Lap of luxury

WANT TO 'EAT, SLEEP, RACE, REPEAT'? THIS COUNTRY CLUB HAS YOU COVERED

- JAMES MILLS

YOU’D LIKE Tim Rogers. As the 66-year old accumulated his first fortune, from buying in fuel and selling and distributing it to 7-Eleven stores around America, he and his wife, Twanna, dreamed big. Sitting in bed one morning, drinking the first coffee of the day and peering through the window at the perfectly manicured garden of their country club villa, they imagined a members club for those who found California’s existing country club scene rather pedestrian.

Just like the hundred-plus country clubs dotted around the desert-scape of the Coachella Valley, at Tim and Twanna’s imagined club, members would be able to rub shoulders with like-minded, high-flying individuals or retire to their multi-million dollar luxury villa. However, the sound of a driver striking a ball would be replaced by the sound of drivers firing up V12s, twin-turbo V8s and flat-sixes, and the fairway would be swapped for the straightaway.

After selling a chunk of gas stations and convenience stores, team Rogers set to work on making their dream come true. They joined forces with an upmarket property developer and personally funded the creation of the Thermal Club, to the tune of US$175m.

And now here I am, lying in bed with my first coffee of the day, peering out of floor-to-ceiling glass doors, admiring the perfectly presented racing circuit directly below the private terrace. An app tells me who is on track, what they’re driving and how quick, or not, the lap times are. Downstairs, seen through a viewing window in the kitchen, sits a fleet of fifteen desirable sports cars waiting for me to climb aboard. All I have to do is pull on a race suit and within a minute or two I could be trading lap times with my neighbours.