APEX Motor Club Turns Luxury Racetrack Access Into a Family Experience

APEX Motor Club’s pitch to affluent members is built around time on track, not status at the clubhouse. In Maricopa, Arizona, the private club combines motorsports access with a community where business leaders and families can share a passion for driving. Its scale and membership fees make the model exclusive; its appeal, COO Bill Barba says, comes from members relating to one another as motorsports enthusiasts.

“We’re similar to a country club, but instead of golf courses, we have race tracks,” Barba says. APEX’s 280-acre property includes two tracks, a six-acre skid pad, 96 trackside garage condos, a drivers’ lounge and a clubhouse. Members have access to 240+ track days a year.

Membership costs and the work of driving

The two main memberships carry substantial upfront and recurring fees. Gold costs $70,000 to join and $8,000 annually; Platinum costs $90,000 to join and $15,000 per year. Both include transferable membership, family access and the same 240+ annual track days. Platinum also includes event host days. APEX has added a one-year membership priced at $35,000 and an under-35 option with a $25,000 initiation fee and $4,500 in annual dues.

Those fees cover access to the club, not the cost of running a car. Members maintain their own vehicles, and the expenses of tires, brakes and upkeep vary with the car and how it’s used. “Motorsports is not a cheap endeavor,” Barba says. Some members handle basic maintenance with small crews; others arrive with five people analyzing lap data. For one driver, the aim may be to cut milliseconds from a corner. Another may simply want a safe place to drive a newly purchased high-performance car.

That range of motivations helps explain why track access alone doesn’t define the membership. APEX offers a shared setting for people who approach driving at different levels of intensity, while members take on the ongoing costs and logistics that come with their cars.

Cars, events and competition

APEX also earns business through relationships with luxury car companies and events. Lexus has brought vehicles into the club’s fleet, Aston Martin has an on-site presence in the garage condos, and McLaren Scottsdale is a corporate member. Ferrari, Mercedes and Porsche have rented the tracks for events that let customers experience their cars in a course setting.

Barba says performance cars can have capabilities that drivers rarely explore on public roads. In his estimate, 85% of the engineering in performance cars never shows up on the street. A driver who has owned several Porsche 911s, for example, may not have experienced the car’s full power until driving on a track with an instructor.

APEX members aren’t all interested in racing wheel to wheel. Barba estimates about 20% pursue that form of competition seriously. The club runs an 11-race series, with 10 to 25 participants in each race depending on the car. Others prefer to track their lap times without competing directly. As Barba puts it, members may want “to enjoy the tracking and their times, but not race.”

The distinction matters to the club’s identity. Barba describes its members as people with an enthusiasm for the vehicles and for driving them, rather than owners who mainly display an expensive car. At APEX, he says, the level of racing each person wants to pursue can differ, but the shared interest is the experience behind the wheel.

A family membership with a long horizon

APEX includes spouses and children in a membership and doesn’t age children out, a policy Barba says is intended to keep families involved across generations. The approach also reflects a broader interest among wealthy parents in passing down shared experiences and interests, alongside material assets.

“It’s a passion that passes down,” Barba says, recalling members’ stories about their first race cars, reaching a new speed and watching a child drive. For some families, motorsports creates a recurring activity that changes as children grow into drivers themselves.

The Bacon family illustrates that idea. Seth Bacon, who built and sold a logistics business focused on organ donations, was looking for a way to stay close to his teenage son, Jace, as he neared adulthood. Jace was approaching 16, starting work and balancing school as college came into view. Seth wanted an activity they could continue to share as his son became more independent.

After visiting APEX to watch races, father and son bought two Radical race cars and began driving. At Jace’s first race at another club in Nevada, the two competed against each other and Jace won. Barba says the moment carried particular weight for Seth: his son was competing as an equal alongside drivers who ran billion-dollar companies.

The family could take its cars to other tracks, but Seth says the community at APEX has added another dimension. Senior drivers and retired professionals check in on Jace’s progress, while members also ask about one another’s work and business plans. The social ties extend beyond the circuit, though Barba says cars, community and competition remain the club’s central draw.

For members, then, APEX offers more than a venue for occasional high-speed driving. It pairs frequent track access with a place to develop skills, compete at different levels and bring family into a shared pursuit. The lasting value may be less about a single thrilling lap than having a reason to return—and people to share the experience with.