Members of the Circuit: Inside America’s Motorsport Clubs

Motorsport clubs are now a recognizable corner of the private club world, and they borrow heavily from the golf model: an initiation fee, annual dues and tiers. What they price is track time. At the top end, a family membership is $175,000, per Monticello Motor Club, which is more than five times the $34,000 median initiation fee for private clubs, per GGA Partners’ 2024 Club Leaders Perspective survey, as cited by Private Club Marketing. The numbers below come from club pages and press reports, with the year attached, because the spread between clubs is wide and the sources do not always agree.

The Fee Ladder at Monticello

Monticello Motor Club in New York publishes its fee schedule. An individual Silver membership carries a $92,500 initiation fee and $9,200 in annual dues for 15 days a season, with weekend driving limited to eight days, per Monticello Motor Club. Gold is $125,000 with $19,600 in dues and unlimited days, as published by Monticello Motor Club. A Junior tier, with a 35-year-old cutoff, is $45,000 with $5,300 in dues and eight days, per Monticello Motor Club. The family tier, for up to five family members, is $175,000 with $28,600 in dues, as published by Monticello Motor Club. On individual memberships, a second license for a family member costs half the initiation fee and half the dues, per Monticello Motor Club.

The structure is worth noticing. Access is the product, and the club prices it by the day, the way a golf club prices a full golf membership against a social one, per Private Club Marketing.

Thermal: The Fee Moves, the Land Costs More

The Thermal Club, outside Palm Springs, shows how fast a new club can reprice. Its membership fee was $85,000 in 2016, as reported by Motor Authority. In 2023 the figure was $175,000, with monthly dues that had doubled over five years from $1,200, per the Indianapolis Star, in a report reposted by Sheri Dettman & Associates. Thermal had 210 members, 75 properties and 135 lots sold, per the Indianapolis Star. Members must buy a lot and build a home within five years of joining at a total of roughly $5 million, per the Indianapolis Star.

That is the Thermal model: the membership is the smaller line item, and the real estate is the larger one. The club’s own homepage describes over five miles of track and 426 private acres, per Thermal Club, but does not list fees there, so treat these as reported figures from 2016 and 2023, not a current price.

The Mid-Market: Autobahn, Apex and Atlanta

Below the headline names, the entry points drop sharply. Autobahn Country Club charges a $50,000 initiation fee and $6,300 a year in dues, with 540 members as the club marked its 20th year, as reported by the Herald-News in Joliet in November 2024.

Apex Motor Club in Arizona lists five tiers: Under-35 at $25,000 with $4,500 in dues, Gold at $70,000 with $8,000 and Platinum at $90,000 with $15,000, per Apex Motor Club. It also lists a one-year option at no initiation and $35,000 in dues, and a corporate tier at $240,000 with $32,000, as published by Apex Motor Club. Atlanta Motorsports Park’s car and motorcycle memberships start at $25,000 with $299 monthly dues, and a karting membership starts at $3,500, per its membership page published by Atlanta Motorsports Park. The page is undated, and an earlier PCM piece from August 2026 cited a lower figure of $12,500 for this club, as published by Private Club Marketing, so confirm with the club before quoting it.

The Apex corporate and one-year tiers are the interesting ones for operators. A company can buy the corporate tier, and a newcomer can try the club for a year without an initiation fee, per Apex Motor Club.

The Circuit: A Public Track Goes Private

The newest entry is the most closely watched. Circuit of the Americas in Austin has announced The Circuit, a members club with a four-story clubhouse above Turn 1, per Circuit of the Americas. The club will offer a minimum of 250 days of dedicated track days, and the track will be limited to members, races and special events from 2027, as reported by Grand Prix on SI in October 2025. Amenities include a sky deck with two pools, race and golf simulators and executive conference rooms, per Grand Prix on SI. The club has published no fee. Track privileges start at $1 million a year for 250 members, as reported by Modern Luxury in an undated article. COTA’s Parris Mullins said there will never be more than 300 members, with North American membership limited to 250, per Autosport in October 2026. The two reports differ, and the club has confirmed neither the price nor the cap.

What This Means for Your Club

Learn from the tier design. Monticello sells days. Apex sells age, corporate and one-year access. A golf or yacht club with a flat membership could test a lighter entry tier.

Publish a dated schedule. Monticello and Apex list their tiers, and they are the easiest clubs here to compare. Where numbers circulate unconfirmed, they age quickly: Thermal’s reported fee moved from $85,000 in 2016 to $175,000 in 2023, per Motor Authority and the Indianapolis Star.

Price the property, not just the card. At Thermal, land and a home dwarf the membership fee, per Motor Authority. If your club has residential or storage assets, the fee is only part of what the member buys. Our look at private track economics goes deeper on that, and our guide to what a country club membership really costs sets the golf benchmarks, “Inside the Private-Track Boom: The Membership Economics of America’s Driving Clubs” and “How Much Does a Country Club Membership Really Cost? (And the Under-40 Option Most Clubs Don’t Advertise),” both published by Private Club Marketing.

Use community as the pitch. Autobahn’s owner talks about shared interest, per the Herald-News. That is a message any private club can sell.

Motorsport Club Membership FAQ

How much does a motorsport country club membership cost?

Published and reported initiation fees range from $25,000 at the low end of Atlanta Motorsports Park’s car and motorcycle memberships, per Atlanta Motorsports Park, to $175,000 for a Monticello family membership, per Monticello Motor Club, with Thermal reported at $175,000 in 2023, per the Indianapolis Star. Apex’s corporate tier is higher, at $240,000, per Apex Motor Club. Annual dues range from about $3,600 for Atlanta Motorsports Park’s car and motorcycle memberships, which is $299 a month times 12, per Atlanta Motorsports Park, to $28,600 for Monticello’s family tier, per Monticello Motor Club. Apex’s one-year option is higher, at $35,000 in dues, per Apex Motor Club.

Do motorsport clubs publish their fees?

Some do. Monticello, Apex and Atlanta Motorsports Park list them. We found no fees on the Thermal homepage or The Circuit page, so those figures come from press reports or are not yet available.

Is the initiation fee the whole cost?

No. Dues come on top, and in Thermal’s case land and a home, per the Indianapolis Star.

How We Did This

We opened and read each page linked above. Club pages are primary sources for their own fees but are undated, so we say so. Press figures are reported, not confirmed by the clubs. The Indianapolis Star figures were read on a repost, not on the Star’s own site. Fees for Thermal and The Circuit, and the cap at The Circuit, are unconfirmed. For a wider view of the category, see our look at how driving clubs program the concours season, “The September Circuit: Salon Privé, Monza and What Driving Clubs Learn From Europe’s Concours Month,” published by Private Club Marketing.

If your board is weighing a new tier, a new amenity or a fee change, Private Club Marketing has worked only with private clubs since 2009, per its country club marketing page published by Private Club Marketing. Talk with us.