For those of us that prefer the smell of octane more than the smell of freshly baked cookies, finding the right house can be hard. (Or hard on spouses.) That’s because there’s no MLS filter for “Racetrack Attached,” even if we all agree there should be. Car Properties lists several options that meet our criteria—if not especially our budget.
Sure, there’s the $33.8 million Greenwich, Connecticut, house with 30-car garage mahal. Or there’s even Oregon Raceway Park for a cool $8.5 million, provided you’re willing to drive out a solid two hours away from Portland to race in farmland.
We’re looking for something a little more affordable, perhaps a little grittier. Which is how we arrived at Oktaha, Oklahoma’s Outlaw Motor Speedway. It’s a $2.8 million slice of heaven an hour from Tulsa with a 3/8-mile dirt oval just begging for a midget, tube-frame racer, or maybe a kei car. When it’s your property, you make the rules. The track sits on more than 100 acres, so you probably won’t bother the neighbors much—if you see them at all. If you’re expecting municipal water and sewer, you may want to temper those expectations a little and/or consult a map. Considering its proximity to not much at all, the property features two 3,000-gallon water tanks, two ponds and two septic tanks.
Better news: You’ll have room for about 7,000 friends to sit in the grandstands to watch you whip around in the dirt, and 10 VIP rooms with A/C for the family to sit in comfort. There’s a gift shop and commercial refrigerators to hawk buns and stickers, even a two-bedroom apartment because when you’re not racing, you should probably sleep.
Dirt-track fantasies aside, small independent racetracks in the U.S. have been dying slowly and painfully. It’s a double whammy of rising insurance and operating costs, and low margins for tracks like Outlaw Motor Speedway, which are far away from major metro areas. It’s a good thing that sites like Car Property make it easier for us to daydream, except we’re hoping that someone actually makes it their reality so tracks like these can live on.
Got a tip? Email us at tips@thedrive.com