Just so you know, I saw a feature on the national news last night about the privatization of race tracks. It was some private club in the mid west, I think, where someone bought a race track and added a luxury clubhouse and condos. I think they said membership was #35,000. That must have been an annual fee, since they only had 100-150 members.

Anyway, the emphasis was clearly on fine dining in the clubhouse rather than on-track activities. Makes me sick. Rich *holes crowding the rest of us out so they can sit around and talk about racing like yaught club members talk about sailing.

Maybe the bright side of this trend is that it puts us back in the same position we were in in the early '50s. There were essentially no purpose built race tracks, so enthusiasts had to improvise - running on airports, up mountains, and on streets. We'll see.

[mossaidis]

running on airports, up mountains, and on streets.

well said.

[zip4zat]

so enthusiasts had to improvise - running on airports, up mountains, streets, and school zones.

fixed for ya

[Mark Swinehart]

http://abcnews.go.com/Video/playerIndex?id=3807619

[rajito]

so enthusiasts had to improvise - running on airports, up mountains, streets, and school zones.

fixed for ya

Initial D, yo! Touge, yo!

Raj

[skid vicious]

http://www.autobahncountryclub.net/pricing.html

$35,000 one time fee, plus $3000 a year. For that you get unlimited driving time from Tuesday to Sunday. Expensive, but a heck of a lot better deal than lime rock's $110,000+$6600/yr for 20 track days.

Can our resident track business experts explain why this business model has become so popular? What advantages does it have over the traditional, rent the track out to clubs model? Is it that tracks have realized this is a way to implement price discrimination, allowing people who are willing to pay more to do so in order to get something exclusive? Are they going to be able to operate on the yearly fee revenues once they have reached capacity? It seems they are still going to rely on clubs like ours and races to be sustainable; and unless you are driving more than 50 days a year the COM members will be getting a better deal and not be tied to that track.[/url]

[mr2sc]

well, this is a heck of a lot cheaper without buying into a condo type deal. In fact, if you do all 11 events, its not bad at all...

http://www.lecircuit.com/drive.cfm

Not bad IF you don't need some a variety that is....

[chaos4NH]

For me, at least, Tommy has the key. Variety.
Heck, my entry fees for the 8 events this year total up to nearly $3000.
Add in the transportation cost to get to our tracks, hotels, food, etc., and the one time $35,000 almost becomes justified. But, talk about booooring!
Additionally, I am sure there are other fees, such as garage fees, expensive drinks, club house fees, etc. No moral to this post, just throwing out some other thoughts.