Racing in style
New
private road course club
to be built near Kentucky Speedway
The
exclusive club will offer
a 3.38-mile course to push it to the limit
By
Konnie McCollum
Staff Writer
(August 2007) – You might be the owner of sleek
and expensive high-powered sports car that can get up to speeds of 150
mph. Try that on a public highway, however, and you may end up spending
some not-so-pleasant time in a facility with bars on the doors and no
windows.
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Photo
Provided The
northern Kentucky club will |
Cincinnati’s Brad Poppell has solved that problem.
A new and exclusive facility, Bluegrass Motorsports Club & Road
Course, when built in northern Kentucky will offer members a unique
3.38-mile road course to push their Corvettes, BMWs or Porsches to their
speed limits, all within the limits of the law.
“The club will appeal to the person who buys a high-end sports
car and realizes that driving it in anything past fourth gear is probably
going to land them in jail,” said Poppell, the founder and president
of the club. He is the owner of a BMW M3, and he is looking forward
to getting out on the track as soon as it is ready.
The new club is situated on more than 500 rolling acres in Gallatin
County and is positioned between Louisville, Lexington and Cincinnati.
The location, just 28-miles from downtown Cincinnati, allows access
to six major cities with airports, all within an hour’s drive or
less.
The track is ideally located just nine miles from the Kentucky Speedway,
which attracts thousands of race fans across the region for events.
“We certainly see our motorsports club as a complement to the Kentucky
Speedway,” said Poppell.
The $10 million Phase I of the project is scheduled to begin groundbreaking
Oct. 15. The scheduled opening of the estimated $16 million motorsports
club will be at some point during the summer of 2008. It will include
a clubhouse, go-cart track for kids and adults, and other amenities.
The idea for the club came to Poppell while he was at the Mid-Ohio Race
Course in Lexington, Ohio. “I was listening to friends talk about
how long of a drive it was to reach the race track when suddenly a light
bulb lit up in my head,” he said.
While there are no private motorsports clubs in this area, they are
beginning to spring up across the country. Indianapolis architect Paxton
Waters, the top independent designer of race tracks across the country,
said there are four such tracks in existence currently, with another
six on the drawing board. “This type of sports club has become
extremely popular,” he said.
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Brad Poppell |
Waters, who worked with NASCAR’s Rusty Wallace on
the recently opened Iowa Speedway and is working with Wallace on two
other projects, has designed the new Kentucky course to include its
rolling hills and bountiful trees. “It will be a unique course
for a number of reasons, but its hilltop location and natural landscaping
will certainly set it apart from the rest of the tracks,” he said.
Waters has also worked with Indy Racing League Team Owner Roger Penske
on projects and designed courses at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway, Pikes
Peak International Raceway and the California Speedway.
The outer course will have a 3,000-foot straightway with a 2,500-foot
back straightway and a variety of curves and turns for an exciting driving
experience. There will be several configurations to choose from with
a variety of grade changes and turns.
Of course, safety will play a major role at the Bluegrass Motorsports
Club. Waters has designed the course to accommodate high speeds but
yet make it safe for beginners or club rentals.
“We have designed the course, which has an outer track and combination
inner tracks, to accommodate a variety of different levels of drivers,”
he said.
Poppell said drivers will have to go through an orientation and pass
a certification before they are allowed to go fast. A safety marshal,
stewards and corner workers will be on duty during track activity and
emergency and rescue crews will be available at all times. There will
also be daily track maintenance, periodic tech inspections, a state-of-the-art
control tower and adequate run off areas.
Poppell said designers have worked out a system in which part of the
track can be rented out for specific clubs or corporations. He said
clubs such as the American Motorcycle Association or the Porsche Club
will be able to rent the course for their members.
Membership in the exclusive club, however, is going to be pricey. The
more members pay, the more track time they will receive. “We will
limit our membership to just a few hundred people at first,” said
Poppell.
At this point, Poppell said interest is running high in the new club,
with more than 25-30 emails a day asking questions and more than 130,000
hits a month on the website.
• For more information about Bluegrass Motorsports Club & Road Course, visit: www.drivebluegrass.com.