Want to rent COTA?

I just got an email linking me to this page

Rent the track

But I've heard about a number of cancelled track days because the track decided they didn't need to rent it out. They cancelled one of the track days I was going to attend.

Maybe they've changed their minds?

They didn't really change their minds. They just made it so only the elite can afford it. At over $1500 a car, They definitely are not going after the common track day crowd

Hmmm... only about $1500 per driver.

They had some issues with scheduling early. As the story has been told, they didn't quite expect the really big money guys to want to pay as much as they did for testing. They were planning on a day here a day there and they ended up with people wanting the track for 3-5 day blocks. They had to decide who to piss off, and they chose to make the factory race teams happy and the clubs sad. Everyone I know who has been on track has been thrilled and says it's worth it. A group of us wants to latch onto one of the groups that is renting it and use lot F for rallycross. It would be epic.

Give it a couple years, once the novelty has worn off it'll be priced a lot more reasonably.

racerfink wrote: Hmmm... only about $1500 per driver.

That's ridiculous.

I wonder what's behind the 36 car/driver limit?

For a track of that size that car/driver limit is Silly. They should be able to run say 3-4 groups of 20-25 cars I would guess. Should be closer to $550/dr which I would pay to do COA

Only about 10 years ago a group of friends and I would occasionally rent Nelson Ledges for a day. IIRC, the most I ever paid was $80, with unlimited track time. That was before tracks started promoting their own open track days. Man, those were the days....

And I thought Lime Rock was expensive at $15,000 a day.

I bought a set of Porsche GT3 seats last year from a guy and when I picked them up, he asked me if I wanted to do a track day at Monticello. I mentioned that I had read that Monticello was no longer allowing clubs to use the track. He said that he rented it for his birthday.

Keep in mind guys that you aren't just renting any old track when you rent COTA. You've got the newest, baddest, most expensive track in the U.S.

It's still way too rich for my blood, but like someone else said, once the new wears off I think you'll find prices getting more realistic.

But when you talk to them you realize that the F1 attitude has rubbed off on them. They are still trying to market almost exclusively to the rich. This is just one more way to make it more "exclusive" and keep the riff raff off. I'm hoping that changes.

They also wanted to sell me a license to be able to buy tickets at the track. For said license on the turn 15 complex I got a private restroom and bar area at the larger events. Once again I'm guessing so that I don't have to mingle with the commoners.

I absolutely refuse to buy a license to buy a ticket for anything. I think that's the most ludicrous thing someone ever come up with.

The club course at Sebring on a weekday is something like $6k. It may have gone up since the last time I checked, as it's been a year or two.

Maybe it's just me, but every impression I've gotten of COTA is that everything about it is simply too pretentious, ostentatious, and over-hyped...Which just kind of kills the mood for me, regardless of how great the track itself may or may not be.

Attending a race there is actually pretty nice. Food is expensive, but it's about ball park prices, so it's not too bad. I did general admission seating and there were lots of good places to sit on the grass with great views and super jumbo screens to watch. Traffic, and parking in general, was shockingly good considering how few lanes of traffic are going in and out of the place.
People I know who have driven on the track have all enjoyed it. I have a friend who is driving in the support races for the Australian Supercars and I'll ask her how it was. I'm not sure if it's pretentious and snobby or just really nice and really berkeleying expensive. Sometimes those feel like the same thing even if they're not.

Driven5 wrote: Maybe it's just me, but every impression I've gotten of COTA is that everything about it is simply too pretentious, ostentatious, and over-hyped...Which just kind of kills the mood for me, regardless of how great the track itself may or may not be.

I raced at a hoity toity track a month or so ago, and let me tell you, once you're on track it doesn't matter how fancy the people who own it think they are. It's still a track and you're still having a blast driving on it. I don't know how a pretentious or over-hyped whatever could kill the mood of being able to race on a good track.

That's kind of my point. What makes the COTA track itself so much more amazing to drive than any other of numerous 'great' tracks across the country? Not much, as far as I can tell. I'm have no doubt that being designed specifically for F1 races, it's probably great for spectators at really big professional race series type events and all. But as a driver who will never be filling the grand stands, what is going to give me that deep seeded desire (craving) to spending exorbitant amounts of money just for the privilege of being so graciously allowed access to the track itself?

So to give you prospective as I left the track yesterday from the V8 supercars I was behind 3 Ferrari 599 GTO's That is their target audience.

Friday when it was slower, I was chit chatting with some track officials and they are have no issues at all getting that amount of money to rent the track. They are pretty booked through the end of the year. I'm sure once the demand is down, the pricing will go down too.

One of our rallycross guys rented Summit Point Main circuit for $500 for a day a few years ago (to test and tune on their chump car, I think). Granted it was mid-winter and they only brought 3 cars out. Apparently when they arrived in the morning, the gate booth guy said "here are the keys to the track gate.....drop the keys in the drop box when you leave. Or so the story goes.

He said they didn't see another person on the track complex the entire day :)

carguy123 wrote: I absolutely refuse to buy a license to buy a ticket for anything. I think that's the most ludicrous thing someone ever come up with.

So you don't shop at Costco either?