ron.brown11

I like Mr Higdon's idea, but with a little twist on it. I know that some (Nick) wouldn't like it though. How about a nice 3/8 mile, progressive banking asphalt track on the grounds at COTA? Got to be progressive banking, no follow the leader, or running over each other racing. Great side by side racing is very fun, and you sure tear up a lot less cars when you don't have to wreck someone to pass. 

Almost all freeway miles from OK, Houston, Dallas, SA, Laredo, El Paso, and not too many backroads from Corpus. I bet you could draw some from Mobile and Pensacola too. Especially if you run some Super Late models. Because it's already a racetrack, permits shouldn't be an issue. All the basic infrastructure is there. Who knows, maybe they could negotiate 1 race a season on the big track, a la Texas World Speedway. It would also make a great prelim for a cup weekend. 

But we all know the reality of it. Whoever wants to do this (or any asphalt track), must have deep pockets to start, and be willing to not see a profit for at least 3 years. I personally don't know anybody with those kind of pockets. However, I really believe that if something could be worked out to partner with COTA, maybe just maybe, it would take only 2 years to break even. I'm also pretty sure that COTA would like to have another revenue stream too. 

I know that it's not worth 2 cents, but that's the best bet I see to having another asphalt track in the heart of Texas. I'd love to work on that project!

Nick, you are the glue that's held this together. A lot of people know this, and many really appreciate it. I am one of them.You have been a great friend to all the racers in TX, whether they know it or not. I've always enjoyed talking and working with you when I was involved here in TX. Your knowledge, and your "want to" in keeping TX racing going has been incredible. I hope that you are able to continue to do so for years to come. I miss being able to pop my head in the booth at Thunderhill, while you worked. I pray that 2022 will be a better year for you and your family. 

2021 wasn't a good year for me, so I am very thankful for our now 2 year old identical twin grand daughters. AS we only have 1 child, our son has held the key to grandchildren for us. They had said on many occasions that they only wanted 2 kids. They REALLY weren't expecting them at the same time. SURPRISE!! But that also means they these little beauties will probably be our only grandchildren. Still beyond grateful!! WE Nick, like you are a mixed family. My wife is Hispanic too. So our son is half & half. His wife is first generation Taiwanese. These girls are just 24 months old, and they are already speaking some words in English, Spanish, and Chinese. Hell, I'm still working on English, and I turn 65 in 1 month. Lordy, I'm getting old.

Hang in there Nick, God has a plan!!

Hey, I'm not knocking dirt racing, or dirt racers but asphalt was my favorite. I really wish that I could have run a season or 2 on dirt, as I feel it would made me a better driver on asphalt. I know that I hated a loose car especially upon turn entry. I didn't mind a push on entry, because as my modified had more that enough engine to drive over the push. But that's not the fastest way around. It seems that I never had a neutral car very often.

I still love racing, and I still miss racing, However, I'm pretty certain my body will ever allow me to compete again. Couple that with the fact that I am now retired and living on a fixed income, I can't afford to anymore. I ran some laps at Thunderhill and at San Antonio in 2 of the cars that Greg Baber had. I really liked his orange and white car that he raced at Thunderhill the best. That car really liked being driven off the right rear, and was fun to drive it that way. I wasn't really wilde about Thunderhill or San Antonio's track layout. I would loved to have had a chance to run some laps at HMP. It was pretty similar to the track that I raced most often, Tucson Raceway Park. So, barring at least 2 major miracles, bench racing & spectating is about all I have left.

Nick, I really hope that somebody (person or company) will step up with whatever you need to keep it going.

Enjoyed the show! Dave Moody is a pretty smart guy when it comes to racing. Man, I'd love to see the Texas asphalt racing make a comeback. I started out attending races at a great 1/2 mile high banked dirt track, that had the pits in the infield. I loved it. Then they paved it. Fifty years later, I still remember that first race after it was paved. As I started to cross the track through the crossover gate, I was nearly rear ended by the ramp truck that was hauling the late model that I helped on. As I crested the road, and started to cross the track, I just stopped. I had an epiphany, this was where I was supposed to be. It took 20 years before I saw the next dirt race in person. I still love a good dirt race, but it has never held the same feeling as a good asphalt race. I'm certain that there are just as many race fans that feel the opposite, and that great. There's no such thing as too much good racing!! 

The thing that really bothered me about NASCAR's no penalty to Hamlin was this. For the life of me I can't remember who, but I believe it was the 00 Houff got into someone intentionally, under caution. They parked him for a 5 lap penalty, because there was a safety truck driving on the track near them. Well, when Hamlin pulled that stunt on the frontstretch, there was a camera crew on foot getting ready to interview the 48. Nobody was outside the safety truck when the 00 did his stuff. I'm certain those on foot would have been much more at risk for injury than anyone riding in a full size pickup. NASCAR should have treated both incidents that same, I don't care that Hamlin was trying to get to the championship 4. I've always thought that Hamlin is an incredible talent, and I've followed him since back in his late model days. He did an awful lot in family owned equipment, and Mr Gibbs was bold enough to hire him straight into Cup. But he does some things that make you go huh? He's never been as blatant as Kyle Busch (until that day), but he's getting closer. I doubt that we'd see anywhere near as much carnage, if these drivers were also having to fix or pay to have the cars fixed. It's pretty easy to crash somebody else's stuff. If you're pissed at a driver, go see them. It costs too much to fix them, I know from not even being the target of someone's anger. Way to often more people's stuff gets torn up, that weren't involved with said anger. Plus, it's really unfair to those that work for free trying to help someone get to the track to race, have to work that much more to fix a car for no reason. That kind of stuff isn't good for anybody, teams, tracks or fans.

I'm sorry, I left out Janette's name in a sentence from my first post. I never had the pleasure of meeting Janette.

WOW, what a broadcast crew. Bob Jenkins, Ned Jarrett, Benny Parsons in the booth, and Dr Jerry Punch doing the pit reporting. There was more than 1 occasion where they carried a poor race or a long rain delay, and they did it with class and dignity. For those that were lucky enough to see them do their job, it sure is hard to watch a lot of these announcers over the last 10-15 years. I met and talked to both Benny Parsons & Bill Weber during ESPN's coverage of the Winter Heat Series, throughout the late 90s. What an honest and sincere man Benny Parsons was. All I'll say about Bill Weber is, karma is a bitch. The way he treated people there I guess was his MO everywhere. It's what got him fired. I would have loved to meet Bob Jenkins. He always struck me as a class act. 

God Bless Bob Jenkins

I met James once, and he struck me as one of the good people. Never had the pleasure of meeting. I hope that you will accept my condolences and prayers. We're not supposed to out live our children, let alone our grandchildren. I can't imagine the grief you all are experiences. God Bless

Hey Nick, I saw the Lost speedway episodes for the Texas tracks. I never got to go to Texas World Speedway, and wish I could have seen the track for a Cup race then. An Air Force pilot that I knew around 2014, raced the road course in an orange #15 1970 Mustang Boss 302. It was made to look like the Parneli Jones driven, Bud Moore prepped Trans Am champion car.

Back in the 80s, I drove from Del Rio to SAS many of weekends. I loved John Kelly. That was the first racing t-shirt I ever bought. I remember the competition was usually pretty fierce. I hated to see SAS close. It was really sad how all that went down, to shut it down. Unfortunately that wasn't the only track to close under such circumstances.

Oh yeah, I almost forgot, Love the ponytail!!

God Bless you my friend..

I thought it was pretty good too. Then I really loved it when Doug Coby won!! One thing did bother me though about the entire night, and reminded me about an exhibition race that I saw while living in Tucson, AZ. When NASCAR was getting ready to launch the truck series, they had the beginnings of the truck field (about 12 trucks if I remember correctly), run at Tucson Raceway Park. TRP was the track that hosted the Winter Heat Series in the late 90s on ESPN. What bothered me about it was that it was advertised as a real race. But by the end of the race, every single truck lead at least 1 lap. It looked staged, and as I found out later that night it was. That was the feeling I had watching a good part of the heat races and the main. It wasn't until about 3/4s through the main that it actually started looking like a real race. I get that too. They want to gin up excitement for the series, and that's a good thing. I'm very hopeful for the remaining 5 races. I would expect Tony Stewart to win this weekend, but he will make a show of it. After all, he has a personal and financial interest in it. Can't wait to see Willie T Ribbs on dirt!!

I waited a little while to digest my time at COTA. As I said on page 1 of this thread, I went all 3 days. It was my first road race, and there is no doubt that road racing will never replace my love for oval racing. That being said, except for the rain on Sunday, we had a good time. Friday we got 2 practice sessions for the Lambo Series. In a deviation from the printed schedule, we got practice sessions from the trucks & Xfinity cars. That was great, and the weather was too.

Didn't go for the morning qualifying for the trucks and Xfinity, got there an hour before the start of the truck race. The trucks ran the entire race in very light showers, and it was a good race. The only cautions were for the stage breaks. The wind seemed to be a bigger issue than the rain. Ten minutes after they took the checked flag, the rain stopped and that wind dried the track before the Xfinity cars ran. NASCAR allowed the teams to change onto slicks before the race started. That kind of surprised me because it was an impound. However NASCAR made the right call. There were only a couple of yellows for off track excursions. Good Race Too!

The Cup race had light rain throughout the first stage. Unfortunately it got heavier in the second. The race should have been stopped after the Wallace/Harvick incident. Yes the Air Titans were able to remove a lot of water off the back stretch area, where it was pooling, but it was now raining harder. They should have never restarted that race. Of course then they did. Big Mistake!! By the grace of God, and only by his grace, nobody got hurt. We were seated on the top row in turn 1, and there were times it was hard to see the cars entering turn 1 that weren't at the front of the field, and we were looking down! Plus turn 1 is at the top of a hill. The back of the track is much lower. I really love racing, but not when it absolutely doesn't make any sense. That made no sense. Racing is dangerous enough without introducing stupidity to it.

The facility is beautiful. I went there once before for a tour of the facility. The rain of course was a disappointment, but by far wasn't the biggest disappointment. There was almost no food choices. I really expected that COTA & Austin would have done a better job of promoting some of the really great food available in the Austin area. We were seated in turn 1, and the only thing available there was a pizza place and a taco wagon. As I am a disabled vet, we parked every day in the main lot by the main grandstand. So we walked every day through the main concourse twice. Maybe we missed it, but that's all we saw there too. There wasn't many merchandise trailers either. I don't know it it was because of the predicted weather that kept those venders from coming, but sure was surprising/disappointing. Before the end of the second stage, the taco wagon close in turn 1. Don't know if they ran out of food, or nobody was buying. 

I looked for Tavo, but never saw him. I really didn't expect to, because I'm sure that he would be very busy. But I still wanted to thank him for all that he has done to make that track happen. He wouldn't know me from Adam, because I only got to meet him thanks to Mr. Holt. But I have always believed that a person should be thanked for their hard works and good deeds. He did both, so

Thank You Tavo!!

I saw Myrtle Beach there too. There were glimpses of a track in NC  that I think I went to as a kid. Can't remember the name though. It really sucks to see that most of these closes tracks are asphalt. Many of them used to be big time facilities that attracted large fields and crowds. I truly hope she makes it work. 

I read a good (but short) article in the latest Speedway Illustrated magazine that addressed what's going on at HMS & Mobile. She's got the right idea. Standardized rules, and not trying to hurt other tracks by having race dates that compete against each other. I grew up in Cincinnati in the 60s & 70s. Asphalt racing in Ohio, Ind, ILL, Mich, Wisconsin, and to some extent MN, the names of the drivers and the tracks were very well known. Most of those drivers could run 7 days a week, with very minimal changes to their cars. Some would run 2 different tracks in the same day. Several of these drivers wound up in Cup. Several of their offspring have also ended up in the top 3 NASCAR divisions. Some of the times it was some of NASCAR's early attempts at regional series', but there were several tracks that simply got together with other tracks near there's, to construct rules and racing days working together. I was lucky enough to see that usually twice a week. Tri-County Speedway (later being called Queen City Speedway) on Wed, Indianapolis Raceway Park on Fridays,  Tri-County again on Sat, and Columbus Motor Speedway on Sundays. The norm was 20 very good late models at every track, every night. It was absolutely great for a handful of years. Then 1 thing screwed it all up. The owner of Tri-County, Bill Redwine, decided he didn't want to run things anymore. So he leased out the track to someone else. All was going good for the first part of the new season under the new promoter, until 1 Sat night when only 12 late models showed. There had been a major crash on lap 1 at Indy Raceway Park. Because of that the new promoter person decided that he wanted his rules to be different, so that he wouldn't have to share "his cars" with the other 2 tracks. Tri-County stumbled around for a few more years, and a promoter or two before closing. And until Bristol jacked the banks way up, Try-County was the fastest 1/2 mile track in the country. For many years the track sat there, but had a softball complex around about half of the track. The infield pits and part of the parking lot was used by a truck driving school. They finally bladed it down in about 2010. I left Cincinnati in 1975 when I joined the Air Force that Aug. I went a few times when I was back in Cincy on leave. I went there in Oct 2007. There were no fences or gates to get through. I walked up to the grandstands at the end of the front straight. I've only cried 3 times over racing. The first was when Davey Allison died, the second was when I sold my modified, and that day standing there at Tri-County. For Davey it was because I really admired him and his tenacity and approach to racing. With my modified it was because it was a realization of a part of my life that I loved was ending, and never to be repeated. With Tri-County was because I saw what was possible, and how 1 person could destroy the very thing that hooked me into loving racing. If Dale JR was to do a Lost Speedway episode on Tri-County, I'm not sure I could watch. It would hurt that bad. That's the reason that I posted on the COTA thread that I would go to the Cup weekend. I'm sick of seeing the thing that I love, continue to die, 1 track at a time. 

  I'll be there all 3 days, and my brother is flying in from Ohio for it too. Tired of seeing TX asphalt tracks close, so I'll try to do my part. I got to meet Tavo courtesy of Nick, at Thunderhill one night. Seems like a good guy and racer at heart. Both of those things mean something to me too Nick. Very glad Tavo wasn't destroyed by all that transpired, and I'm sure I don't know 1 percent of what went on. 

  I found out thru purchasing my tickets that Texas Motor Speedway (SMI- ie Bruton Smith)) was basically running that side of it. Not sure if that's because of TMS losing a date to COTA, or if SMI is maybe trying to purchase some or all of COTA, and splitting future NASCAR racing dates in TX. NASCAR says it's committed to running more road courses in the future. And why not, with the Next Gen car basically being an Australian V8 Supercar. 

  Now I'm just hoping for good weather for all 3 days!! 

The truck race has now moved to noon EDT on Monday. No mention yet as to which channel it will be aired on.

I did a little research to see if Ryan was driving for someone at New Smyrna. He was driving a Mike Skinner (RCS) car. At Five Flags he will be running a car from Jett Motorsports. Ryan had signed to race for Jett before the Prelude race for Skinner. Apparently he has made enough money racing in the IRacing league to allow him to get into these seats. The interesting thing about that is that Jett Motorsports protested Ryan's win at New Smyrna. It sounds like the protest had more to do with the conflicts between the Skinner & Jett organizations than it was about Ryan. After all that, Ryan was still the winner. Ryan smacked the wall Friday in practice. Hopefully they can get it repaired to pre-crash shape, because he was fast. Also, Jett is the team that fields cars for Stephen Nasse, so it's a very good team. Hopefully this TX driver can bring some hardware back home today. 

Ryan, from Cypress, TX took the leas early and drove away to win the Governor's Cup 50 lap Pro Late Model race Sat. night. Finishing second was the 2020 track champ Brad May; 3rd was Steven Nasse; 4th was Daniel Keene Jr; and 5th was Hayden Sprague. Ryan won by a little over 1/4 lap. He had over a 1/2 lap lead when a late caution came out. Not sure if Ryan had ever ran at New Smyrna before, but he ran really good. Steven Nasse is an extremely strong competitor anywhere he runs, but tends to be very strong at FL tracks. The race was shown on NBC Sports Gold Track Pack. Today at 1:00 on Track Pack will be the 200 lap Super Late Models there. They are supposed to have more than the 2 cameras today covering that race. Still it was a good watch. Hopefully it won't rain, as there is a 40% chance.

I never got to meet Freddy, but did get to watch him race some in the 80s. But I learned a lot about him because of how highly Nick Holt spoke of him so many times, when we were together at the track. What a driver!! God Bless the Fryar family, and that includes so many that were close to him. As family isn't always blood relatives.