San Antonio Speedway opened in 1977, but closed its gates a few decades later. She laughed at her office desk, as if shed been reminded of an old friend she hadnt thought about in years because life got in the way. All Rights Reserved. Of course, the seating is open because no one wants to go to a race that doesn't exist. Shell give him short, direct yes-and-no answers. It's all that reigns in this abandoned raceway not many mayknow of. always trying to use the message boards, whose URL links often dry up. This dog, for example, seems to have found a new home here. Shes sure that someday, theyll pass by there and he wont have anything to ask aboutthat the old place will be bulldozed and ready for new construction. In any case, it was a huge hit and still is down to this day. Unofficial results online date well into May of 2000. So if you're worried about seats more than seeing an actual show, this is the place to go. Then there's the composition of the photo, thoughtfully taken just after the stadium seating ends. More Recent View. Advance Auto Parts Labor Day Classic auto races to run Saturday, Aug 31st Bringing NASCAR Family Fun to Houston Motorsports Park! Not much directly lines the highway, either, except for dirt roads and some high grasses that could be a vibrant green or a stiff, dead brown depending on the time of the year. And its just crazy to think when you stand in there, youre like, I cant believe this is sitting here. Since he's been domesticated, it might be that he has a hard time finding food. by ScottKo in RacingIn News. This speedway hasn't seen a race in decades now, it closed in 1995. There was an effort to revive it again in 1970, at which point it . It ended nearly a century of racing at Derby Lane in St. Petersburg. If it's seating that you're worried about when going to a speedway to watch an epic NASCAR race, this place, Saugus Speedway, has got plenty of open seats. But, there hasn't been any racing in sight for years, and since then the second story wide-windowed hasn't had a view of anything. Visited another old racetrack this past week.the track at North Wilkesboro that had been on the NASCAR cup circuit. Earnhardt Proving Grounds Episode 1 - 28 mins Dale Earnhardt Jr. visits Metrolina Speedway seeking clarity about an age-old family mystery. Click here to tell us about it. Everyone who watches silently wishes they could see a crash, as they are excited at such high speeds. After years of relying on the old USGS But also Metrolina meant so much to this community, and when it was successful and thriving in the mid-70s, the racing community knew that was the place to be. RETURN TO THE ALL LINKS PAGE. really cool to look at. (Two other tracks, not listed below, were, for all intents and purposes, simply replaced after they closed: In Ohio, Beulah Park closed in 2014; its license was then picked up by Mahoning Valley, which opened that same year. DEAD RACE TRACKS But the memories of Longhorn didnt wear out, even though theyre nearly all thats left for people like Umscheid and Zuniga. Photojournalist: AbandonedOK Team Billy Dixon. Kyle Bartz, we appreciate your contribution very much!Also special thanks to Simon Smith for the voiceover. TikTok video from followGOOCH (@goochsimracing): "#followers #share #sharethecare #like #following #followback #t #goodolddays #goldenera #stockcar #stockcarracing #oldnascar #racing #200mph #trending #stitch #3 #indycar #indyrace #indycartiktok #tvshow #tv #show #seres #checkmyprofile #urbendecay #urbenexploring #abandoned #abandonedplaces # . She planned to grow up, head out to the race track and participate in the races she saw all of the adult women running when she was just a child. They would do the gears for them, and I remember Neil Upchurch saying one time, So-and-so, you need to get out of that car and let your wife drive, even if it is in first gear!. But as bad of a shape as the asphalt was at Longhorn, it was still more fun to race on, to me, than any of the other race tracks that we ran at.. It was a local operation, and that was just part of the charm. Parker pony truss. I wasnt there at the time, but I know one time a sprint car, out of control, went over the turn-one fence and into the pits where a bunch of people were, Upchurch said. We may earn a commission from links on this page. Im looking forward to Road America. paradise for speed nuts and driving enthusiasts, that $879k Houston home with its own private karting track. The group, led by a drag racer by the name of Jim Tibbitts, promised a prize purse of at least $1,200 per race once their reign beganmuch more than any regular race [had] ever payed in Central Texas at the time, according to the Statesman. Track/ Made for legendscars. Texas Motorplex 27 Auto Racing Tracks By nhra428 A great track hosted a great event! Most of our shows, Im like, boots on the ground, cant wait to get there, excited. +40.23481, -104.97875 (decimal degrees) 4014'05" N, 10458'44" W (degreesminutes'seconds") Approximate UTM coordinates. His passion is the backbone of "Lost Speedways," his Peacock series that explores shuttered, dilapidated and abandoned race tracks around the country, as the (mostly) retired NASCAR driver. 14.2K Likes, 74 Comments. One of my personal issues with NASCAR has to do with the fact that to me it is quite redundant and repetitive, as these races last for hundreds upon hundreds of laps, endlessly going in the same circle for hours on end. Anyhow, it was only open on weedends and mostly stock . The leaseholders at Longhorn knew Thunderhill, which would later become known as Central Texas Speedway, was nice. The plan is to have a place for fans of McFarland to come and he has many. And that really brings a important emotional component to the show. This is what the tracks like. It was built in 2005 and features modern two-story construction, the first floor of which is taken up entirely by a six-car garageoh, and a two-car porte-cochere, which is fancy-talk for the spot you leave your car to be valeted at a hotel. Plants, animals, nature, it all starts to come back in a way that isn't possible with humans. Each time a local track closes, the entry into that pipeline becomes a bit more choked. I didnt expect that. The dusky sunset paints the scene in a glowing but melancholy light, with an empty garage and empty pit stops down below, mere hollowhusksof what was once one of the loudest, fastest, and most exciting places to be, especially at race time. 11/16/2016 6:33am Edited Date/Time 8/4/2019 11:42pm. The old track is so stifled by tall, dead grass that it becomes hard to tell fence from weeds after a while. More than 1.7 million people. Who had a bad race: Tyler Reddick, who ran the Cup race earlier in the day, finished 36th in the 38-car field with a damaged car. This group is for all sorts of Retired Racing Vehicles and Abandoned Race (Ghost) Tracks; stock cars, drag cars, land speed, sprint cars, open wheel, road course, Baja, race trucks, motorcycles,. Weaver. With that, the demise of Longhorn Speedway became final. Track draws racers from. Kyle was so friendly to share his pictures with Circuits of the past, so a big hurray for him. An ending. Edinburg Motorsports Park (fka Edinburg International Racetrack), Evadale Raceway (fka Ben Bruce Memorial Airpark Raceway), Little River Dragway (Formerly known as Temple Academy Dragway), Monarch Motor Speedway (fka Red River Speedway), The Big Country Raceway (also known as Abilene Dragstrip), West Texas Raceway (fka: Lady Luck Speedway), BRINKMANN RECORDS BEST BMARA FINISH OF SEASON, KyleBrinkmanRacing, a racer from Elkhorn, WI. The stands are empty, standing as they have for year after year. Nowadays, at this NASCAR speedway that's been completely forgotten, the fastest thing on the track is the growing vines that have come up over the wall and down onto the tarmac. Jun 28 2011. Underneath the grandstands on the backstretch lays a full set of tires, but the deep grooves of tread indicate that, as spooky as the scene appears to be, they likely arent racing slicks from all those years ago. I could see the demise of racing in the southwest even happening way back then, he said, recalling that he wore out several cars to drive from his home to the announcing jobs he held simultaneously in Austin, San Antonio and College Station. Photos are not mine and info may not be 100% correct (I do my best). Of course, both Mahoning and Oak Grove are racinos. From an Art . Phoenix Trotting Park. A race course was built in Brownwood in 1880; Hyde Park was established in 1850 in Austin; and Dallas had fair park in 1886. And theres so many of them, where Im like, Man, I wish I could see it, be there and see it and look at it.. Let's take a look at 20 abandoned racetracks NASCAR wants us to forget about. It failed to perform on seat sales, paired with a big amount of issues with ownership and was left to decay in the early 2000s. The entire first floor is taken up by a six-car garage with room for more toys and tools than your average mechanic shop. Houston Motorsports Park Short Track Racing Revving Up - Legends and Ladies For the Win! Whilst the the Coronavirus brings its fair share of stress and cancellations, the Grand National in 1997 was postponed by two days because of a bomb threat issued by the . by ScottKo in RacingIn News, Rivalry Renewed: Lanigan & Richards Set To Face Off In 2015 As Richards Returns To Full-Time World of Outlaws Competition I dont know exactly what the schedule looks like, so I might not have chose that particular race, had I known all that when I did. It was one of only eight superspeedways of two miles - or longer - in the United States.Other superspeedways were among others the famous Indianapolis Motor Speedway in Indiana and the also lost Ontario Motor Speedway in California.Except the long 2 Mile oval there was also a smaller oval inside, and a road course with several layouts possible. Paired with the allure of an abandoned place like this, and the best of the urban explorers won't get wanderlust to come to this exact location. In a practice session before the first race under the new name of Capital Speedway, driver Chief Swinford told the Austin American-Statesman that his 1955 Chevrolet handled like a washtub with a fat woman sitting on it. Another driver, Homer Newland, muttered unprintable words about driving 3,600 miles on his admittedly zigzagging way from Detroit to Austin while managing to stay under the speed limit. Claim your FREE Tickets! I will share this abandoned dirt oval I found near the area I was in earlier, Latrobe, PA. Everything else, for the most part, thrives and can come back to life. His passion is the backbone of Lost Speedways, his Peacock series that explores shuttered, dilapidated and abandoned race tracks around the country, as the (mostly) retired NASCAR driver. Some of us old fart historians, who You're getting back in the car for a one-off race this fall at Richmond, and the XFINITY race is the same day as the Cup race. Dirt track owners set a price for the beloved speedway. I know that place. And then the day we go and walk into that track, it was like a funeral. After all, Zuniga sat in those grandstands so many years ago that she can remember drivers showing up to race in T-shirts and jeans rather than fire-resistant race suits. Phoenix Trotting Park Apetc on Flickr (Creative Commons) AERIAL VIEWS OF B. and Louis Wusterhausen opened the track, owning and managing for eight years before the Statesman reported that a local racing group took over the lease. Just as she had after digging up nearly every other memory of the old track, Zuniga laughed. It was a really good speedway, said Denise Beier Zuniga, who regularly attended everything from weekly races to demolition derbies, figure-eight racing and stunt shows at Longhorn as a child after moving down from Pennsylvania in the late 1960s. Texas World Speedway is rapidly approaching "Abandoned" status. You pretty much had to be on your game the whole race.. Never knew anybody that could say, I was there and saw it, right? Not very fast, but at least something is still moving. The abandoned grandstands at right, now overgrown and choked with weeds, are remarkably still there, although the view is a little compromised. SRW Winternationals Weekend now a Qualifying race for ALL Classes! Road America Indianapolis Motor Speedway's road course are coming up. 84 talking about this. May 8, 2020 10:08 am ET. Just one more turn, then maybe this NASCAR track won't be completely empty and abandoned, forgotten and left behind, as if it never existed in the first place. I would probably add Nashville Fairgrounds [Speedway]. There was the occasional race car with a missing fender, and the only paint scheme on some of the others came from a spray can. We uncovered a really unique story about when my father raced my grandfather for the one and only time. Sources: Seph Lawless, USA Today & My Fox 8. Bay Area Modifieds bringing IMCA Racing back to Emerald Coast, Rivalry Renewed: Lanigan & Richards Set To Face Off In 2015 As Richards Returns To Full-Time World of Outlaws Competition, Track Promoters Get FREE Promotion with RacingIn.com's Track Directory and Race Dates Page, Interest in Grassroots Racing Grows 40% in 2014 With Great Opportunities Ahead in 2015, Fans of Fast Name Their Favorite Track of 2014. In Kentucky, Thunder Ridge closed in 2017; its license was eventually transferred to Oak Grove, which opened in 2019. They havent raced there since 1984, and its a short track. On July 19, 2018, developers broke ground for the Southern Pointe master-planned community, a plan for the construction of 1400 new houses.Since then, the Texas World Speedway is being slowly demolished with the concrete husk of the grandstands keeping watch over a broken circuit, bifurcated in several sections. A wraparound balcony provides picturesque scenes of the Texas landscape and the cozy interior features two bedrooms as well as two-and-a-half bathrooms (in addition to the full-size washroom in the garage). For decades, the starting grid used to line up for photos in front of those grandstands before firing up their engines to race around the old track. Better go visit while it's still there.. http://www.savethespeedway.net/ The Uphill Downhill Track. It features seven classes of racing: Crate Late Model, Hobby 602, Modified Street, Stock V8, Stock Four and Front Wheel Drives. Location: Spring, Texas; Interests: Classic Racing History, Classic Street Rods, Classic Oldies Music, Former Radio and Track Announcer. The Dallas Police Street Racing Task Force arrested 8 men on Sunday at a business . When they were exporting the product to their clientele, they had modified their cars to go extra fast in case the cops caught them and came after them. This list contains photos of abandoned and disused tracks that have mostly been left to nature. My dad had a lot of history there. The reduction and the closure of [asphalt] tracks has been a very slow cancer to creep along and eventually, we have one go down permanently.. No regulation accompanied this legislation and in 1909 the legislature voted to prohibit race track gambling all together. Opened in 1956 and closed at the end of the 1970 season. The drivers werent so polished, either. Weeds have begun to creep through the cracks that so characteristically form in asphalt racing surfaces over time, leaving little doubt that the track will all but disappearas if it isnt forgotten enough already. All eight episodes of Lost Speedways Season 2 willpremiere Thursday, so For The Win spoke with Dale Jr. about the show, new tracks on NASCARs schedule in 2021 and the track he hopes is eventually added to the lineup. And then every once in a while, its fun to get a curveball or not to have any clue at all. Dale Earnhardt Jr. loves North Wilkesboro Speedway in North Carolina, despite its dilapidated condition and desperate need for a makeover. Zunigas husband was never into racing as a kid, but will ask her where things used to be. Gambling at Texas tracks was commonplace, but it wasn't until 1905 that it was sanctioned by the legislature "on the day and within the enclosure where such races are run". However, those years it was also used for private testing, among others by NASCAR and IndyCar teams.After Hurricane Harvey caused a lot of damage in the area on August 25, 2017, the entire 600-acre facility was being leased as a catastrophe storage facility for damaged vehicles.The Texas World Speedway official closed on September 18, 2017 as a race venue. The track opened as Thunderhill Raceway for the 1998 season, its facilities being nearly four decades newer than those at Longhorn. Then there's the parallel imagery with that. Description: 1/8 mile and 3/8 mile Clay Ovals, Description: 1/4 mile clay oval semi-banked track, Description: 3.4 mile road course and multi purpose track, the official F1 Track in the United States, Description: 8/10 mile asphalt karting road course, Description: 1.7 to 2.5 mile asphalt road course, Description: 1/4 mi Asphalt Drag Strip, Mud Drags, Moto Cross, Description: 11-turn asphalt karting road course, Description: 1/8 mile NHRA Drag Strip & 3/8 mile NASCAR Asphalt Oval, Description: 1/8 mi Concrete Drag Strip, status unclear, see website for details, Description: 1/8 and 1/4 mile all concrete drag strip, Description: 1.5-Mile Oval, 2.324-Mile Road Course, 4/10 mile Clay Oval, Description: 1/8 mile high banked clay oval, Description: 3/8 mi Asphalt Oval, CLOSED March, 2017, Description: 1/4 mi Dirt Oval, Now Closed after 2012 with no plans to re-open, Description: 1/2 mi Asphalt Oval, CLOSED as of 2007, Some dreams of reopening someday, Description: 3/8 mi Clay Oval, sadly closed in February of 2017. NEXT: The series races at 4:30 p.m. North Wilkesboro Speedway was once one of the biggest and firsthubs for NASCAR racing, and it was just so for many years on end. So is the inevitability of time. Rockingham Speedway is another one of those iconic race tracks from NASCAR that has not survived to our day, despite its huge popularity in the past. one of the true gems of the 1960s and Texas . Relocated here ca. Thats the first race track I came to watch races. Macau Grand Prix Includes Scary Crash for Sophia Floersch, NASCAR Offers to Purchase International Speedway Corporation (ISC), 8 KAM Drivers Vying for a Chili Bowl Ride thru the KKM Giveback Classic. Even abandoned things have a hope of resurrection sometimes. Fast forward to the '60s and '70s, during the sport's peak, and up to 50,000 people were sitting or standing at Sandown Motor Circuit in Melbourne, the country's premium race track. When we had that many cars, we had to limit the starting field to 18 or 20 for manual-scoring reasons, said Upchurch, referring to the days when positions on each lap had to be checked off by hand. And itll be good because when I get into booth, I can say, Hey, I was just out there! Upchurch did the same. $65,000.00 Local Pickup Its right in the middle of downtown Nashville. Only two years ago did it close, in 2017, and it's already starting to show signs of age and decay, neglect and disarray. Nothing besides the decaying tarmac, the growing plants, animals taking up roost, and the falling apart of all the structures of this NASCAR raceway that they want us to just forget about. That sounds great. You keep going back to these other race tracks, and you kind of know what to expect. Everything at Thunderhill was it was nice, Upchurch said. This interview has been condensed and edited for clarity. Texas World Speedway - Abandoned Race Track USAIn this Circuits of the past video, we show you the abandoned Texas World Speedway.The Texas World Speedway was a 2 Mile long oval race track, located in College Station, Texas, USA. His passion is the backbone of Lost Speedways, his Peacock series that explores shuttered, dilapidated and abandoned race tracks around the country, as the (mostly) retired NASCAR driver investigates the tracks histories, their legends and their failures. We just had an amazing weekend at Nashville Superspeedway, and I think the two can coexist in the same market at the same calendar year. 12 14 The proposal never came to fruition and the property was sold at a sheriff's sale for $205,000 in 1979. The [decline] of racing in Texas was, in some cases, so slow that it was hardly noticeable, Upchurch said. However, the cost of the land purchase and refurbishing the track will cost millions depending on the track condition and location. Brushcreek Motorsports Complex is For Sale for $499,000 June 29, 2021 The RacingJunk Editors 0 Entertainment Gulf Greyhound Park shuts down after nearly three decades of betting The track in Southeast Texas said the track was closed as of June 30, 2020. Credit: KHOU Gulf Greyhound. But once you find someone, the memories come to the same general conclusion. Its a two-mile race track, and most of the Last Speedways are half-mile short tracks [and] local dirt tracks in the woods right next door, down the road. But when they went, things were different. The crowd wasnt as big; the atmosphere wasnt the same. by ScottKo in RacingIn News, Track Promoters Get FREE Promotion with RacingIn.com's Track Directory and Race Dates Page NASCAR quickly took a nation by storm, vastly popular with anyone who loved cars or loved racing or just loved a good spectator sport. The track opened the Cup series. Today's Cool Classified Find is this Racetrack for Sale for $1,999,999 September 8, 2021 The RacingJunk Editors 5 Today's CCF pick is Spencer Speedway, a1/2 Mile Asphalt Race Track and 1/10 Mile Drag strip both fully Operational. Between 1954 and 1955 it welcomed three Formula 1 races, watched by a throng of thousands of spectators. Spooky. In Florida, dog tracks fetched $135.9 million in wagers in fiscal year 2019-20, a 29-percent drop from the $191.5 million bet in the previous 12 months. And so its but it looks beautiful and looks like a fun place to camp and experience a race weekend. Another three sets of the once-packed grandstands at Longhorn remain, rusted, contorted with age and visibly fighting off the inevitable forces of overgrown weeds and gravity that continue to overtake them. Now, there's no hope that any car could go safely around this track at two hundred miles per hour, or even at highway speeds. But itll be fine. This photo was taken at the end of the day, just after sunset. http://www.youtube.com/user/Circuitsofthepast?sub_confirmation=1 Thanks for the subscribe :) In some cases, these tracks have been essentially lost to the racing community for 50+ years. The biggest barrier for Dale Earnhardt Jr.s NASCAR Xfinity team to make the jump to Cup, Alex Bowman reveals the easter eggs hidden in his Dale Earnhardt Jr.-designed Nashville paint scheme, Dale Earnhardt Jr., Danica Patrick share their predictions and hopes for Jimmie Johnson's first Indy 500, Your California Privacy Rights/Privacy Policy. Theres a VFW post, a small Circle K gas station and scattered Mexican restaurants. RETURN TO THE MAIN PAGE 1/29/2015. Now, those lost years are all-too-visible in the skeleton remains of the Motordome Speedway. Many people watched for the spectacular crashes, some loved the push and pull that so many exhaustive laps garnered. In 2007 the historic racetracks in Texas we're inducted into the Hall of Fame to commemorate their indelible impression left on horse racing in Texas. With that demise, I was not going to invest in a property because of a track, because the tracks may fail. Even then, Upchurch said none of those blanks in racing were noteworthy in his memory. Is it all about the history, or is there something more to it for you? The abandoned .625-mile track is . Design. As if it happened just last Friday, Zuniga recalled wanting to be a powder-puff driver out at Longhorn. Meaning urban explorers, of course. 4. There were plenty more. In this same period, only three new tracks have opened: Pinnacle in Michigan which, as youll see, closed after only two years Presque Isle in Pennsylvania and Running Aces (harness) in Minnesota. Let's take a look at 20 abandoned racetracks NASCAR wants us to forget about. It really does.. But the reign of that group didnt last long, and the track quickly went back to its former namethis time, without the hyphens. Quarter Horse racing was particularly popular at the time as it remains today throughout the Texas hill country. Approximate latitude, longitude. She couldnt believe who just signed in., But it wasnt all about the atmosphere or the memories made at Longhorn. In 1961, late model stock car racing began on the half-mile oval track. Abandoned race tracks litter the country. Name City County Date Added; Adrian Fairgrounds: Adrian: Lenawee: 08-28-2003: Adventure Mountain Raceway: Greenland: Ontonagon: 10-05-2007: Air Park Speedway: Fennville If you had all the powers in NASCAR and the ability to snap your fingers and make any track out there suitable for hosting race, what track would you add to the Cup schedule? This is where the commentators would be, so they could see the whole thing happening as clearly as possible, so as to narrate the events of the race factually. You had to drive a little differently on the different ends of the race track. Search by: City, State, Track Name, Track Type, or Track Surface and click on Search. Records on past winners, track record holders and the like are scarce, drivers who raced out there in the 1960s and 70s almost impossible to track down. And so we could look at the history and the races from a decade ago, but no one could really guess. That thing? he said. The door locked, too. Provided by The Oklahoman. Construction of the giant Oklahoma State Fair Speedway was completed in 1954. He recalled the night Houston native Foyt made a visit, leaving locals stunned upon signing in at the pit gate. But Labonte did race at other local short tracks across Texas, and even won the first local Late Model track championship at the nearby San Antonio Speedway in 1977. FOX 4. Zuniga remembers that voice as if it called a race yesterday, too. No matter how many tracks there already are, or have just been deemed "too dated," or "not relevant", they will keep making and building newer and better ones, all in the name of making more money, drawing more fans, justifying higher ticket prices. You wouldve thought that the biggest and best [track] in the remaining biggest market would have lasted the longest, but it didnt., In response to the eventual closures that loomed over all of those race tracks, Upchurch said there are certain sports, or attractions, that eventually just wear out.. Ive been working with some folks to help see about the possibility of bringing NASCAR back to the fairgrounds. Modern Era Defunct Of racing in Texas was, in some cases, so slow that it a... 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Racetracks NASCAR wants us to forget about drive a little differently on the different ends of the track! Task Force arrested 8 men on Sunday at a business pull that so exhaustive! S still there.. http: //www.savethespeedway.net/ the Uphill Downhill track we appreciate your contribution very!... An effort to revive it again in 1970, at which point it the!