New track in Austin....news for Karts!

FLORIDA STOCK CAR RACING KARNAC's FLORIDA STOCK CAR RACING
1

Was looking up a little race track i used to pass everyday on my way to work in Austin, Tx. instead i found this. They are BUILDING a new track…not taking it down! WOW what a concept! lol anyone know about the track i am talking about? it is just outside of austin near bergstrom airport going south on 183. not far from the airport at all. my sister said it is still there but im wondering if its being used.
carolwicks aka OZ

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8/9/04
City council gives green light to superkart race track
Austin-Bergstrom Airport’s facility will supply revenue

By Yvette Owo
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Media Credit: Mark Mulligan
Paul Albini (blue) and Rich Phillips (red) race their superkarts through a parking lot at Austin-Bergstrom International Airport, the future site of Iron Rock Raceway, a track that will be dedicated to superkart racing.

A superkart racing facility planned for Austin-Bergstrom International Airport will provide a new source of revenue for the airport, officials said Saturday.

“The proposal will bring the airport new income of $6,680 per year on previously unused land,” said Jim Halbrook, a spokesman for the airport.

The Austin City Council on Thursday approved the airport’s lease to Iron Rock Raceway in a 4-to-3 vote. Council members Brewster McCracken, Danny Thomas, Betty Dunkerley and Mayor Will Wynn voted in favor of the lease.

“[I’m] uncomfortable with the safety issues,” said Mayor Pro Tem Jackie Goodman, who voted against the plan at the meeting. “The combination of 6 year olds and 30 miles per hour bothered me.”

The property used to be an employee parking lot, and before that, a large hanger for the former Bergstrom Air Force Base. The airport continually seeks compatible businesses for the surrounding land and found the racing facility to be a good fit, Halbrook said.

The company also saw the property as a suitable location.

“Austin is good, because geographically, it is central to Houston, San Antonio and Dallas,” said Iron Rock Raceway co-founder Richard Phillips. “We plan for a lot of membership from these cities.”

Because of the facility’s proximity to the airport, there will be few issues about noise control, Phillips said.

There are only two comparable raceways in Texas, one in Denton and another in New Braunfels. The Austin track will be bigger than both of these facilities, he added.

The company must first complete three months of renovation, which will involve constructing a track in place of the parking lot and renovating the clubhouse, estimated to cost $500,000.

The company will continue to make improvements to the facility afterward.

“This is our first track club,” Phillips said. “It is not so much a business but really a way to introduce Austin to what go-karting is all about.”

The company hopes to attract race enthusiasts from as far away as Missouri.

“Top formula car drivers could even begin on and continue to train on this track,” said company co-founder Bill Talley.

The track is scheduled to open in January.

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lol anyone know about the track i am talking about? it is just outside of austin near bergstrom airport going south on 183. not far from the airport at all. my sister said it is still there but im wondering if its being used.

i swung past there one time the year i worked there, but never on a race night. what you’re looking for is on the NE corner of US 183 and 812, south of the airport. use maps.google.com in the satellite view.

National Speedway doesn’t show anything and the last thing whowon.com shows was http://whowon.com/showtrack.asp?id=347 with the last results posted in 2000.

some internet chatter about Longhorn here:
http://txsz.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=14150

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hi todd…

yep. thats the one but i dont know the name of it so i dont know how to google it. i lived there 8 yrs. and only saw them racing once as i went by. i cant believe its still there… :wink: i worked at tracor…where did you work?
carol

4

where did you work?

as to ‘who for’, it was a ~30 person CAD drafting office doing all kinds of contract engineering, both domestic and international. the numbnut they put in charge of it ran it into the ground within the year and the company, OSP Consultants, transferred me to Falls Church, VA.

as to ‘where was the office’, it was just north of 183, east of I-35. over there towards the ‘nice’ side of town. i think there was a condo complex within a mile of us that had been built on old landfill. was abandoned due to foundation instability. Headway Circle if i remember right.

but i dont know the name of it

Longhorn Speedway. i knew “Bad Boyz” was too stupid to have survived long.

5

[QUOTE=Todd McCreary;13331]where did you work?

as to ‘who for’, it was a ~30 person CAD drafting office doing all kinds of contract engineering, both domestic and international. the numbnut they put in charge of it ran it into the ground within the year and the company, OSP Consultants, transferred me to Falls Church, VA.

.[/QUOTE]

So Todd, are you an engineer? If so could you come up to NC and hold a seminar for some of the one i have to deal with?

And also, what’s the deal with the architects attorneys not allowing them to release the CAD until after the project is let?

Noone has been able to clearly answer that one for me. Poorly drawn? in some cases i can see why.

It would make my job a lot easier.

as it is now i have to digitize almost every set of plans i get.:mad:

6

todd

im lame but i didnt understand what you meant by the bad boyz remark. duh…lol i worked in the prototype lab at Tracor for many years. we designed and developed cables, pc boards and chassis for the engineers… was a GREAT job. most of electronics practically died in austin soon after i left so i came back to fl. just in time.
when we first got to austin we had about $40…lol we stayed at the St. Elmo Tel for a couple of weeks then had enough money to rent a nice apt. at Carriage House. after that we moved up to Mustang Ridge (a few miles south of the airport on 183… left about a mile south of Griegs grocery store, on the left…)on 2 acres in a TRAILER… rofllllllll we had a cistern and i had to hang my wash out. it sounds horrid huh? i had the happiest years of my entire life on the ridge with my husband, son and grandson…
i miss austin. the people were so friendly… people in florida are mostly transients and not as warm…(EXCEPT RACING PEOPLE!!!)
have a great day…
carolwicks aka OZ

7

So Todd, are you an engineer?

no, at the time i was a ( self taught ) CAD drafter.

i’ve done various other jobs in telecom records work and design but calling it ‘engineering’ is a bit of a stretch. what the telecom people call ‘outside plant engineering’ is little more than stick drawings and math no more advanced than division. and i wasn’t even doing that. i was just CAD’ing it. designing building entrances was the most detailed work we ever had and even those left a BUNCH of leeway for the construction crew to do things however they felt like.

as it is now i have to digitize almost every set of plans i get.

job security, baby.

be glad it’s “real plans”. i was digitizing topographic maps of the Philippines for awhile. mother nature doesn’t use very many straight lines.

could you come up to NC and hold a seminar for some of the one i have to deal with?

the great thing about consulting is that you don’t actually have to know a damn thing about the subject, you just have to sound good when you talk about it.

so, heck yeah! easy money.

i didnt understand what you meant by the bad boyz remark.

sorry, i got ahead of myself when researching it. the listing WhoWon.com has for the track is “Bad Boyz Speed-O-Rama”. somebody tried to reopen Longhorn and that’s the name they were using. evidently, they didn’t do their due diligence and got surprised by how much of the facilities didn’t meet Travis County building codes so they shut down in only a couple of months. this doesn’t surprise me, given the stupid name they decided to use for the track.

q: who would be stupid enough to use hip-hop urban slang to name a redneck sporting facility situated in the middle of cowboy country?

a: someone who can’t handle having a proper building inspection done before they buy the property. double DUH.


most of electronics practically died in austin soon after i left

huh, i didn’t know that. the last time i was in Austin they were going great guns, putting up highways and fab plants all over the place. but that was back in ~97.

Griegs grocery store

just doesn’t quite have the same ring as “H. E. Butts”. did they have the TX shaped tortilla chips?

i hardly ever got around to the SE side, so i really don’t recognize any of the landmarks you’re talking about.

8

Austin is probably my favorite city I have ever been to. I have visited twice as my girlfriends parents live in Marble Falls. The barbecue is the best and its funny shopping that the Howard E. Butts. I could honestly see if I ever got sick of living here, moving out to the Austin area. I have never met anyone as proud of the state they were born in than people from Texas. Upon introduction most will usually inform you they are from Texas.

Look at wRex. He liked it so much he advertised for the state on the side of his car.

9

oval & todd

i always said "if they don’t have it in Texas, it doesnt exist… i went to austin in 1978 and left when my husband got killed in 83. he was putting a metal roof up at a condo on 4th street. the wind picked up and the metal hit a live wire. he was electrocuted at age 28…everyday i had to look at all the roofs he put on and i just couldnt stand it anymore. i love florida but all the money hungry buttholes from up north have all but destroyed the ecology and what made it so special. in austin Texas, they do everything to make it better. ladybird even planted the bluebonnets on every highway. they have spread everywhere and they mix with indian blankets and poppies. an awesome sight!
i bet you remember Barton Springs! roflllll the natural spring fed 1,000 ft. topless allowed pool! eddie used to make sure he wore good sunglasses so i wouldnt catch him looking. didnt work. im not retarded… haha
Spaghetti Warehouse, elgins BBQ, free concerts on the river(willy, thunderbirds, stevie ray, marcia ball), 6th. street, perdenales,the gorgeous lakes, 4 HUGE shopping malls people waving to you as they drive back. (with all 5 fingers!)… lol
HOWEVER… when i was there the population was about 300,000. now its way over a million so it is the memories we miss more than the place itself. it would be all different now. yep…good ole Herbert E. Butts (H.E.B grocery stores)…i was going home from work one night and Bergstrom AFB was all dark except for an area that shined on the space shuttle… what a sight!!!.. another great thing is that we were surrounded by other awesome cities not far away… san antonio is unreal…Houston sucks, i loved corpus and port aransas even though the water was cloudy from the Mississippi…GREAT fishing! camping on the beaches…
HOLY SMOKES/// its 3:30… im daydreaming about what was and i better get my mind on what is or im in trouble. thanks for allowing me to have some wonderful happy memories…OH… this all started about a tiny racetrack in the boonies. :wink: wish we could all get together and talk about the old days in austin…:wink:
carol aka oz

10

Texas! I lived in San Antonio for 5 years and just loved it. They have the best food and the prettiest girls of anywhere. Florida is great, but I could have stayed in Texas with no problem.

When I moved to Miami, people would always ask what brought me there from Texas. I told them “bad judgement”!

11

Hank Jr says it all “Texas women” great song.
Pretty women with accents both foreign and southern. Oval 44 said it, GREAT Barbecue. I lived in Mesquite for a while and loved it. Used to travel all through the state. Victoria Texas was my favorite.
“God Blessed Texas”

12

i bet you remember Barton Springs! roflllll the natural spring fed 1,000 ft. topless allowed pool!

:fragend005:

whaaaaaaaattt?

topless allowed?

are you sure they still do that? i certainly don’t remember seeing ta-ta’s over there.

i was there in 94 so it was a bit later than you.

i love florida but all the money hungry buttholes from up north

when i was there, Austin was importing money hungry butt-holes from California. bunches and bunches of people in the computer industry.

13

and the men!!! HOW DO YOU SPELL “HOT”?

cowboys with tight jeans and believe it or not… alot of them love chubby women… im in the wrong place. ;-( hahaha
and the men in Texas sure knew how to have fun…and they fear NOTHING!!! they sack rattlesnakes, ride raging bulls, play with gators and swim with 12 ft. gar!
we had about 200 bikers on my 10 acres in Lytton Springs (dale) one weekend and would you believe not one single person complained about the noise. in fact alot dropped in to have fun with us… we roasted goats and pigs in the ground hawiian style… OH gosh… sooooooooo tender and delicious…
im almost on highway 10!!! actually im stayin here. have made some wonderful friends in racing and ive learned you really can never go back and have the same feelings. alot of the people who made it special are gone… the goats decayed and it is even hotter there than here!!! but reliving all this has been a blast. havent even touched the surface yet. my sister and her kids still live in Lockhart. i guess i could visit… but i cant… would have to miss racin and hailey and bobby… oh wow… the cowboys in tight jeans… hmmmmmm eeeny meeeny,miney,moe…
OZ

14

I’m not 100% sure but it could be Thunder Hill Speedway. It was just south of Austin as I remember. I went there a few years ago for a big late model race the call the “Big Shot”. It was $30,000 to win. Had about 53 cars for the race, I went with Billy Bigley and Mike Bresnahan. Wayne Anderson was also there in Joe Armendia’s (sp?) car. Ricky Turner won the race as I remember.

15

http://www.thunderhillraceway.com/

Thunder Hill is still there. actually, if you go to that forum discussion i linked, that’s one of the big reasons they don’t think Longhorn will open back up again. they say Thunder Hill is too close.

16

just found this. think it’s the one…

The 1/4 mile asphalt track formerly known as Austin Speed-O-Rama, then Longhorn Speedway and lastly “Bad Boys Speed-O-Rama” tried four times to become reborn.

The first attempt was made by Sam Hill of Austin. He lost money and closed.

Then the Chambers brothers of Austin tried their hand at track operations. They closed because the new Thunder Hill Raceway was to much to compete against.

The track was closed for quite some time. The grass and weeds grew high, the rattlesnakes and rats found a nice home just off highway183.

A couple of men from the midwest wanted to make it into a dirt track, but they gave up when they discovered the phrase “dirt cheap” was literally an incorrect statement.

Finally a fellow from South Austin by the name of Paul Miller took over the lease in 2000. He announced he’d re-open and call it “Bad Boys Speed-O-Rama”. He cleared the grass and weeds, killed the rattlesnakes and the rats. He then discovered that several parts of the facility no longer met city code. It would be more expensive to update than he was willing to afford. He surrendered. The grass, weeds, rattlesnakes and rats moved back in.

Apparently the formerly colorful and historic 1/4 mile Friday night track that operated for more than 50 years may never hear the roar of racing engines again.

Neil Upchurch
PA Announcer (12 years)

17

Hey Carol, only problem with them cowboys in tight jeans is that they jump off after 8 seconds…

18

Oz, Elgin sausage is awesome. Coopers BBQ in Llano is probably the best brisket I have ever eaten. Whenever the future inlaws come from Texas I have them bring me a couple hundred dollars worth of brisket. First time on an airplane was to go there in 06. We went to the alamo and I died laughing. It was so small. I envisioned this huge fort and as soon as I walked in the front I was almost out the back door.

Nonetheless, On saturday the roads look like a saturday in North Carolina, except instead of race car trailers its horse trailers. There is an arena around every corner.

19

Todd, Ed, & Oval

8 seconds would be more than enough ROFLLLLLLLLL
the Alamo was like a damp urinal but i still felt like a small part of southern history being there. it is alot smaller than i expected too but the whole area is gorgeous.
you are right about the California money guys. they screwed up austin just like the NE guys screwed up Florida. when i lived in austin you could see the capitol from every direction. you cant see it now unless you are riding up Congress facing it… it is a beautiful building and the grounds are lovely… like i said. you cant go back because nothing is the same… (except maybe the Elgin sausages!). but you can have fun like we did today and relive the wonder days… i really had a blast talking to you guys about austin because you reminded me of so many days i never want to forget. thanks so much…
my son did the metal work on the huge steeple at St. Davids… he was only about 16 and already a master tinner… he also did all the electronics places and the Criminal Justice Bldg. he and eddie worked for Oliver Roofing…ok… now im going to sleep… been a fun day with you…
carolwicks aka OZ :engel016: