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After ticket shock for IndyCar's Thermal Club $1M challenge, some lucky fans will pay less

Pato O'Ward of Arrow McLaren (middle) rounds turn 13 ahead of teammate Felix Rosenqvist and behind Scott Dixon of Chip Ganassi Racing during day two of NTT IndyCar Series open testing at The Thermal Club in Thermal, Calif., Friday, Feb. 3, 2023.

IndyCar fans were greeted with sticker shock in October when they found out the cost of attending the series' made-for-TV $1 million challenge at The Thermal Club just outside Palm Springs, Calif. March 22-24.

The price of admission per ticket for a crowd of just a couple thousand inside the gates of the private community? $2,000 (plus $80 in fees).

This week, IndyCar reached out to its “IndyCar Nation” members offering $500 weekend tickets to the first 100 members to claim them for the Thermal All-Star race weekend.

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That's quite a haircut off the original price, which was widely criticized as being out-of-touch, especially when you could have attended the Las Vegas Formula 1 race weekend for the same or even less.

The steep prices for access to the event weekend seem to reflect the exclusivity of the venue as a famed gated community filled with $5 million homes and a lavish facility that its owners, Tim Rogers and his wife, Twanna, have spent $275 million to bring to life. As of 2023, The Thermal Club had 210 members and currently included 75 homes and 135 lots sold — each large enough to accommodate a 30,000 square-foot home that purchasers have to promise to build within five years of buying. Monthly membership fees are well over $2,000, on top of a $175,000 initiation fee.

Following the announcement of IndyCar’s $1 Million Challenge the day of the 2023 season-finale, Penske Entertainment officials did emphasize fans would be permitted in the series’ second trip to The Thermal Club, but there was a clear emphasis the purported All-Star event was being billed as a ‘made-for-TV event’ not meant to be seen or compared to just another race on the calendar.

This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: IndyCar offers $500 tickets for $1 million challenge at Thermal Club