FIRST CAR, FIRST LAP
Ray builds and races his first car at fifteen — a teenager with a wrench, a stopwatch and an obsession that never cooled.
Our Story
DRIVEN BY ONE MAN’S OBSESSION
MONTAGNO GP did not begin as a business plan. It began at fifteen, in a garage, with a teenager who couldn’t stop chasing the next tenth of a second. This is the vision of Ray Lay.
Ray Lay
Founder & Chairman
The Founder
A BUSINESSMAN WITH RACING FUEL IN HIS VEINS
Ray Lay is a rare blend: a disciplined industrialist and an unapologetic racing enthusiast. A well-known figure across the plastics industry and the Chicago business community, he built his reputation on the same principles that govern a fast lap — precision, preparation and the refusal to settle for “good enough.”
But ask anyone who knows him and the story always returns to the track. Ray strapped into his first race car at fifteen, and the decades since read like a collector’s dream: ownership of some of the most celebrated cars ever made, and laps turned at the world’s most storied circuits. He is, in the truest sense, intimately familiar with the sport — not from the grandstand, but from behind the wheel.
MONTAGNO GP is what happens when that lifetime of knowledge is poured into a single place. Every garage bay, every corner of the circuit, every detail of the clubhouse exists because Ray asked one question of it: would this satisfy a driver who has already seen the best the world has to offer?
“I built the club I always wished existed — where the only thing that matters is the next lap.”
Ray Lay — Founder & Chairman
The Journey
FROM A GARAGE TO THE GRID
AN INDUSTRY MASTERED
He becomes a respected name in the plastics industry, turning precision manufacturing into a discipline — and a fortune.
A LIFE AT THE LIMIT
Across decades he owns a stable of the most storied cars and drives the world’s named circuits, learning every apex by heart.
THE VISION REALIZED
MONTAGNO GP is the distillation of a lifetime trackside — a private club built to the standard Ray always wished existed.
What We Stand For
THE FOUNDER’S PRINCIPLES
Est. 2024
ENGINEERED, NOT DECORATED
A career in precision manufacturing taught Ray that beauty is a by-product of tolerances. Nothing here is ornamental.
EARNED ON THE CLOCK
Every detail answers to the stopwatch. Comfort never compromises performance; performance is the comfort.
A COMPANY OF DRIVERS
Founded by an enthusiast for enthusiasts — membership is a fraternity of people who feel the same pull toward the limit.
The Expansion
ONE CIRCUIT WAS NEVER THE PLAN
A single track could never contain the ambition. Montagno GP is being built as a global network of private circuits — each engineered to the same uncompromising standard, so a member feels at home wherever they race.
The network opens in Batam, thirty minutes from Singapore, in 2027 — followed by Bali, India, and more destinations to come. One membership; every circuit on Earth.
SHARE THE OBSESSION
Membership is reserved for those who feel the same pull toward the limit. If that’s you, there’s a seat on the grid with your name on it.