Brian P

A coworker and I are having a debate what the costs would be to build a race track from scratch. He thinks he could buy a farmer's field and convert it to a racetrack for $10MM. I think it's closer to $100MM

Anybody have an idea of what the right numbers are?

mooty

it depends on where you are located.
obviously you pick cheap dirt to build on. but cheap dirt (in CA, USA) are usually bad farm land. BUT.... you need

1. they are often in "williamson's act" you can't use it other than farming
2. environmental impact report
3. endangered species. just about everything other than humans are considered endangered in CA.
4. govt red tape
5. govt missing deadline
6. neighbor's objections

these cause proj delays, delays cost a lot of money..... depending on size of area involved. it could easily be $5-10 million just on that! the actual construction of the facility would be the least of your worries.

btw, it be hard to convince lenders to lend on race tracks.

Brian P

Let's pretend that I hit the MegaMillions jackpot and I'm not worried about lenders. I just want to have an idea of what the race track would cost.

One other detail. I want elevation change in my race track. So, even if I bought a field, I assume that I would need somebody to truck in a bunch of dirt for the elevation changes.

Veloce Raptor

Racetracks make no sense to build. They are always better values to their second (or third) owners, however.





Professional Racing and Driving Coach

Geoffrey

I think Monticello is about $45m to this point.

Geoffrey

Kind of like building GT type race cars, right???

Brian P

True. However, to give this more context... He was wondering why I don't have more local events (I work in Manhattan) to attend. I told him that race tracks near us are extremely expensive to build. That's when we started trying to put a dollar amount on "extremely expensive".

If they were only $10MM, I think there would be tons of them near Manhattan.

Veloce Raptor

Si. Or pretty much any race car w/o historic provenance.





Professional Racing and Driving Coach

ew928

Who are going to be the neighbors and will they object.
Noise/traffic/don't want you here etc.

Been trying for a while to get the Staten Island roundey roundey track built but they haven't made much headway.
Prime location to NY/NJ/CT/PA/DE.


Making un-natural elevation changes takes many many cubic foot of heavy to truck-in dirt and man-hours of pushing dirt around.

931guru

Oh, you could always run the NASCAR track in Staten Island!

schwank

I am pretty sure from start to finish the new Oregon Raceway Park, which started as a farmer's field, cost more than $10MM to build. There is not only land acquisition, but a ton of work from a site survey, to power, water, and sewer, to clearing the land, evaluation and preparation of the circuit itself, substrate, asphalt, concrete paddock space, corner flag stations, access roads, toilets, etc. And that is before they build spectator seating, private garages, etc.

Also factor in the time value of the principals in obtaining requisite approvals and permits... usually involves plenty of public hearings and legal document preparation.

ajcjr

Just do not build one like NJMP, i do not think the civil engineer looked at the drainage problems there, but he could have also built in a drainage system to reuse the water as sprinklers.

Depending on the site, the composition of the existing land i think 100mm you could have an off the hook track, 30m you could probably do something decent. It also depends on clubhouse, garages, etc..

Your main obstacle would be location and if sound db's but you could get away with some of the noise by sinking the track into the ground a little, trees, etc..

Anyone have any money sitting around, i am a GC in NYC looking to build a track LOL!!!

ajcjr

that was never going to happen and was just a bunch of bs, the traffic alone made it a no go. They should put one out by the Meadowlands

ew928

Nascar crowds and 2 lane rural roads mix real good. Not.


They can set up a swamp buggy track alongside a Meadowlands roundey track with all the swampland there.

TheOtherEric

I'm not sure that trucking in dirt to create elevation changes is feasible, either technically or cost-wise. It would take enormous amounts of dirt, and settling would probably take years.

Prairie Hills (a huge track planned near Indy, but not currently under construction) has a planned cost of $27.5M. See here. BTW, they wanted to truck in some dirt too, but who knows ...