Willow Springs Raceway for sale

[3rd_gear_Ted]

The family that owns the track appears to be getting ready to sell.
Geez the memories are many, half are terrifying.
NOT a good thing.

[wildthing]

No price publicly available? Would be nice if I win the lottery tonight.

[unclebilly]

Let’s hope (pray) it stays a race track…

[Scott Douglas]

This is the type of place that needs a GoFundMe page set up and management team available to run it.
How about a developer buys it and puts up condo's like that place out by the smelly Salton Sea track?

[Scott Douglas]

I followed some links and found a page that says the land w/tracks and buildings is worth about $2.3M give or take.

[astrochex]

Originally Posted by unclebilly

Let’s hope (pray) it stays a race track…

This.

[id10t]

PPOT group buy?

[Arizona_928]

Originally Posted by id10t

ppot group buy?

+1

[Noah930]

Originally Posted by id10t

PPOT group buy?

I'm in. Jack O should organize.

[Rtrorkt]

I'm in

[smadsen]

I knew Bill Huth back from the early '70's. Quite a character. He reputedly built the track with his own motor grader back in the late '50's I believe. No plans. No blue prints. No permits. Man, there was nothing on the six-mile road from the freeway to the track, except a run-down convenience store next to an equally derelict trailer park.

Initially the big track was just oiled desert gravel/sand, but it was paved pretty early on, at least for the Ken Miles scenes in the movies in the early '60's. When I showed up in '71, you could just rent the track from Chet Kastner who ran the resident driving school from a garage in Rosamond. $20 bucks and it was yours for the day with a $10 deposit for return of the key.

There were no fences back in the day. The security was a chain stretched between two posts across the dirt entrance road. The paddock was just graded desert with a lot of sharp rocks that could easily puncture race tires. There was no pit lane, so you just drove off the desert onto the track near the current S/F line. You got off the track by driving back into the desert near T-9.

There was no snack bar, no restrooms, no garages, no pavement, no communications, just a 20x20, two story "tower" for the stewards. I think that's still there.

Ford vs. Ferrari was filmed there, but Ken Miles beat the crap out of the Cobra trunk lid on the lonely desert floor in a dust storm. Ken was an interesting character as were many of the Cal Club participant back in the day.

In the '60's Ken was the Cal Club Driving School instructor for a friend of mine, a story for another day.

There aren't many comps for used race tracks. The value is a function of raw land value and cash flow. Based on my experience at Buttonwillow, I'd say $7 to 8 million.

Sorry, rambled enough.

[speeder]

Land in SoCal doesn't get a lot cheaper than Rosamond, unless you go out into the barren desert between L.A. and Las Vegas.

[look 171]

We always stop by that MacDonalds off the fwy for a warm cup of coffee during the winter and maybe some mid morning snacks after a couple rounds on track.

My framer lives out there due to high cost in LA and the matchbox size homes. Its growing pretty fast out there. Palmdale and Landcaster is pushing them out further and further. Sadly, 2.3 mil for that plot of land can build you a lot of condos and track homes that are worth over 10 times that amount.

No more infield at Cal Speedway. What's left, Buttonwillow.

[ted]

Fun and Fast track average speed 110mph for a 1.21 lap time.
Got 2 poles and a win last month.

[smadsen]

The original 360 acres at Buttonwillow cost $90,000 in 1994. All in, the original track cost $2.5MM.

Cal Speedway, built at the same time, reputedly cost $400 million. Which one do you think can debt service? Hint, the one with no debt.

[Dixie]

Y'all see this?