The desert’s ever-growing sports calendar is shifting to a new gear this spring, compliments of The Thermal Club IndyCar Grand Prix. Hosted at the eponymous club’s Twin Palms track, the three-day racing event (held from March 21 to 23) represents an ongoing graduation of the track’s and club’s global visibility. After hosting official IndyCar pre-season testing in 2023, the club opened its gates to spectators for the first time with last year’s $1 Million Challenge. It was a no-points, nationally televised event that represented IndyCar’s first exhibition race since 2008. Featuring a 20-lap crescendo race won by three-time IndyCar series champ Alex Palou of Chip Ganassi Racing, the tapestry of high-end amenities, an idyllic setting, and a challenging track received cumulative applause from racers and teams alike.
This season, the club is licensing an entirely new level. Slated as the second event in the NTT IndyCar Series schedule, The Thermal Club (and a national TV audience) will witness an official points race. Among a host of world-class drivers, the event will include the desert presence of Palou, two-time defending Indy 500 winner Josef Newgarden, and 2022 Series champion Will Power.
“I’m really looking forward to seeing how this race plays out,” Nick Rhoades, track manager at The Thermal Club, says of the debut Grand Prix. “This track – it’s a different mentality of track than what most people have seen raced before. There’s going to be a lot of strategy in determining who takes the race; the team that makes the best decisions with tires will have a lot to say about who wins the Thermal Grand Prix.”
Open Wheel = Open Gates
A mix of means and motor oil, The Thermal Club isn’t merely a plush, 490-acre east-end playground for its members; rather, it is among the most unique club settings in the country. For those appreciative of country club analogy, Thermal’s further opening of its gates to the masses is akin to the hallowed Los Angeles Country Club serving as host of the US Open in 2023. After the $1 Million Challenge saw a few thousand non-members enter the properly for the first time, the inaugural Grand Prix will witness approximately thrice the spectator foot traffic across the event’s three days, culminating with the noon race on Sunday, March 23.
“We’re not a traditional set-up for spectators,” says the aptly-named Rhoades. “Most racetracks, of course, they have their fan areas and things like that. So, we’ve put a lot of time into ensuring that we’re properly set up for more fans on the grounds this year – just lots of signage and ensuring that people know where to go.”
Per last year’s exhibition, drivers will take on the club’s Twin Palms layout, a 3.067-mile raceway that encompasses most of Thermal’s South Palm Circuit, intertwined with portions of the North Palm track. In prep for the official race, the club endeavored minor track tweaks, including a re-profile of one corner and an extension of its pit row (which now sports as many pit lanes as the Indianapolis Motor Speedway). From a fan’s vantage point, following the 2024 event, the club’s lessons will serve as a benefit for spectators. Even for those who’ve never before been to a professional race of any kind, the Grand Prix looks to be a straight-up gas. “We want that really nice experience for the general-admission fans,” Tim Rogers, founder of The Thermal Club, says of an array of fan activations, including an 80-page print program. “Along with a DJ, we’ll have live music during race breaks, food trucks, a bounce house, and more.”
A unicorn setting for IndyCar by way of its affluence and intimacy, the grandstand orientation for general-admission guests will be exceptional. Situated adjacent to some of the club’s most impressive homes, a north-facing berm raised about 40 feet above the track will find spectators well-perched to view ample action. With seating running concurrent to the South Palms’ longest straightaway, fans will be a mere 60 feet removed from world-class drivers racing in excess of 190 mph. “There are some areas that are very technical, along with some areas that are particularly challenging,” Rogers says about the run. “On the carousel [section], they’re turning so many Gs that the drivers need to hold their neck [in place]; a couple of the drivers commented [last year] about how much pull there was on their neck. The track can be quite a workout.”
The collective craning of fans’ necks, however, will prove far more benign. In contrast with most IndyCar layouts, which see cars occasionally whizzing by fan perches, Thermal’s elevated grandstand setting will enable spectators to see approximately three-quarters of the race drama from GA seating. With Twin Palms sporting a map of 19 turns across a demanding layout of tight cornering, sweepers, straights, and subtle elevation changes, the route is one of both strategy and nuance. “There are a few corners here which are different than any track you can go to – the carousel [section] being one of them,” Rhoades explains. “And there’s also the corner on the infield that’s very different than most any other track. This is also a very deceiving track as far as elevation change; when you look at it or drive it, you can kind of see it or feel those changes and notice how the car is responding. But, when you walk the track, you can really see it. You’ll notice it more at one mile an hour than you might at 100 miles per hour.”
Drivers and fans should anticipate a Grand Prix recipe of tire and tactic. “One of the really interesting things is tire-wear,” Rhoades says. “From the perspective of the drivers, last year’s races were so short that tire-wear didn’t really come into play, except for the 20-lap [race]. At the end of that, you could see the guys who saved tires versus the guys who hadn’t with the difference in speed. I think that aspect will make it very interesting for a full race; we’ll be seeing a lot of different tire strategies this year, along with a lot more passing, … which will make for a very entertaining show.”
Sidebar – Getting “Hot” in Here
For the uninitiated, unversed, inexperienced, and, well, just plain petrified – a “Hot Lap” experience upon this prime pavement provides but a taste of what the professional drivers will try to tame. I buckle up (tight) in the side saddle, with Rhoades behind the wheel of a BMW M3 Competition Sedan. The well-versed track manager approaches this sample ride across portions of the property’s Desert and North Palm circuits with the intensity of a man drinking iced tea and working a crossword on a park bench. He utters pre-ride words to his passenger regarding the Grand Prix ring in the Hot Lap, moments before the M3 engine roars.
“IndyCars have that sound, that adrenaline,” Rhoades says. “The speeds will be extremely high for the Grand Prix – approaching nearly 190 miles an hour on the straightaways. And for people coming out here to watch a race for the first time, it’s amazing to see how much of a physical test this is for the drivers [and] how much stamina it takes.”
As a ride that’s far more pedestrian than what Grand Prix entrants will endure and endeavor gets underway, there’s no easing in, no subtlety. It’s an immediate “vroom!” into the opening turn, and I instantly find my knuckles white, my head bobbed and perspired, and my core clenched in full. A two-lap mix of exhilaration and terror, imminent tire marks, and brakes cue countdown signage, and I brace for impending swerves and upcoming turns.
This experience, of course, is fun for some, shock/awe/terror for others, and a vocation for a chosen few. Upon (merciful) completion and a full stop, Rhoades remarks that the track’s S-shaped portion was just endeavored at approximately 85 miles an hour. IndyCar drivers cut straight through the section at somewhere around 150 mph.
With my heart rate still pounding and flop sweat still budding, such a metric seems both unthinkable and curiously laudable. After a moment on still pavement and a glass of water, I couldn’t shake the gravity of the 150 metric while driving home, observing the Washington Street speed limit in my Hyundai Elantra.
