There are many things one can do with a backyard: build a swimming pool, start a vegetable garden or create a barbecue area.
In the case of Alan Wilzig, he decided to build a Formula One racetrack in his backyard.
Sitting behind his 150-year-old Dutch Colonial-style home in Taghkanic, New York, Wilzig built a 1.15-mile-long, 40-foot-wide, bidirectional racetrack highly optimized for motorcycles and cars.
According to Wilzig, the course is the only personal-use, professional-quality private racetrack in the world. -The racetrack’s design can accommodate events even that of you see on mainstream like Wehrlein F1 races, but normally that would have to be a very special occasion.
Banking heir and racing enthusiast Alan Wilzing turned the backyard of his 150-year-old Dutch Colonial-style home in Taghkanic, New York, into a real-life, 1.15-mile-long, 40-foot-wide Formula One racetrack (pictured)
The track contains nine turns, 80 feet of elevation changes, grass-covered boundaries and FoamAir fences outside the corners to soften the impact in case of a driver goes off course (Pictured, Wilzig with girlfriend Clemence Lapeyre)
‘You’re going fast enough to make your a** pucker,’ Wilzig, 52, told The New York Post. ‘The f*****g hairs on your neck stand up.’
The track contains nine turns, 80 feet of elevation changes, grass-covered boundaries and FoamAir fences outside the corners to soften the impact in case of a driver goes off course.
After a motorcycle-riding friend of Wilzig was nearly killed by a car accident, the entrepreneur was turned off by the idea of street-racing.
Wilzig (pictured, left, with Lapeyre) was able to finance his property purchase by selling the Trust Company of New Jersey bank – of which he was CEO, president and chairman – in 2004 for $726million
‘After 100,000 miles of around-the-world motorcycle-riding without incident,’ he said. ‘I realized it was only a matter of time before somebody pulled out in a fancy car and hit me.’
Wilzig was able to finance his property purchase by selling the Trust Company of New Jersey bank – of which he was CEO, president and chairman – in 2004 for $726million.
Wilzig bought his 275 acres upstate in 2005 for $3.35million.
‘I bought this property with the intention of building a racetrack,’ said Wilzig. ‘Zoning here allowed for it – unlike in the Hamptons.’
When news first broke of the proposed track, neighbors feared noise and commercial usage. A court injunction halted construction in 2007.
Eventually Wilzig was able to continue and he completed the course in May 2010 at a total cost of around $3million.
Wilzig has had many friends zip around the the track – including celebrity hairdresser Oscar Blandi and film and TV director Ben Younger – but he most often drives with his 23-year-old girlfriend of nearly three years, Clemence Lapeyre.
Wilzig says Lapeyre is as passionate about racing as he is.
Wilzig (pictured) has had many friends zip around the the track but he most often drives with his 23-year-old girlfriend of nearly three years, Clemence Lapeyre
The entrepreneur also has a ‘moto museum’, a three-story steel-and-glass structure where he showcases his $5million collection of cars and bikes – including Ducatis, Suzukis and Bimotas (pictured)
According to Wilzig, his course is the only personal-use, professional-quality private racetrack in the world (Pictured, WIlzig’s ‘moto museum’)
‘The most fun I ever had here was this past summer when we raced motorcycles on the track every day,’ said Wilzig, who estimates he’s completed around 15,000 laps around his track.
‘I would wake up with my girlfriend at 7 in the morning, watch a live Formula One race from Singapore or Bahrain or wherever on TV, then go downstairs and make breakfast for my 10- and 11-year-old children – who, sadly, do not share my enthusiasm for racing.
‘After that, Clem and I would spend two hours chasing each other around the track before coming back, making love for a half-hour and then enjoying three or four hours in the pool with the kids. What could be a better day?’
And he means it when he says he has an ‘enthusiasm’ for racing.
The entrepreneur has a ‘moto museum’, a three-story steel-and-glass structure where he showcases his $5million collection of cars and bikes – including Ducatis, Suzukis and Bimotas. He also has a collection of 100 helmets and racing suits.
‘A guy buys a Ferrari driven by Steve McQueen for $27 million and nine times out of 10, he takes it out once a week so he can drive to the coffee place in Greenwich, Connecticut,’ said Wilzig.
‘Come here and you can actually drive the cars in the way they were meant to be driven. I can’t think of anything more fun.’