Have your car
and drive it too 

However, high-performance machines represent significant investments. You trust yourself, but don’t trust other drivers in the petri dish of modern-day traffic. And unlocking your car’s potential on the streets is generally frowned upon by those badge-wearing officers in their stodgy, black-and-white sedans.

It’s a conundrum that often leaves your prized car in the corner.

No more.

There’s a soon-to-be solution amid the straight and tall slash pines of Florida’s First Coast, where just outside St. Augustine on 480 acres adjacent to Palatka-Kay Larkin Airport, Roaring Pines Motor Club is coming to life.

The keystone to this exclusive motorsports community, built by racers for racers, is a 3.5-mile, 20-turn road course that will be FIA Grade 2 certified upon completion. And like a golf course where pin locations can be changed, the layout can be switched up to offer new challenges and customized teaching.

Roaring Pines features two main elements:

• A flowing 2.65-mile circuit featuring a 4,000-foot-long straight, esses, banked corners, and numerous elevation changes.
• A tight 0.85-mile street course designed to simulate urban layouts.

It is the brainchild of Scott Lagasse and Scott Lagasse Jr., the father-and-son racing duo whose organization, TeamSLR, is helping advance next-generation talent in all forms of racing.

TeamSLR is the reigning champion of Trans Am’s CUBE 3 Architecture TA2 Series, and undefeated through the first six races of 2026.

Soon, Roaring Pines will be the team’s headquarters and house its fleet of racecars.

The elder Lagasse, who turned back-to-back SCCA national championships in 1985–1986 into a career that spanned sports cars and stock cars, from GT World Challenge and IMSA to the top levels of NASCAR, highlights a lap around Roaring Pines:

“Turn 1 sets the tone. This medium-speed, 90-degree left turn rewards those who drive deep and slide their car to scrub speed. With ample runoff, creeping up on the limit can be done with confidence.

“Turn 2 is a right-hand corner and one of three option corners we can select for a given day. It introduces new challenges for drivers to learn additional techniques.

“Turn 3 is the final of a left-right-left combo and requires discipline to optimize your exit onto the 4,000-foot-long straight.

“The chicane maximizes the track’s fun factor. For those looking to drive or compete at tracks like Daytona and Watkins Glen, this chicane will help their preparation.

“With or without the chicane, Turns 4–6 add the most important discipline to a driver’s toolbox – thinking! It provides several options, but only one is quickest.

“Turn 4 begins the sequence. It requires hard threshold braking, where you roll speed through the apex. And it comes with choices: ‘Do I carry more speed and run wide, or slow down and save distance to 5A?’ It’s the same drill at 5A: ‘Do I early apex and carry speed, or slow down, turn sooner, and get to 5B quicker?’

“The approach to Turn 6 is the same, but on steroids. ‘Who designed this damn track?’ might be a common refrain, but the point is to require the driver to use thought to optimize this section, because if you just follow the road, you’re a toad!

“You exit Turn 6 and get aggressive with the throttle, going up through the gears into Turn 7 – a fast, left-hand corner.

“Turns 8–11 create the fastest section of the track. Turn 9 has an option section that is similar to Sonoma, but we can also set up the track to utilize the esses, which were inspired by COTA’s Esses. Depending on which configuration is used for Turn 9, Turn 10 can either be a continuation of the esses or a high-speed right-hander.

“Turn 11 is unique to Roaring Pines. It’s wide, with the inside lane inspired by Sonoma’s hairpin Turn 11 and an outside lane that’s similar to the Horseshoe at Daytona.

“Turns 12–14 are medium-speed corners, beginning with an open-radius left turn into a slightly tighter right turn that goes into an uphill two-story left turn that falls away on exit. Definitely one of my favorite sections.

“This sets you up for ‘The Streets,’ a distinct layout that emulates a street course. This encompasses Turns 15–19, and the entire section is just under a mile. It’s tight and strategic, with concrete walls and fencing, but with open space that allows some runoff. We can also use this section separately.

“As you exit this tight combination of 90-degree corners, it’s hard acceleration and rapid upshifts on the approach to Turn 20. This is ‘Clubhouse Corner,’ the final turn before the finish line. It’s a fast, banked right turn and it features a long, constant radius.

“From there, you catch your breath and do it all over again, just better and faster, all in a car designed to be driven.”