Tired of your commuter car and itching for more excitement?
A planned racetrack aims to give drivers another place to take the wheel of a luxury sports car and unleash their inner speed-demon.
Executives with World Class Driving are planning to open Speed Vegas a few miles south of the M Resort on Las Vegas Boulevard at Sloan Road, about 11 miles south of the Strip.
Construction hasn’t started at the remote, barren site, and Speed Vegas’ website gives little information, including when the track will open and how much it will charge. But the site says customers can drive a Ferrari, Lamborghini, Porsche, Aston Martin and other vehicles at the “fastest” and “most extreme new experience in Las Vegas.”
Clark County commissioners last month approved project plans. According to county documents, the 85-acre attraction will include retail sales, restaurants and a lounge with alcohol.
Allison Raskansky, senior vice president of business development, declined Thursday to make World Class Driving CEO Aaron Fessler or other officials available for comment. She said the company would announce details soon.
Project-site owner Scott Gragson said the track would “hopefully” open by the first quarter of 2016. He said customers wouldn’t be able to race each other, but they would wear helmets and could floor it.
“The experience is so that you can drive fast,” he said.
Speed Vegas would be yet another nongambling attraction in America’s casino mecca, where tourists are increasingly ignoring card tables and slot machines to shop, dine, party in nightclubs and participate in other activities. Las Vegas, long a place where adults can cut loose, has plenty of extreme attractions, including gun ranges where people can shoot belt-fed machine guns, assault rifles and grenade launchers.
Also, there are several companies that already let drivers burn rubber in race cars and high-end road cars, including Exotics Racing, Dream Racing and the Richard Petty Driving Experience at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway.
The Speed Vegas site could have had a different fate. Gragson's group bought the land in 2013 for $11.75 million from casino giant MGM Resorts International.