THERMAL, Calif. — The roads are forlorn in this strip of desert 20 minutes east of La Quinta, a warm-weather hideaway frequented by affluent snowbirds and press-shy celebrities. Tall stands of date palms rise seemingly out of nowhere, their fronds singed by the desert sun. Not much moves when the heat soars to 108 degrees as it did one afternoon in May, too hot for rattlesnakes to slither out of abandoned rabbit warrens, the streets empty except for a couple of panting dogs wandering near a sign for Jewel’s Fruit Outlet.


Tim Rogers, 59, who has made a fortune operating 60 convenience stores and gas stations under the Tower Market brand in California, looked out over this barren stretch toward the Santa Rosa Mountains and smiled. He and his wife and business partner, Twanna, are spending about $90 million to build the Thermal Club, a members-only motor sports club, here in an area better known for the popular Coachella Valley music festival held in nearby Indio.


Where a visitor sees 350 acres of emptiness punctuated by mounds of scrub brush to be hauled, Tim and Twanna Rogers envision 4.5 miles of racetrack etched into the chalky terrain, a place wealthy car collectors can speed along at 200 miles per hour and, when done, house their fleets in individually built 20-car garages.


Much like Ray Kinsella in the 1989 movie “Field of Dreams,” who built a baseball diamond in an Iowa cornfield that attracted players (albeit ghostly), Tim Rogers says that if he builds the club, drivers will come.


“I see this as a great franchise,” he said as he pointed toward a stake with an orange flag marking lot No. 52, where he and his wife will build their garage.


The Rogerses have joined with Discovery Land Company, a real estate developer of country clubs and resort communities based in Arizona, and have signed up 40 potential members. Still, Rogers said, his face growing pink from the morning sun: “I’ve been anxious every week. I want to see the asphalt down. Then members will commit.”


There are a number of public courses in the United States where drivers can rent time to drive solo, but there are few private clubs that cater to well-to-do drivers. Asphalt tracks and expensive clubhouses are cumbersome to build and maintain. A local permit process can take months, if not years.


“About once a week I get a call from an entrepreneur trying to replicate our business,” said Ari Straus, the president of the Monticello Motor Club, a private club 90 miles north of Manhattan that has 4.1 miles of racetrack. “I’ve yet to see a single one actually launch.”


Monticello opened in 2008 and cost about $40 million; its 225 members include hedge fund managers and investment bankers who pay as much as $125,000 to join. (It has a sharing arrangement with Spring Mountain Motorsports Ranch outside Las Vegas, Straus said.)


The Thermal Club is seeking an equally exclusive crowd in the West.


“There are all these people in Palm Springs with lots of money and time on their hands,” said Bruce Meyer, an avid car collector and the former chairman of the Petersen Automotive Museum in Los Angeles.


The first phase of the Thermal Club, whose three main circuits are being designed by Alan Wilson, who has built several courses around the country, is expected to open in February.


Being a member is not for the timid, with club prices high enough to make a Wall Street banker blink. Individual initiation fees are $85,000 (with annual dues starting at $7,200), and buying a lot for a garage and entertainment area costs $200,000 or more. Members foot the bill for their own garages, which are likely to cost an additional $500,000, according to Discovery.


When the $90 million project is completed in three years, Thermal will also have a spa, driving school, go-cart track and control tower modeled after the Spanish-style courthouse in Santa Barbara, Calif., with an additional $360 million spent by members on lots and garages to come.


The Thermal Club could well have gone the way of other clubs not built if not for the Rogerses’ persistence. The couple exhibit a familiarity that comes from years together, first as graduate students at Pepperdine in the 1970s (they married in 1978) and business partners since 1986.


When Tim Rogers began discussing the club’s finances over lunch here (where they were served glasses of Roederer Estate Brut Rose), Twanna Rogers abruptly shushed him so he would not reveal too much. Asked if he had final approval over the racetrack’s design, Tim Rogers said with a half-smile, “Yes, as long as it’s O.K. with Twanna.”


Between them, they own several high-performance cars — including a Porsche, two Ferraris and a gold 2005 SLR McLaren made by Mercedes-Benz — which they keep at their home in Palos Verdes, Calif.


“We have fast things,” said Twanna Rogers, taking a sip of her drink and who declined to give her age. “Fast cars.”