1952 was a pretty crazy year. Elizabeth the Second became the queen in the UK, the U.S. detonated the first ever hydrogen bomb, The Today Show debuted, and, arguably, the scariest of all, is that it was a leap year. Along the way, something important happened for us car fanatics, too, and that was the construction of “The Fastest Road in the West,” which you may know by its official name: Willow Springs International Motorsports Park. Okay, maybe you haven’t heard of it, but you’ve likely seen it! Its proximity to Los Angeles made Willow Springs a lightning rod for car culture along the coast, with YouTube channels from Hagerty to Donut to Throttle House all filming there at certain points. The track is also a backdrop for numerous films, including Ford v Ferrari, which used Willow Springs to tell the true story of how Ford was so filled with American rage that it built the GT40 (which extensively tested at Willow Springs), to kick the Prancing Horse’s rear.
In 2024, the historic track was listed for sale, and it created a bit of panic in the SoCal car community, considering other local tracks like Fontana and Irwindale closed shop and are in various stages of redevelopment or demolition. Thankfully, the track was bought in part by Porsche restomod brand Singer Vehicle Design and *checks notes* a private equity firm? Shit. Surely this will be horrible for everyone involved, right?
“You can do a lot by honoring people’s interests and also make it profitable,” said Scott Patton, a partner at PE firm CrossHarbor Capital Partners. “I’m sure, over time, pricing will evolve, but the intent is to make it both a very viable, very robust public asset and for people to be able to engage here, whether they’re a member or not.”
The use of the word “member” might make your stomach turn a bit with thoughts of private country clubs or a parallel like Thermal Club, where we got hands-on with the Mustang GTD. But events like Saturday’s “Willow Springs Reimagined” really gave the vibe that CrossHarbor wants to keep this place open and available to the public.
“When you walk around here, 90% of the people are buying public access tickets. That body heat is absolutely crucial,” he said. “The place doesn’t feel the same without it, so that will always be a really important part of the element of the place.”
Paton told me the firm specializes in “experiential real estate,” specifically mentioning their experience with ski resorts like the Yellowstone Club in Montana, which I’m sure John Dutton has beef with. While properties like a ski resort would surely give them the knowledge on how to approach such a massive endeavor, Paton admits they don’t have automotive expertise, which is where Singer comes in.
“You want to bring the people who have real, authentic interest in whatever that interest is you’re trying to cultivate, and no one has more enthusiasm than Maz,” he said of Singer CEO Mazen Fawaz. “So we bring them in as partners, we bring [Sonoma] Speedway in as a partner. You want it to deliver the best, you’ve got to bring the best together, and that’s what we do.”
I don’t know the level of PR training that Paton has, but I really did get the vibe that there’s a care at preserving the communal aspect of the track, which I’m sure is what families like the Schumans would like.
“To tell you the truth, I’m really excited,” said Fred Schuman, who was there with his wife, Suzanne, and daughter Lauren. “We come to this track a lot, and it’s been for sale for a long time, and it’s really exciting to see that Singer [and others] got together and bought this track and are going to make something bigger out of it.”
Apologies to Lauren Schuman (left) for only getting a photo with her hair in her face. I should’ve taken another, you were right. “I first drove this track in 1986,” said Suzanne.
“I’m about the same,” said Fred, adding, “and then we hadn’t returned for a long time, then, and 10 years ago, we got really into it.”
The couple is members of the Porsche Club of America, with pops owning a GT4 and mom owning a 911S. Coming here for as long as they have, they can really speak to the changes that the place has undergone, and the differences are super apparent.
“I was only here at a Big Willow about three months ago, and it didn’t look anything like this,” Fred said. “None of the buildings were here. They hadn’t fussed with Streets [of Willow] at all yet.”
All over the place, there’s something new to see: repaved tracks, revamped karting area, buildings where the Singer’s VIPs were hanging out that I assume will stay more VIP focused, and even a super swanky clubhouse area near the renovated Streets of Willow, which is where people like Sanford Mann were going for rides in Porsche GT4 Clubsport Cars.
“We actually were invited by Singer, and we took our own vehicles out,” Mann said before talking about a lead-follow hot lap experience that was open to some of the VIPs. “We thought we were pushing some edges, and then going into the GT4 club sport with a professional driver was a whole different level.”
Mann is the Chief Executive Officer at American Hartford Gold, a company focused on gold and silver retail. If the Schumans represent the everyday person that have kept this track alive for years, then Mann is absolutely the new money that investors also want to target.
“I’m about to go to the real estate tour for a membership,” Mann said. “Fifty home sites or something like that, and then there are two levels of membership. One is a member, second is a member-owner. I figure I have a ski house in Deer Valley, why don’t I have a race house?”
The businessman, who has a Singer that’ll be finished in Spring with a second on the way, was a first-time visitor to the track who only knew it from time in his full motion racing simulator and from Ford v Ferrari, but the remodel definitely scratched the itch for him.“What’s interesting to me is even with the remodel, it still has all the heritage and the look of Willow Springs,” he said. “This is a racetrack that had no barriers, so when you lost it, you lost it,” going on about how nice it is that runoff has been added to the Streets of Willow to make it more comfortable for drivers with different experience levels.
Mann mentioned he chatted with Singer founder Rob Dickinson in Monterey, where he was shown early plans of the track by the automaker.
“I said, ‘Did you leave turn nine?’ He goes, ‘I did.’ I go, ‘you’re gonna slaughter people. That’s fucked up. That’s just nasty.”
For reference, turn nine is the final part of the track that features a very high speed, very long hairpin before the front straight that suddenly tightens a lot. A lot of people are surprised by that suddenly sharp apex, leading to a lot of folks going off and eating dirt and bushes at the turn’s exit. It’s horrible, I hate it, everyone hates it, and it would make perfect sense to add runoff there. So why aren’t they doing it? From Mann:
“He said no. We want to keep the original integrity of the track. And that was awesome.”
The presence of people like Mann shows investors that interest in a newer, upmarket Willow absolutely exists in the high rollers, and the 5,000 people in attendance prove that there is a grassroots love of the track, too. I just hope that new owners like Paton recognize that and see how both of those worlds can coexist at Willow. But maybe take a word from Suzanne and Fred’s daughter, Lauren:
“Maybe update those bathrooms a little bit.”
Paton said that the sequence of remaining renovations isn’t yet solidified, but one of their focuses in the future is renovating Big Willow and making the facility safer for all.
And Here Are More Photos To Get You On Your Way
Top graphic photo: Griffin Riley
“I’m sure, over time, pricing will evolve[…]”
And there’s the PE philosophy leaking through
I’m more skeptical after seeing the photos, however, is there more profit in regular low dollar admissions or sporadic high dollar memberships? I have not idea, but if they decide the later, they will have bled it dry in 5 years and it’s gone.
Yeah I suspect there will be a few incidents and at some point they will decide this would be a lot more fun with the poors around. But looks really neat for now at least.
A) I am skeptical this won’t turn out to be the usual PE bait-and-switch.
B) “Private Equity” is way to generic of a term that’s getting horribly misued these days. Private equity just means any investment not in public markets. Parents giving their kids 10 grand to start a garage business is technically private equity (and in the mid 1900’s that’s mostly what the term referred to). What the “PE” firms do where they use a company’s own assets to buy them out, kick out fat recap dividends, and then leave the debt-ridden corpse a husk of its former glory used to be called Corporate Raiding, and I propose we return to that term.
I agree with that. I think we should quit with the “private equity firm” euphemism.
“I figure I have a ski house in Deer Valley, why don’t I have a race house?”
If the American Dream is to own a home and raise a family and be independent, surely this is the American Fantasy. Fully approved.
Having been around or at companies that were purchased or sold to PE, or part of a PE deal (most of which are automotive industry) the initial hype and start is usually great and all smiles and upbeat… What comes next to get the value of the asset purchased/sold is when the mask comes off, and it’s usually Medusa having a bad hair day to the third power. But… I hope I am proven wrong on this and it works out for the all and a track is saved…
Genuinely read the banner as ” Car Show At Willow “
me too, what am I missing?
with the quotes! haha
OH!! lol
I went back and forth up to the banner, to your comment about 5 times..
Never going to work. Cross Harbour using their experience at Yellowstone shows why. If they can’t keep a cartoon bear from stealing picnic baskets how on the hell are they going to run this? Hell you know the bear, how many bears are running around wearing a tie and a hat?
I forgot to add this is a joke because several people on here think I actually mean posts like this if I don’t post I was joking.
“Hey, Booboo! You’re going to have to shave a few tenths of a second off those lap times if you’re ever going to get away with that pic-a-nic basket!”
Ranger Smith going for the overtake in his surplus Korean War era Jeep
The private equity involvement does not bode well. And I join those who see this an unwelcome step toward a reserve only for the wealthy.
The Aspen of race tracks.
I do know that the new ownership group has raised the track rentral fees quite a bit. They had been at $12k for a 3 day event and they’re going to $35k for the same 3 day event next year. And that’s with no re-pave yet at Big Willow through 2026. My understanding is the plan is to shut down for 18 months starting in 2027 to do the work. Just wondering how long the club level groups will be able to continue using the facility?
None of the smaller, non-exotic sports (read rich people) car clubs, will be able to afford that.
I get that saving a track is a good thing, but this already looks like a situation where they are outlining a rich people playground, and selling the rest as a “brand” to people who can now not afford to enjoy track time. “but I have the T-shirt”, I used to take my civic there, but I can’t afford the membership”. Singer being part of it makes me more sure, not less that it will be for only the rich.
I didn’t attend the event and I admittedly don’t know full details of Singer’s plans but I’ve already seen complaints from those who did that while private equity isn’t destroying WSIR, it’s certainly raising the bar for entry. I heard that they’re removing the Balcony and that drifting will no longer be allowed on Streets. WSIR desperately needed some improvements but I dunno if I’m on board with this.
No drifting would be a huge shame, and I honestly feel like that tracks. If they have houses all over, I doubt folks would want to hear, see, and smell a bunch of kids burning rubber all day outside their million-dollar homes. Adding a bunch of runoff is also necessary for your high-speed runs, which drifting just isn’t by virtue of what it is. I guess we just wait and see for now?
At the end of the day it’s a race track. If you choose to live next to a race track, you choose to live next to noise and smells, whether those be from loud race engines on 110 octane screaming around the track or from burning tires on a drift sled. Cutting out drifting seems like an elitist move.
Drifters are mostly lower cost, they look beat, and they don’t spend money on suits and $35 burgers for lunch. Of course they don’t want them bringing down the “value” of the experience.
I don’t deny that, but it just reinforces my original point.
Then do it on a Tuesday when otherwise you would be closed.
I do wonder if a track owner could profit by buying several slow cheap cars and rent out time racing on the track after signing a waiver.
But maybe fans would pay to watch?
“Willow Springs Might Be The One Thing In The Car World That Private Equity Doesn’t Destroy”. I guess you hedged with the use of the word ‘might’ but man it’s doing some heavy lifting here.
Obviously, only time will tell, but my thinking is basically that this is Willow Springs, NOT Thermal. Thermal is in the middle of Palm Springs, where you’ll always have an upper-class clientele ready to screw around at the resorts, spas, and party at the various music festivals held in the valley, while Rosamond (where WS is) isn’t exactly a hotbed of activity. I’d comfortably say that the only thing worth substantial amounts of money there is Edwards AFB, with very little reason for the common person to go out there unless they already live there. With all that in mind, I truly do think that the track would suffer and die if its prices were cranked through the roof, because most locals likely wouldn’t be able to afford it, and nobody has a reason to just go hang out in Rosamond/Palmdale/Lancaster already.
In Palm Springs, there’s surely someone just vacationing there already who might passively be interested in cars and thinks, “what’s another 500 to drive a fast car around a country club?” In Rosamond, you don’t have that person; you have local farms, and that’s pretty much it. If the PE firm succeeds, I think the track becomes the thing to do that brings folks to the area in general, but they can’t make it prohibitively expensive, lest they want it to be a ghost town. Also, it would just make me really sad and the firms need to keep that in mind
The problem with that is track rental fees for next year are shooting waaaaaay up. The rental fee for Streets of Willow is *tripling* while the rental fee for Big Willow (keep in mind, no improvements) is more than doubling. Once they repave Big Willow, I’m pretty sure they’ll also end up tripling the fees on that track from where they are now.
Comparing that to rental fees at, say, Buttonwillow or Chuckwalla, and the new Willow Springs fees are significantly higher. I know they need to justify their investment, but most organizations (probably including ours) cannot afford to host events at Willow Springs with those prices. Our client base just cannot pay that much.
Being reasonable, I *think* we could make Streets work at double its current price. Triple its current price and you’re either gonna pack out your events to the gills with cars (providing a terrible experience for all) or are looking at a $500 day just for registration, excluding gas and consumables.
My guess is that a PE firm will not be concerned about your sadness. In my thoughts a PE is a Trojan horse, a big shiny object that gets everyone’s immediate attention, then unloads overnight and the contents kill everything in sight
I enjoyed this, good to see a track not just surviving, but planning for the future.
There are some great pictures there too bad there is not text attached other than the attribution to the last ones. Good to see an Iso Rivolta, I think that’s worth a line of text or a least a couple of words.
Sorry, I approached this one as a journalist first, photographer second, which is why I didn’t caption each shot; I didn’t want it to take away from the meat of the piece. I’ll be better about it in the future, though, don’t want y’all to feel underserved!
One of my favorite music videos was filmed here: https://youtu.be/n3DF7Mufmhw?si=-Ms68ZTQQLjtJ_pJ
Wow, I’d never heard of the Amps. What a great Deal!
Yes, very very trained in PR. But “pricing will evolve” almost certainly means “we will take losses to acquire a captive consumer group and then exploit them.”
The only way I could see this more or less working as they describe is to acquire more tracks. About the only ski resort company making real money is Vail, and since they’re public they tell you how they do it: https://investors.vailresorts.com/static-files/3878932b-b689-480d-b3ff-12ba6ae740e1
To a large extent memberships, a network of tracks to create perceived value that most will never use, big ticket ancillary offerings, and monetizing off-peak times is probably the only way to make money.
Thanks for that Vail link. As a Colorado skier who’s been priced out of the market, that’s really interesting. “Lock them in and raise the prices faster than inflation because nobody’s making more ski areas”. Hmm, sounds like a racetrack…
23 years ago, I could buy a 10 day pass for Telluride for $300. Now it would cost me $1200, more than double the rate of inflation – and paying walk up prices would be $2450.
“Priced out of the market”. You crystal ball just showed you Willow’s future.
Doc Hudson lives!