Monticello for the 2012 US Grand Prix venue?
I visited Monticello last summer on a Lotus jaunt, driving an Exige 260 S. Now it’s being touted as the possible venue to host the US GP in 2012. Here’s what I wrote last year:
It’s a four-hour drive southwest from Lime Rock circuit to Monticello Motor Club’s brand new track in rural New York State. It’s potentially a venue for a round of the Lotus Cup series so we’re intrigued. Finding our way by GPS through the surrounding forest lanes we’re greeted by a dazzling array of contemporary Lotuses as we motor into the paddock car park. Half-a-dozen Exiges in race trim, a trio of 2-Elevens, and an Esprit V8, harbingers of another beacon to Lotus tracktivity. In the same vein as Spring Mountain at Pahrump, Las Vegas, which LCI visited a couple of years ago (see issue 13), Monticello Motor Club is the latest members-only race circuit to hit the headlines in the USA. Located in the south of the picturesque Catskill Hills it’s only a couple of hours from Manhattan. And that makes it a cert for any moneyed East Coast enthusiast wanting to indulge his or her passion for legalised speed.
With extensive run-off areas, barriers and fencing, safety is paramount. Designed by Lancastrian racing legend Brian Redman, it’s laid out on the site of Dirty Dancing’s movie holiday camp where Patrick Swayze and Jennifer Grey jived. All that ephemera so popular with post-war holidaying New Yorkers has gone now. Nearly. Monticello Motor Club is not to be confused with the downmarket gaming and equestrian track of the same name a few miles away. As the name implies, this is a ‘by invitation only’ haven for enthusiasts wishing to house their automotive pride-and-joy at a dedicated circuit where they can enjoy virtually unlimited track time.
They’re in for a treat. Monticello is as fine a stretch of blacktop as you could wish for, snaking away over a gentle hillside with conifer shelter belt, a blend of long straights, 20 sweeping cojones-testing high speed curves, with a couple of seemingly impossibly tight hairpins thrown in. Brian Redman, who lifted the World Sportscar Championship for Porsche for the first time in 1969, sure dug deep for inspiration from his experiences at the world’s wilder tracks – Nurburgring, Watkins Glen, Targa Florio, Brands Hatch – and you can spot elements of them here and there in his design. There’s around 100ft of elevation change from highest to lowest points on the circuit. ‘Now we’ve got one of the finest tracks in North America and one of the finest in the world,’ comments Brian. If only he’d drafted the current crop of sanitised F1 circuits.
There’s all still to play for. The site is in its infancy, with gatehouse and main admin block precursors of pits, stands and a sizeable infield garage and apartment complex within the main circuit’s 650-acre site. When complete, Monticello will be a venue of considerable significance. It’s surrounded by woodland, 400 acres of which is owned by the Club, including the Dirty Dancing lake, and that could offer yet more development potential.
Over lunch in the Events Pavillion managing director Arie Straus who owns the black Esprit talks us through the layout. ‘We have about four miles of track surface, and the longest circuit configuration is three and a half miles. We can split it into multiple configurations so different events can run at the same time. The south course is about 1.7-miles, the north course is a 1.9-mile configuration. So even half the track is longer than the whole of Lime Rock, and that means you get more time out there. But it’s more technical as well – you have increasing and decreasing radius turns that reward precision, so you really have to put the car in exactly the right place. A Lotus really is one of the best cars to operate on this track because there are plenty of places where the Lotus rewards you with its handling, but then other areas where you can open it up and a Lotus gives you decent speed as well. If there is one track car that really stands out for us as a great tool for those who are still learning the basics, it’s the 2-Eleven.’
An inveterate businessman, Arie is intense and thoroughly wedded to the project. He wants you to believe it’s happening – and so far the evidence looks more than promising. ‘The next building to go up is a members’ pavilion,’ he tells us, ‘which is on the north side, incorporating a beautiful timing tower at the centre. Two storeys, with classrooms, dining area, bathrooms, showers, locker rooms, large reception space. There’s a deck that overlooks the track for prime viewing, and pits garages underneath.’ Overlooking the track, blocks of private residences incorporate 12-car garages on the ground floor with living space above, a scenario that’s close to nirvana for many car buffs. Arie is optimistic: ‘a number of people hope to have their residences complete by next summer so they can enjoy a drink on their upstairs deck and watch cars blast by on the track.’
Members are allocated their own rental garages where they can store tools and kit there. A handful of members still like to get their hands dirty and they’ve got all the necessities for overnight stays on top. The club house is a few years away yet, but it will have bedrooms, a full spa facility, a green roof deck with panoramic views, a pool, as Arie says, ‘a nice place to bring spouse, girlfriend, boyfriend, kids, a place to hang out and have fun for the day.’
Don’t run away with the idea that this is the next Daytona. It’s way cooler than that, though not so awesome without the banking. ‘This isn’t a race circuit like Lime Rock,’ he warns, ‘that’s primarily there for sanctioned motor sport events; this is really a country club but instead of polo ponies, a golf course and lakes we have a race track. We’ve put on a number of club events to give prospective members a taste of the track.’ There is a Lime Rock connection however; Monticello’s business development director Jason Bannerman held a similar post at the Connecticut circuit for ten years and only relocated in 2006 when the Monticello project got under way.
Weekends at Monticello are reserved for members. Arie describes a typical scenario: ‘we have a lot of people who bring families and we have karting activities for kids. We have Sullivan County airport just 10 minutes away which accommodates private jets. We have a helipad here and a lot of members come over from Connecticut and New Jersey by helicopter, just 20 minutes from their house and they are here and driving. The routine is, they call the concierge in advance and by the time they show up their car will be track prepped, tyre pressures and fluids checked and sitting in the pits ready to go. They drive for the day, have lunch, leave it in the pits and take off. The car is then parked back in our storage facilities for them.’
Driver training is also on the recommended schedule. ‘Instruction is important because most of our members come to us as complete novices. They are enthusiasts, they have the cars, but they haven’t had the time or a place to get out and drive their cars. So it’s often very humbling for these guys when they get here, being strapped in with a proper harness and suddenly to feel what the cornering forces are all about on a race track. Safety is paramount here and we have some of the best instructors and they give tuition in such a way that it doesn’t bruise an ego.’ There are a few who don’t need telling. ‘We have a handful of members who’ve raced professionally so they use the track a little differently. (NASCAR star) Jeff Gordon is probably the most serious guy we have. Jerry Seinfeld is also a member and had his car delivered here to the track, a lime green Exige 260 S.’
When the building work is complete there’ll be capacity for 500 members, and affiliations are 30-percent sold already. Arie describes the financial breakdown: ‘A resident membership is $125,000, and that buys you a 48-year licence to use the track and the facilities on an unlimited basis, and then you have annual dues that start at $9,000. The extras would be storing your car, service on your car, the obvious incidentals if you’re buying parts and labour, but again you have unlimited use of the track and the facilities. We also have national memberships for those that live outside the general area, people: are signing up from Florida and California and that is $50,000 also on a 48-year licence; the annual dues start at $3,500 and you are limited to 15 driving days per year but that makes a lot of sense for folks who don’t live in the area. We are hoping to get the local Lotus owner’s club (LOONY) to bring LOG here in maybe 2012.’
There’s always the potential for manufacturers to stage events on weekdays. Arie has his eye on the ball: ‘let’s say Lotus is launching Evora and wants people to try the car; so you might have people sign up online and have a week here with some Evoras and a dedicated event pavilion, people can try the car for the day, do some country drives, some track driving, and by the end of the day you have people wanting to write you a cheque!’
The proof of the pudding, as they say, is in the eating, and we can’t wait to get out in a Lotus and drive the circuit ourselves. A pair of 2-Elevens are wheeled out. I’m following Jason Bannerman in the other 2-Eleven so he can show me the lines. Arie has already given me a couple of dramatic demonstration laps in his 550bhp Mustang-powered Cadillac CTS-V, so I have a rough idea of where everything goes. I blend onto the members’ straight and after a quarter-of-a-mile I’m downshifting smartly and sliding into a double-apex, off -camber left, which is quite technical, then I pick up a little speed before entering an increasing radius right-hander followed by a constant radius left hander that pitches me onto the downhill South Straight. This is also nearly half-a-mile and in a race situation a great passing place. I could pit, but instead I keep going and enter the braking zone for a sharp left leading down to a 2nd gear constant radius right hander. These rising esses are demanding at even modest speed and I unwind a tad mid-turn, tap the brake, keep some speed on for what seems a never-ending late-apex left-sweeper that takes me into… outer space. This rapid ascent leads to a double-apex right-hander, then I unwind the steering onto a short straight, and then comes the most critical turn of the track, down three gears for a 90-degree right leading onto the main straight. It’s pure Nurburgring, the best part of a mile of beautiful fast right bias, flanked on the left by forest, as I hurtle into a dip that veers left, before braking very hard and down to 2nd for an uphill right with a 60ft jump in elevation, into a left-right switchback. Phew! This heralds the Cryptos Esses, so called because there are many ways to interpret them, and for sure you can be caught out, especially over the blind brow, and I’m flinging the car left and right – thank God for the 2-Eleven’s wonderful agility and instant responsiveness. Not forgetting the beautifully weighted shift, and grip too. We stay out for a couple more hectic tours and then slot back into the sliproad that brings us back to the Events Pavilion. That is some exhilarating circuit! As Lotus’s 1978 F1 World Champion Mario Andretti said when he opened the Club in July 2008, ‘it’s the ultimate playground for the car enthusiast. It’s got lots of blind spots where you can overdo things, and it would probably tae me a year before I could let my hair down here. It’s got plenty of what I call the pucker factor.’ I think we know what he means. Never has a round of High-Fives been more aptly administered.