Aspen Motorsports Park, a Colorado Race Track, Lists for $23 Million

Your dreams of owning your own race track can finally come true.

Located in Colorado, Aspen Motorsports Park was built in 1963 and has hosted innumerable Porsches, Ferraris, and Formula racing cars ever since. Now, it’s up for grabs for $23 million.

The site includes 45 acres and 1,300 square feet of living space, with rights to build a home there up to seven times that size, according to the brokerage. The track is 1.1 miles in length. There is also a shorter off-road course and a karting track. The listing says the track is about a 10-minute drive from downtown Aspen and around four miles to the Aspen/Pitkin County Airport. A couple of miles away sits the former residence of the writer Hunter S. Thompson, known as Owl Farm.

For cars, the track offers a somewhat different challenge because of its elevation, which is around 7,900 feet for the city of Aspen. Driving at those heights—as Formula 1 drivers do at the Mexico City Grand Prix—means having to contend with less oxygen in the air and thus harder work for internal combustion engines. Aerodynamic downforce is also more difficult because of the thinner air. That hasn’t stopped racing in the region from having a real history.

“The first LeMans-style race through the unpaved streets of Aspen started in front of the Hotel Jerome in the summer of 1951. Yet as technology improved and the cars became faster, open-road racing became almost too exciting. Colorado Governor Edwin C. Johnson put an end to the fun in 1955, banning any racing on public roads,” according to the track’s website. “Some Aspen locals couldn’t imagine a summer without sports car races. They banded together to build the 1.1-mile track, and on July 27, 1963, the first race was run.”

These days, the Aspen Motorsports Park is home to the Aspen Racing and Racing Sports Car Club, whose days may or may not be numbered depending on what the next owner plans to do with it.

“Whether you envision a private motorsport experience or a one-of-a-kind luxury retreat, this property is a blank slate for the visionary buyer,” the brokerage’s listing says.

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The trend of ever-more-luxe private racing clubs has been increasing in recent years, which is perhaps what a buyer may have in mind, especially given the demographics of the area. It would be nice to see the track live on in some form, at any rate.