The inaugural running of The Thermal Club IndyCar Grand Prix has a target audience of 5000 paying attendees, and according to the track’s general manager, the private road course in Southern California is close to hitting its goal.
“We’re going to be pretty close to that 5000 number,” Thermal GM Nicholas Rhoades told RACER. “It’s really ramped up in the past few weeks; we’ve got a lot more ticket sales here lately. VIP ticket sales have been really good. I think we’re sold out about the VIP options.”
With general admission tickets starting at $475, the hope is to raise more than $2 million cover most of the expenses involved with paying IndyCar’s seven-figure sanction fee and the other associated costs of hosting Thermal’s first professional mo tor race.
Among the changes from last year’s non-championship IndyCar “All Star” race, Thermal has extended the grandstands that run down the back straight that runs from Turn 6-7 and expanded its hospitality and VIP locations.
“It’s definitely a general admission kind of idea, except we are putting up enough grandstands to house everyone. So there will be a spot on the grandstands for pretty much everybody to sit, but there will be other options around the paddock area for people to go as well,” Rhoades explained. “And the viewing berm that we had last year (inside Turn 15-16) where we had the suites and the grandstands, we took the whole thing and flattened it down and turned it into grandstands this year.”
It’s unclear if The Thermal GP will remain on IndyCar’s calendar in 2026, but among those who’ve joined the club and built homes that line the circuit, there’s great enthusiasm to bring the members-only facility into the spotlight as a venue that can hold a major motor race.
“Everybody’s super excited; all the members are really looking forward to it,” Rhoades said. “We’ll have a lot of members here watching from their homes, and we’ll have quite a good turnout this year, as far as spectators as well.”
