Nothing is forever, and that includes racetracks. This video chronicles the final days of Texas World Speedway.
Texas World Speedway was constructed as a near-copy of Michigan International Speedway, but it never enjoyed the same success as its sister track. Built in College Station, Texas, roughly midway between Houston and Austin, Texas World (originally called Texas International) was a two-mile tri-oval just like Michigan, but with slightly greater banking. Both facilities were designed by Charles Moneypenny and constructed by Larry LoPatin’s American Raceways Inc, which also owned the Trenton, Riverside, and Atlanta tracks before the company went bankrupt in 1971.
The inaugural event at Texas World in December of 1969 was a 500-mile NASCAR Grand National race won by Bobby Isaac in a Dodge. Richard Petty won there three times, and Benny Parsons took the final Winston Cup race there in 1981. USAC Indy cars also raced there starting in 1974 and the track hosted a number of memorable NASCAR and Indy car races all through the ’70s. Houston native AJ Foyt could be called the king of Texas World with four Indy car victories there.
But by the early ’80s the track had fallen into disrepair and was abandoned by the big-time sanctioning bodies. For its last several decades in existence it hosted minor-league ARCA and SCCA events, and in a final blow in 2017, the track served as a storage yard for thousands of cars destroyed by Hurricane Harvey. Now the site is being redeveloped as Southern Pointe, a 400-acre planned residential community with 1400 homes, and the demolition is underway. Grassroots NASCAR Racing, a Youtube race-fan channel, has documented the final days of the facility. It’s a bittersweet moment, for sure. Video below.
Our little local speedway (Bronson Speedway, Bronson FL) is suffering the same fate. Gradually decomposing and probably soon to fall into the hands of the developers. Everyone misses it not running, but perhaps the end of the era of being able to run stock cars with junkyard parts and a bit of pocket cash and the lack of suitable modern cars for inexpensive classes like street stockers will be the end of a lot of local tracks.
It always makes me sad to see places that were once buzzing with activity are now closed and falling to ruin. I was the resident photographer at the local race track for the last five years that I operated. They gave it 20 years but it was just becoming more and more work. In 2011, at the end of the season, they just closed it up. Today, everything is gone except the concession…
Went to a nascar race there in the 70’s. The concrete bleachers were coming apart even then. Also, it had rained and the unpaved parking was a mess!