The Thermal Club $1 Million Challenge. March 22 -24.
This weekend will see the running of the much anticipated, Thermal Club $1 Million Challenge, a new event on this year's IndyCar calendar.
History
The Thermal Club is an exclusive, private, luxury motorsports country club and was established in 2012 at Thermal in California’s Coachella Valley, just outside of Palm Springs.
Membership requires the purchase of one of the 70 luxury villas that overlook the circuit and deemed one of the defining attributes of the club, thus creating an exclusive venue which caters for the automotive enthusiast's every need. Members have access to three race tracks, a kart track, autocross, skid pad, tuning shop, garage, detail shop, club house and spa.
In 2022 talks were held regarding the Thermal Club hosting IndyCar's 2023 pre-season test; IndyCar subsequently held its 2023 pre-season test at the venue in February. In September 2023, IndyCar announced that 2024's test would be concluded by the $1 Million Challenge non-championship race on the Thermal Club's Twin Palms layout.
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Track
The track was opened in 2014 and was initially expanded in 2015. It then underwent further expansion in 2017. It is over five miles in length with multiple layouts, several of which can be run simultaneously.
Twin Palms Layout
The Twin Palms layout has 19-turns and is 3.067 miles, (4.936 kms) long. The layout includes most of that South Palm circuit and consists of sweepers, tight corners, long straightaways and elevation changes.
The Event
The race is designed to be a "made-for-TV" all-star event, with a $1.756 million purse, the largest in IndyCar Series history outside of Indy 500.
First Place: $500,000
Second Place: $350,000
Third Place: $250,000
Fourth Place:$100,000
Fifth Place: $50,000
Sixth through 27th Place: $23,000 each
The race weekend format is quite different from that of a regular IndyCar race, with the somewhat intricate format for the event explained by Racer.com
https://racer.com/2024/03/14/indycar...l-race-format/
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Open Test Session 1
Friday, Mar 22
12:00 PM - 2:00 PM ET
Open Test Session 2
Friday, Mar 22
5:00 PM - 8:00 PM ET
Open Test Session 3
Saturday, Mar 23
12:00 PM - 2:00 PM ET
Open Test Session 4
Saturday, Mar 23
4:00 PM - 6:00 PM ET
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Qualifications - Group 1
Saturday, Mar 23
8:00 PM - 8:12 PM ET
Qualifications - Group 2
Saturday, Mar 23
8:27 PM - 8:39 PM ET
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Heat 1
Sunday, Mar 24
12:30 PM - 12:45 PM ET
Heat 2
Sunday, Mar 24
12:45 PM - 1:05 PM ET
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The Thermal Club $1 Million Challenge.
Sunday, Mar 24
NBC: 12:30 PM ET,
Sky Sports F1: 4:30 PM GMT, 4:30 PM UTC