txtom

Please keep Austin racer Jerry Grant and his Family in your thoughts and prayers. He lost his wife Judy thursday. There will be a small service as noted: https://www.legacy.com/obituaries/name/judy-grant-obituary?pid=191644835

Billy, google the CARS Tour super late model schedule. Freddy’s Grandson Jared Fryar is running that series again, and is the defending points champion. Bound to have a race near you,

FIxed the URl for ya'll. Still got a bunch of programs coming. And more pics than you can imagine. Tom

This one will bring back some memories for the old timers here. This is a fairly rare finding. It is a magazine that was published here in San Antonio to cover all the motorsports of the time. George Pettigrew was the Editor. On page 2, you will recognize many names of the folks that contributed to this magazine. https://public.fotki.com/txtom/racing-programs/miscellaneous-races/sa-racer-august-1978/

Just added a 1979 Austin Speedorama program to my FOTKI site. Link is below: https://public.fotki.com/txtom/auto-racing/paramount-austin-sp/1979-speedorama-program/ Stay tuned to that site for some new albums that i am about to upload to it; One is from the Pan American Speedway, and the other I'll keep a lid on for right now, but it's a good one....

Johnny broke a rear end coming to the green and it turned him into the wall. Had a good car. Several cars in all classes had rear end problems; mostly with Gleasons.

The race Waltrip won was 21 March 1993. The Texas Grand Prix ran the day before in a race won by Howard Wilis.

Yessir, a lot going on and I knew you would be busy during Fiesta and all. Will get with you fairly soon sbout those pics,

Happy Birthday to the creator of the lighter than air chassis, the original setup man for the Roman chariots,and the one that burns up an edit master 2000 keyboard annually keeping our BS in check! Happy Birthday Nick! You will have a great day, although you will not remember it!

William G, In some of my research, I have found the location of the Lloyd Smith track called Texas Speedway. It was off Greenwood Road, and was basically in the same place at the Riverside track that came along later. the location of Riverside would be just due west of the Texas Speedway location, and you could throw a rock from the center of one to the center of where the other one was. There is some kind of industrial yard at the end of greenwood before it detours at OSO Creek; The equipment yard is directly over where Texas Speedway was, and Riverside is behind the equipment yard backed up to the creek.

Pontiac, none of them are around. Right now, Heart of Texas Speedway in Waco is probably the longest continually running track in the state, having started in it's current location in April, 1966. There was a previous Heart of Texas that ran for 10 years in a different location. The only track I know of that was active in the 50's and is still around is the Corpus Christi Speedway that opened in 1946 and has been both dirt and asphalt, but it is currently been closed the past couple or three years. The property is currently being leased for non racing business, and the future of the track is still a little up in the air.

Gonna edit here to mix a mixup in my notes---- There was a track in in Rockdale located at 274 CR 308A. About a half mile north of US 79 on the west side of Rockdale. On certain maps you can see the outline. Two possible tracks in Thorndale. One was located at 1090 Sandoval Road about a half mile west of North 3rd Street. Certain maps still show an outline. This first one may have been a horsetrack due to size. The other one which seems more promising was located at 498 CR 443 North of Town. On certain maps you can see the outline. Track in Belton located at 9084 Prairie View Avenue. Just North of Prairie view and Just east of SR 317. You can see where it once was. There was also a half mile dirt track in Taylor about 1910 to 1919, but I have not found a record on location Nathan and Lester, There have been tracks in places I aint even heard of. I am slowly compiling stuff like this. There were a few dirt tracks in Austin also, and i am trying to compile some locations. Austin Speedway was one located at the corner of Ben White and South Lamar. Another one, name unknown, was two different size tracks located just south of HWY 183, and east of SR 1closer to Burnet Road. A street named Melshire was the basic location of it; The Austin Antique Mall and Playland Skate Center just off 183 is about the north end of the track.

With all that has gone on in 2017, I have not had much time to devote to our racing history. But I spent some time this past week to organize some pictures and and scan them to my FOTKI Site. It is a kinda hodgepodge mixture of just under 12,000 pics that includes Pan American and other area tracks, USRA, ROMCO, TSRS, and several other classes. Some of the album are very large , some only have a few enrties. I might add that I have another large group of pictures coming that centers around Kyle, and I am working on, and will have most of it posted in the next few weeks,. When I say large, it is 20,000+ pics. A collection from Pan American is in the works; that one is taking a lot of time due to the work involved in restoring the prints and separating multiple scans into individual files. There are 5900+ scans in that collection to go through. Most are not my pictures, but I did not get photographer information with them. If I can find out, I will credit the photographers. I do know that almost all the Pan American stuff was taken by the late Ted Hood. Click this link to see what is new: http://public.fotki.com/txtom/

Sorry for the delay in responding to all of this; it has been a hectic couple weeks. My Brother Robert, who some of you know from his Texas Mile Competitions, suffered a massive heart attack two weeks ago, while on a deep water oil rig off the coast of Trinidad. He was resusitated twice through CPR and defribilation before the helicopter got him back to mainland (Still Trinidad). he spent about 5 days there before becoming stable enough to transport to the U.S, FT Lauderdale being the closest hospital they could take him two. He has suffered a myriad of complications in the past two weeks, and is still on a ventilator to help with breathing due to rib and sternum damage from the CPR rounds. They very quickly determined and fixed the source for the heart attack, a completely blocked pulmonary artery. I am happy to report that this morning, he came out of sedation, and can communicate with hand gestures, head nods, and the like. He cannot speak due to the trache tube he has, but we are hoping that this is turning the corner. The hospital staff is communicating with Texas hospitals for an acute care rehab facility, and there happens to be some in our immediate area; New Braunfels and Kyle. He lives in Kyle, so either would be very convenient. It is thought that if the progress continues, he may be able to transfer within the next week or so. For anyone that would like to keep track of his progress, here is a link that his wife Debbie maintains: https://www.caringbridge.org/visit/roberttaylor5 Thanks to all, and keep him in your thoughts and prayers. Tom

Noted engine builder Robert Yates has lost his battle with cancer. He was an icon of NASCAR. Thoughts and prayers to his Family and anyone who ever knew him.