I have an idea on who might have the busiest phone in College Station this week, and it sure ain’t the local DoubleDave’s. Local paper The Eagle reports that Texas World Speedway’s demolition has been pushed back for at least until the end of the year due to issues with the planned development project.
If you’re sad that you can’t drop in for one last epic run at the historic race track, today is your lucky day. The track will be booking dates until the end of 2015, according to Texas World Speedway President and CEO of Operations Bill Mather.
The development that was proposed to replace the track includes 1,400 homes, a business park, commercial space, parks and a school. Fortunately for us, the development ran into some issues that will delay it for at least a year. (The specific issues were not specified in The Eagle’s write-up.)
“At this time, Texas World Speedway will be accepting event dates through December 2015,” Mather told The Eagle. “If the critical development issues are not resolved promptly, it is planned that Texas World Speedway will continue to operate well into the future.”
Not to rain on anyone’s parade* per se, but I’m rooting for a spooky Indian burial ground, total architectural incompetence, and/or perhaps enough puked Triumph guts outside turn 2 to make redevelopment cost-prohibitive myself.
In the meantime, Mather is glad to give racers more time to experience the track.
“I’m glad I can give them more days to race,” he told The Eagle. “There is no place like Texas World Speedway in the racing world. It is truly a unique jewel.”
Texas World Speedway is the state’s only superspeedway, with a rare road course configuration that goes outside of the roval itself. It’s one of the fastest tracks in the state and a total blast to drive. I hadn’t been anywhere else that has the kinds of high-speed turns that TWS has, and learning how to slow down from coming off the oval into turns 1 and 2 is unlike anything I’ve had to do at any other track in the state.
If you can, go drive it. Amateur racing and high performance driver’s education groups fill out most of the track’s weekends, so it’s not inaccessible for the average dude. (That’s much of the reason why it hurts so much to be losing it: with so many amateur-focused dates currently at TWS, where are we going to go when it’s gone?)
The track stresses that this is merely a delay for now, and that demolition is still in the plans at this point. Unfortunately, if this isn’t a project-killing delay, we’re losing a genuinely unique track.
*Ahem. If we’re talking about metaphorical parades, every track junkie in the state got a herd of grackles with the worst case of bird-diarrhea in history over their “parades” when the demolition was announced. Worst. News. Ever.
Contact the author at stef.schrader@jalopnik.com.