LONGHORN SPEEDWAY

[txtom]

After Sam Hill gave up on running Longhorn against the then new Kyle, Ron Chambers and his Borthers looked into it. When they mentioned running it on Friday nights, everyone within 150 miles said emphatically that if he opened it on Friday, they would be there.

Middle of 99 is here, and Ron opens the gates to a very small crowd of cars. Now it is "Well, I am in a points race at Kyle, but I will run with you next year." Alright, Ron says, and opens for 2000,. Even booked ROMCO. Now the excuse was "Well, my car is set up for Kyle; I would need gears, tires, etc......That was the end.

Feld bad for Ron, who is a long time friend to this day. One impressive thing he did was to visit every pit each night and thank them for showing up. He also gave them an ear if they wanted to vent about something. They might not get their way, but at least they knew Ron would stand there and listen until they were through.

With apologies to anything else running right now, I really miss Speedorama, Paramount Austin, Longhorn, or whatever else it was called in its' day. Call it too small, too rough, or anything else, but I saw some really great racing there with way less torn up equipment than most other tracks.

[NeilTPS]

Tx-Tom: To add a little to your Longhorn Speedway post … The Texas Pro Sedans well supported Ron’s attempt in maintaing race operations at Longhorn Speedway. The Texas Pro Sedans raced several times at Ron’s and his brothers track.

 

When TPS was on the schedule, the Texas Pro Sedans was by far the largest class at Longhorn just like they are for the past two seasons at CC Speedway.

 

Neil Upchurch

Founder and Retired Former Driver, Race & Administrative Director

Texas Pro Sedans & TIDA

[RodneyRodriguez]

and by the way Neil..... thanks for all those years as announcer there at Austin. I would repeat your words Saturday AM reliving the races..

 

For the youngsters... Neil Upchurch won TIDA championships and promoted TIDA at Speed O Rama and was the Voice of Austin Speed O Rama for many years.

[fast18]

When Ron opened the track for friday night racing I made every race with my car. If it wasn't tore up I changed the gears and was at THR saturday night.

[Big G Smith]

I had heard that Sandra Bullock had bought the track for her then husband Jessie James. They cleaned up the brush and dismantled the grand stands making it look like

they were going to restore it to operation. But that was before Jessie got caught with his pants down.

 

Now that the dust has settled, he possibly could be planning to re-open it as a figure 8 track.

 

Next time I see him I'll ask about it.

[racer61]

Tom, I didnt get a chance to race for Ron. I was in another state at the time. I grew up at that track. It was a fun little track. You either learned how to handle a car or ended up on the hook. Usually cus the wall would reach out and grab ya. Kinda miss them days. No 3 ring circus or political correctness. Just short track racin.