Road Course

[IwantaM3]

Alright guys I work for a construction firm in Florida, and a couple of the guys at work are talking about building a road course track somewhere in the Southeast reagion. I would like to get your guys input on what you would think about it.
1. How long would you like to see the road course?
2. Are there any features that you would like to see at the track (i.e. food service, gas station, full service garage, etc)
3. How much would you be willing to pay for a full day of racing 8 am to 8 pm?
4. What events would you like to see and or compete in?
5. How many turns would you like to see?
6. Are there any historic or special parts of tracks that you would want on a road course (i.e lugan seca cork screw)
7. If car dealerships put on track days and car testing would you particpate?
8. How much would you pay to attend and watch events?

If you have any other good questions or ideas I would love all of the input and info you all have to offer. This track would be open for karts, motorcycles, and cars.

Thanks,
IwantaM3

[Nortad]

since im not in the us, the only imput im gonna give you is to make the track interesting, with uphill sections and dowhill sections and camber changes on the corners, a good dozen or so corners are about has much has you need, depending on the length of the track, combining fast, medium and slow corners

maybe, just maybe some point on the track where there is strong weight transition in the car, where it plays with the loads of the car, or maybe a small soft jump to spice things up.

reasearch a bit about the new portimão circuit in algarve, its a good example of a new race track that uses what i say above, plus spa-francochamp, laguna seca, nurburgring, bathurst, suzuka etc... to get a better picture and inspiration.

about the facilities themselfs enough garages to acomodate club meeting, local events (i guess i dont know the size of the operation your thinking of) food stands are vital, maybe facilities for coffeeshop, one or 2 of the circuit it self and the rest for mobile ones (like the one in carnivals) one for medical assistance (vital) some stands, specially around the paddock area and bathrooms.

again what i say all depends on the size of the idea, but a good paddock with bathrroms to cover the expected number of attendance a small food area and some medical area (maybe just the facilities just for the local paramedics to have a place to do any work and keep their gear.

hope i helped. cheers and keep us posted

[IwantaM3]

Thanks for the input. Anyone that else that wants to chime in I would welcome all of the input that I could get.
Thanks

[Soup]

I'd def. take my car to a road course in South Florida, a driving school would be a cool addition.

[BOTLFEDLT1]

Not to be too much of a downer, but how much are you budgeting for this thing?

From what I've read, the cost for paving alone is approx $2M+ per mile, assuming no clearing and minimal grading. The fact that you work for a construction company helps, but that is the relatively cheap part. The costly items are going to be the land obviously, track design, infrastructure, zoning, legal fees, insurance, maintenance etc. You are looking at atleast $10M or so.
Do the math and figure out how long the payback on this project is....

There is a good reason why there arent too many tracks around. Extremely costly to build, most lose money and in this credit market, good luck finding financing.

Originally Posted by IwantaM3

Alright guys I work for a construction firm in Florida, and a couple of the guys at work are talking about building a road course track somewhere in the Southeast reagion. I would like to get your guys input on what you would think about it.
1. How long would you like to see the road course?
2. Are there any features that you would like to see at the track (i.e. food service, gas station, full service garage, etc)
3. How much would you be willing to pay for a full day of racing 8 am to 8 pm?
4. What events would you like to see and or compete in?
5. How many turns would you like to see?
6. Are there any historic or special parts of tracks that you would want on a road course (i.e lugan seca cork screw)
7. If car dealerships put on track days and car testing would you particpate?
8. How much would you pay to attend and watch events?

If you have any other good questions or ideas I would love all of the input and info you all have to offer. This track would be open for karts, motorcycles, and cars.

Thanks,
IwantaM3

[IwantaM3]

we have gotten multiple pricing from multiple site contractors and it is nowhere near 2 million for paving and that is with a 6inch base and a 2 inch asphalt for about a 2+ mile road course, and for about 20 acres it will be around 150,000. The big questions here is would you want to come?
thanks

[BOTLFEDLT1]

Originally Posted by IwantaM3

we have gotten multiple pricing from multiple site contractors and it is nowhere near 2 million for paving and that is with a 6inch base and a 2 inch asphalt for about a 2+ mile road course, and for about 20 acres it will be around 150,000. The big questions here is would you want to come?
thanks

I'll believe it when I see it. I simply cannot see the construction costs to move/clear land, perform grading, do all the necessary environmental impact assessments, inspections, laying the pavement, designing proper runoff areas, designing proper water drainage, hire civil engineers, etc etc for $150K. Your 150k isnt even scratching the surface of what its going to cost to build a proper road racing track.

But just to humour your pipe dream, the going rate around here for a track day is about $150/car/day.

[IwantaM3]

we are not looking to build a world class track. We are doing this for the purpose of supporting the grass roots track day croud that may not be able to go to main stream tracks that are way out of their budget. There is going to be very minimal at the track ( besides the track itself).

[Soup]

If you could keep the cost down, I'd be there like every weekend. I don't think there's a 1/4 mile track down here either. I know there's a 1/8th in hialeah. If you could integrate a 1/4 mile into the course, you'd be the only game in town.