Texas World Speedway might die :(
 

The short version: some real estate company bought Texas World Speedway back in December without most of us even realizing there was anything funny going on. They've now filed with the city (College Station) to create a MUD and destroy the track and replace it with a cookie-cutter suburban housing development. This is one of our best road-course tracks in the whole region for HPDE's, SCCA, NASA, PCA, BMWCCA, NARRA, CMRA, ChumpCar, LeMons, etc. The track is booked solid every weekend! The jalopnik article covers it pretty well:

Why Texas World Speedway Must Be Saved

There's a petition here as well:

Save Texas World Speedway | Saving The Racing at TWS

And of course a facebook page:

https://www.facebook.com/savetexasworldspeedway

Spread the word!

Dang ... the almighty dollar prevails at the expense of a historical track. Be a tough fight to win.

:mad:

What's really caught me by surprise is that they had been making some positive changes at the track lately, it seemed. There were some surface repairs, and they had started charging a paddock entry fee (for all cars/spectators, aside from the normal track fees) to contribute to "Capital Improvement" to fix the place up, etc. The truth is probably that the track is capable of making positive cashflow (if it isn't already), just not as much return on investment as a real estate development. Still, there's some small hope that College Station's local government and business community can be convinced that the track is worth more to the local culture and economy than a real estate development is (not to mention there's *plenty* of unused land nearby that could be developed without razing the track). Or that the owner could be convinced to name a price to sell out to someone who would be willing to preserve it.

If the developers had any brains at all they would build houses around the existing track and sell them for multimillions of dollars.

The Thermal Club | Private Pavement - THE THERMAL CLUB | HOME | PRIVATE PAVEMENT | LUXURY MOTORSPORTS RACEWAY

I read somewhere while surfing around to sign the petition that there are some enviro concerns with the infield either still existing or recently corrected that took (or will take) $6 million away from money that could have been spent on other track improvements ... just speculating but I would imagine the EPA is worse to deal with than the IRS so maybe current ownership just decided you know what, screw this. Just speculating ... hope all parties concerned are able to figure something out to keep it ... not many grassroots tracks left that don't have all the big affiliations ...

Well, yeah. Digging into the details, apparently someone else had thought about buying it (to keep it as a track) and ran into similar issues in their analysis a couple years ago about EPA issues. The trick with the current housing plan is that if College Station approves the MUD district for it, the city will issue bonds which cover dealing with the environmental issues (as well as the general buildout of utility infrastructure for sewer, water, etc), so the owner doesn't have to pay for the cleanup if he goes the MUD/housing route.