Let’s say you have made a little coin, and with that coin you have bought a little race car, or even a race team. To your accountant’s dismay, you are a late bloomer. Sports-car racing is fun, demanding and fiercely competitive, just like you. As your confidence builds, you start thinking about the next step: Daytona, Le Mans, Nürburgring, Spa-Francorchamps. Or maybe you just want to beat the snot out of the day-traders at Lime Rock Park in Connecticut.
Your problem is time. Like a golfer who picks up the game late in life, you don’t have 10,000 hours to achieve driving mastery. You must optimize the strokes you’ve got.
“The number-one priority of the club is the clients’ time,” said Aaron Weiss, president of the Concours Club, a luxury racing facility on 80 acres inside the fence of the Opa-Locka Executive Airport. Hired in 2018 by Chicago real estate mogul Neil Gehani to help establish a private racing club, Weiss has all but excluded the possibility of downtime.
Catering to a fly-in membership ($350,000 for founding memberships, with no annual dues, with the last three available selling for $575,000), the club’s staff can have drivers hydrated and belted in their cars, or one from the club’s garage, within minutes of landing.
Here you don’t wait for ice-cold infusions on silver trays; they wait for you, as you get out of the car, with a chilled towel for His Sweatiness, m’lord. A valet will help you with your helmet, balaclava and gloves while you get yourself sorted. Mirror aviators are a good choice.