I had to read that a few times to comprehend *mumble, mumble* 250k membership, *mumble mumble*, plus house.
*sigh*
By J.A. Ackley
Dec 21, 2023
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Flatrock Motorsports Park,
Flatrock Motorclub
Photography by J.A. Ackley unless otherwise credited
While bulldozers and heavy equipment worked away, cars turned laps around the Flatrock Motorclub track, giving VIPs and media members a glimpse of what’s to come.
Flatrock Motorclub, billed as a members-only driving resort, is less than an hour west of Knoxville on I-40 and is one part of the massive 800-acre Flatrock Motorsports Park. It’s the first phase of construction for a facility aiming to serve as a destination for many forms of motorsport.
The Motorclub portion consists of its own track surrounded by estate lots, club villa lots and garage lofts. For car collectors who enjoy tracking their rides, the garage lofts are particularly attractive.
Image Courtesy Flatrock Motorclub
The garage lofts offer space for up to four cars on the bottom floor, while the top floor has living space, including two bedrooms. Membership starts at $250,000 and includes access to the track for 200 days. Pricing for the garage lofts go for about the same price as a house in the upscale parts of the Knoxville area. Other at-facility perks include world-class amenities, fine dining, and a luxury clubhouse and spa.
Image Courtesy Flatrock Motorclub
Both club villas and garage lofts have been steadily selling. Crews are working on constructing those buildings now. Speaking of construction, crews still have to finish the track, too. Flatrock said it hopes to debut the course in the spring.
“We got our first layer of asphalt down, which was the milestone we were trying to shoot for before the winter months,” said Flatrock Motorclub founding partner Rusty Bittle. “We’ve got about 70, 80 days of curb and drainage to put in. Then we will pave out the next two layers of asphalt. We have some guardrail to put in, tire barriers.”
What one layer of pavement looks like.
As for the track itself, it consists of a 3.5-mile, 23-turn road course designed by Tilke, which has Circuit of The Americas and the Las Vegas Grand Prix, among many other world circuits, to its credit. Rich DeFrancisco, a lifelong racer who owns European Auto Garage, gave ride-alongs. DeFrancisco raved about the course.
“It has its own personality,” DeFrancisco said. “I loved the rolling hills, how they kept the grade. Something you can’t get a sense of is the view. You got the feeling of the mountains and of Tennessee here. There’s a section where it gets narrow and windy–it has a very country road feel to it.”
Daytona 500 winner and East Tennessee native Trevor Bayne also gave rides and enjoyed the track.
Trevor Bayne.
“It’s very unique,” said Bayne. “You know that 17[-degree banked] corner coming into the esses, coming out of the flat sections, and then you see this huge compression [from the banking] and you come off that and you’re in a slow-speed area–there are a lot of different areas to this race track and it has flow.”
The heavily banked Turn 3.
With excavation completed on the Motorclub track, the entire team at Flatrock Motorclub felt a sense of accomplishment.
“It was a definite milestone,” Bittle said of the completion of the first layer of paving for the track. “This was a 28-year vision. It made it real. A lot of people were skeptical that we would build this track. Getting that asphalt down made it real for other people, too.”
Rusty Bittle.
I had to read that a few times to comprehend *mumble, mumble* 250k membership, *mumble mumble*, plus house.
*sigh*
In reply to Noddaz :
In case a membership and a house isn't your thing, you might want to read this: https://grassrootsmotorsports.com/news/flatrock-motorsports-park-steps-closer-to-reality/
I wouldn't want to go off track on that corner shown in the picture above...it would be a pretty short slide on the grass before going off the cliff.
In reply to stuart in mn :
Yeah, it's a bit of a drop. With villas and lofts being on the other side of that corner, I bet they'll have solid walls in that one to prevent that from happening.
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