MARK WAITE / PVT Patrons at the Spring Mountain Motor Sports Country Club grand opening pass by an artist's conception of what the Microtel Inn and Suites hotel will look like. MARK WAITE / PVT Co-owners John Morris, left, and Brad Rambo, cut the ribbon for the grand opening of the new Spring Mountain Motor Sports Country Club Saturday, while their wives, Jerra Morris, left, and Wendy Rambo, right, watch. Advertisement

The owners of Spring Mountain Motor Sports announced more than their satisfaction at the opening of the new country club during the ribbon-cutting ceremony Saturday.

Co-owner John Morris said future plans call for quickly moving on a hotel, a new Lotus building with a racquetball center, more simulators and 86 more garages. Plans are also being discussed for an exotic car dealership at the facility on Highway 160 at the south end of town.

"We're very excited. Just south of the facility here we're going to be building an 80-room Microtel Hotel which is a division of Hyatt hotels. That's going to have 23 suites. The balance is going to be standard guest rooms," Ted Torres, founder and president of IHDA, International Hotel Development Alliances, said at the ribbon-cutting ceremony.

The hotel will include an oversized Jacuzzi, complimentary breakfast, large, double, pillow top beds and a lounge and ballroom, he said.

Russ Meads, co-owner of Classic Homes, who built the Spring Mountain country club buildings, will help shepherd the hotel project through the zoning process and be the general contractor, Torres said.

"Hopefully sometime mid next year it will be open so you won't have to stay at any of the other facilities in town or go all the way back to Las Vegas. We'll have our own hotel on site," said Torres, who is based in Scottsdale, Ariz.

Torres said he will be partners with the co-owners of Spring Mountain and another partner in the hotel project, Rudy Prieto. The architects will be Butler Rosenbury Partners, of Springfield, Mo. It will be located on the south end of the 193-acre Spring Mountain Country Club property, with a new access road built off Highway 160.

A hotel was the top request by the membership in the driving club, he said. The partners signed a franchise agreement to be the only Microtel Inn and Suites in Pahrump, a hotel chain which already has 287 Microtel inns in the world with another 45 under construction.

"There will be a contractual agreement between the hotel and the track for usage of its rooms," Torres said.

Of course there will be rooms available for ordinary guests as well, he said, noting it will be the first hotel people see as they drive into Pahrump from Las Vegas.

Spring Mountain Motor Sports General Manager Dave Petrie said a lack of motel rooms in Pahrump prevented some members in the exclusive driving club from traveling to different events. He said drivers don't really want to stay in Las Vegas if local motels are full.

"They don't really want to drive that much. They just want to do their driving here. There again, there's a restriction here. We can't get many rooms, they're all filled up," Petrie said.

Pahrump developer Ray Wulfenstein received a conditional use permit from the Pahrump Regional Planning Commission in February for two three-story hotels and a casino just north of the motor sports club. The proposal has yet to be heard by the Nye County Commission.

Torres said they had a pre-application meeting with Nye County Planner Beth Lee to discuss the timing requirements and other aspects of the planning process. No plans have been presented to the planning department.

Morris said the clubhouse will provide a welcome diversion to families and spouses of drivers while they're on the track.

The $3 million clubhouse measures 8,000 square feet, including a 75-seat dining area; television monitors to view videotaped action on the track; an outdoor veranda and barbecue area; a 23-foot-tall viewing tower with a bird's eye view of the 3.5-mile track; a conference room; men's and women's locker room and granite bar.

Rambo recalled when they first bought the property in 2004 they had to change clothes in an outhouse. Back then the property only had a couple quonset huts as a driver's meeting area.

A 40-foot-long swimming pool is in the rear of the clubhouse as well as an exercise gym and children's play area. A trailer with a two-lane pistol range has also been installed.

"You're going to see a lot more people that want to come out here because there's more to do, bring their wives, bring their little kids, so they're not just here by themselves," Morris told the crowd.

Rambo said there are now over 160 members in the club. Morris said 45 percent come from Las Vegas, 33 percent from southern California and the rest from as far away as Canada and Chicago. A few local residents, like Jim Wulfenstein, also belong, Rambo said.

Classic memberships have a one-time initiation fee of $7,500.

From there it goes up to $35,000 for a charter membership and $100,000 for a corporation membership. In addition to the initiation fees, monthly dues range from $150 per month to $500 with the corporate membership plus a $60-per-day use fee.

Membership guarantees exclusive track time up to 16 days per month.