Pretty much every car enthusiast has at some point fantasised about what they’d do with a whole racetrack at their disposal. Now, though, if one has the funds available, they’ll be able to find out, as Willow Springs Raceway has come up for sale.
Sitting in the desert around 55 miles north of central Los Angeles, Willow Springs opened in 1953. Nicknamed ‘The Fastest Road In The West,’ its centrepiece is the Big Willow course, a fearsome, high-speed 2.5-mile blast with a layout that’s remained unchanged for over 70 years.
Willow Springs Raceway – turn 4
While it hasn’t hosted any major pro racing since the 1980s, it remains a popular spot for track days and club-level racing, and is also a popular filming location – you might know it as the track where the old Top Gear team played ‘aerial laser tag’ in a Lexus LFA, Dodge Viper and Aston Martin Vanquish, or from its appearance in the early part of the film Le Mans ‘66. It’s also appeared in the more recent Gran Turismo games.
Now, however, it’s being sold off, and the buyer will get not only the Big Willow course, but another six tracks: also located on the site are two smaller, tighter circuits – Horse Thief Mile and Streets of Willow Springs – a kart track, a quarter-mile tarmac oval, three-eighths-mile dirt oval, and an autocross area and skid pad.
Willow Springs Raceway – turn 3
None of this presumably comes cheap: there’s no sale price listed (we’ve reached out to the estate agent selling the property, and will update the article if we hear back), but commercial properties listing site LoopNet reckons on around $2.25 million (approx. £1.75 million) in property taxes alone.
Nevertheless, it’s not every day a fully-fledged race circuit comes up for sale, let alone one as historic and challenging as Willow Springs. The good news is that given its remote location in the California desert, it’s unlikely to be bulldozed to make way for housing.
Willow Springs Raceway – paddock
So what could you do with it? One suggestion is to turn it into a ‘members’ club’ style property, where wealthy individuals can pay a membership fee to have access to the track. It’s an increasingly popular model, with a similar venue, The Thermal Club, sitting on the other side of LA.
Of course, you could just keep it open as a track day and club venue, or just keep it for yourself – presumably, anyone with the funds to buy a whole racetrack probably has some serious metal sitting in their enormous garage.
