From the rumor department: San Antonio Speedway to be restored?

[trlrider]

I would love to see a new racing facility in the San Antonio Region, or the reopening of SAS in Marion. 
sadly, rebuildiing/recreating the old Hwy 16 property just does not sound legitimate.
- property line to property line is less then 4/10th's of a mile on the long side.  So a 1/4 mile dragstrip is completely not going to happen, at least not one with any ability to be sanctioned. They would need at least a 3/4 mile paved track.  SAS in Marion was just under 3/4 mile.  So the best we can hope for on that property would be a 1/8 mile track.

- with that, it means completely demolishing what is left of the 1/2 mile oval.
- dirt abatement with all the contamination on that site would be a nightmare.
- there are currently 3 subdivisions on the Southwest side of the track.  The closest house is right at 1/4 mile from turn one of the track and the bulk of the homes currently within a 1/2 - 3/4 mile distance from turn one.
- the only way this could even remotely happen would be in full cooperation with the City of San Antonio, which now owns the property on the North Side of the Hwy 16 property. 
- sorry to be skeptical, but doing this on that old racetrack location just does not seem practical. 
- again, I would love seeing a operating dragstrip.  I had just started building a straightline care for the 1st time in 30 plus years when the announcement of the SAS Marion track being shut down. Really hope something happens in the region.

 

Edited January 1, 2023 by trlrider

[rebelracewriter]

All the crying for years to have SAS reopen.....Someone comes up with an idea/plan and all you hear from circle trackers is negative bullshit....Y'all crack me up....No actually I'm TRULY disappointed in several people on here and fakebook.

Yes I know of all the hurdles and loop holes they'll need to jump through and I know a lot more about the whole ACM situation than most people or that I've publically shared during litigation(good and bad).....I also know between dome dirt and soil contamination that area would need a shit ton of remediation to become anything like a housing area.

Right now all they're asking for is some volunteer help....Funny thing, when Chris and Brian asked for help people showed up with weedeaters, chain saws and a freaking bulldozer....Then only a percentage of people crying for it to reopen even showed up....When you don't have it, you want it....When you have it, you don't support it....SMGDH....Seems the only ones excited are the drag racing people....If I was the group of people involved in this I'd say screw the circle track, lets just build the drag strip....FYI, Little River, Edinburg, Big Country, HMP are only 1/8 mile tracks, probably others I've not been to also. 

In one their latest posts they've stated they have the funding in place, whether true or not I don't know, but they're NOT asking for money so this shouldn't turn into another James and Shelma deal.(Not you Higdon)

All that being said I'm skeptically optimistic, but give them the benefit of the doubt until I see otherwise.

[HiTech]

26 minutes ago, rebelracewriter said:

All the crying for years to have SAS reopen.....Someone comes up with an idea/plan and all you hear from circle trackers is negative bullshit....Y'all crack me up....No actually I'm TRULY disappointed in several people on here and fakebook.

Yes I know of all the hurdles and loop holes they'll need to jump through and I know a lot more about the whole ACM situation than most people or that I've publically shared during litigation(good and bad).....I also know between dome dirt and soil contamination that area would need a shit ton of remediation to become anything like a housing area.

Right now all they're asking for is some volunteer help....Funny thing, when Chris and Brian asked for help people showed up with weedeaters, chain saws and a freaking bulldozer....Then only a percentage of people crying for it to reopen even showed up....When you don't have it, you want it....When you have it, you don't support it....SMGDH....Seems the only ones excited are the drag racing people....If I was the group of people involved in this I'd say screw the circle track, lets just build the drag strip....FYI, Little River, Edinburg, Big Country, HMP are only 1/8 mile tracks, probably others I've not been to also. 

In one their latest posts they've stated they have the funding in place, whether true or not I don't know, but they're NOT asking for money so this shouldn't turn into another James and Shelma deal.(Not you Higdon)

All that being said I'm skeptically optimistic, but give them the benefit of the doubt until I see otheidont care what it wise.

WELL I am SEEING  u are starting the year out right ....i dont care what it cost someone to rebuild that track . they know the issues  in  rebuilding it ... if they are willing  why cry about it ..i got to race one race on that track in pro sedan  had less than  two handfulls of pratice laps the very last weekend the track ran .. i started  4th surprised   i ran and finished 3rd surprised again    might have had a chance at winning but  leaning out carb caused me to run  just above half throttle most of the race i could have followed right on the leaders tails  till i learned more about that track   but chance of burning a piston i was not in favor of .. ......be something to see it running again  always excited to go ..

[JamesHigdon]

1 hour ago, rebelracewriter said:

All the crying for years to have SAS reopen.....Someone comes up with an idea/plan and all you hear from circle trackers is negative bullshit....Y'all crack me up....No actually I'm TRULY disappointed in several people on here and fakebook.

Yes I know of all the hurdles and loop holes they'll need to jump through and I know a lot more about the whole ACM situation than most people or that I've publically shared during litigation(good and bad).....I also know between dome dirt and soil contamination that area would need a shit ton of remediation to become anything like a housing area.

Right now all they're asking for is some volunteer help....Funny thing, when Chris and Brian asked for help people showed up with weedeaters, chain saws and a freaking bulldozer....Then only a percentage of people crying for it to reopen even showed up....When you don't have it, you want it....When you have it, you don't support it....SMGDH....Seems the only ones excited are the drag racing people....If I was the group of people involved in this I'd say screw the circle track, lets just build the drag strip....FYI, Little River, Edinburg, Big Country, HMP are only 1/8 mile tracks, probably others I've not been to also. 

In one their latest posts they've stated they have the funding in place, whether true or not I don't know, but they're NOT asking for money so this shouldn't turn into another James and Shelma deal.(Not you Higdon)

All that being said I'm skeptically optimistic, but give them the benefit of the doubt until I see otherwise.

This is a very good take & I support it. If there’s a 1% chance of it working I’ll support them…I’ll be cautious but I’ll support them. 
 

San Antonio Speedway is my home, no matter what’s there it always will be. 
 

Most importantly (to me) as the father of a 7 and 3 year old that are obsessed with cars and racing having a local drag strip and asphalt circle track is a huge thing for us. I37 is great, we spend a lot of time out there and nothing will change that but we grew up with asphalt racing. When I was a kid it was Fridays at Texas Dirt Speedway, Saturday’s at SAS, Sunday’s at AutoX’s, I’d love for my kids to have that. 
 

From a business standpoint having a drag strip is important to my shop, it makes a lot of what I do a lot easier. The events the Stovall’s brought to ACM where great and again I’d love my boys to be around Nitro cars and the like.

[rebelracewriter]

7 hours ago, HiTech said:

WELL I am SEEING  u are starting the year out right

😁

[HiTech]

9 hours ago, rebelracewriter said:

😁

NEVER DOUBT  U REB .  fact i think u get better  at it with age  i know i am ... Older the violin gets  the sweeter the music . IN our case it stays out of tune ...devil  went down to georgia tuning,

[MikePeters95]

rebelracewriter extremely well said.  I was also perusing through and I'll never understand the cynicism.  

I did drive by the other day on my way back home from my NYE festivities, and I'm not an San Antonio expert but I can tell you these things:

1)  I didn't see any houses within visibility of the intersection that track is on that would be able to complain about a race track and not all the other noise causing dumpy businesses nearby. That's a good spot for a track.

2)  There is a ton of dirt work and what appears to be a new or growing electric substation on the North side of Turn 3/4.

3)  I have no clue how a drag strip will fit on what appears to be the property left, and I am really interested to see how you'd fit spectators and racers in the facility. That parking is going to be TIGHT.

With that said, I would be ecstatic to see any motorsports endeavor yield success in San Antonio, Houston, Austin, Texas, Amarillo, Alaska, Canada, Brazil, Zimbabwe, anywhere.  

I saw the Facebook posts while I was out at an off-road race and I was super super excited, to the point where I wanted to drive by and have my excitement validated when I drove by to see the beginning of the rekindling of a speedway I'd been to a long time ago in 2005 for a drift demo during Octoberfast, as it would be so incredibly cool for me to be able to race on that track I'd been to as a kid with nearly 20 years ago.  The place I had then seen on Lost Speedways, along with Texas World Speedway, which I essentially grew up at, and have watched vanish before my eyes.  But I was deflated a little seeing the lot size they have to work with.

With that being said, if they do have a volunteer day, if HMP has a volunteer day to clean that place up a little too, and if I can afford to go time wise, I'll be there as soon as we are allowed to do whatever we are allowed to do, and hope you all find yourself in the same situation.  Whether it ends up being a waste of time or not, at least I'll try.

It would be awesome to race there.  I was excited when I first saw it on Facebook, and am a bit concerned seeing it first hand a couple days later, but I'll try if I can. I hope you all do as well. I'd rather risk wasting some time and looking stupid, but have put forth some effort, than to sit on the sidelines and watch something fail knowing I could have tried to help. 

I understand how some people can get burned out to the point of no return.  As someone who'd really like to see circle track be sustainable around here, I do wish some you guys would bite down just a bit, and have a bit of careless optimism and hope. 

[trlrider]

14 minutes ago, MikePeters95 said:

Note the housing development southwest of turn one.  Less then 1/4 mile from the old turn 1 of the old racetrack.  Also not the other development immediately west.  This image is 8 years old.

Also note, that even though they are using this address as the site for the new complex, I personally believe that it is nearby, but not at this location.  Query's to the Stovall's on Facebook have not been answered.

I for one would champion a new racing facility whether straightline or oval in the AACOG region that would live for decades.  Unless the Stovall Family signed a multi-decade year deal with the City of San Antonio to use the property due North of the old track, I cannot see a 1/4 mile dragstrip and oval being built.  Maybe a 1/8 mile track, considering that property is just over 3/8 mile long at it's longest point.  Again, unless they have signed a deal with the City of San Antonio which owns the land due north.




 

 

 

rebelracewriter extremely well said.  I was also perusing through and I'll never understand the cynicism.  

I did drive by the other day on my way back home from my NYE festivities, and I'm not an San Antonio expert but I can tell you these things:

1)  I didn't see any houses within visibility of the intersection that track is on that would be able to complain about a race track and not all the other noise causing dumpy businesses nearby. That's a good spot for a track.

2)  There is a ton of dirt work and what appears to be a new or growing electric substation on the North side of Turn 3/4.

3)  I have no clue how a drag strip will fit on what appears to be the property left, and I am really interested to see how you'd fit spectators and racers in the facility. That parking is going to be TIGHT.

With that said, I would be ecstatic to see any motorsports endeavor yield success in San Antonio, Houston, Austin, Texas, Amarillo, Alaska, Canada, Brazil, Zimbabwe, anywhere.  

I saw the Facebook posts while I was out at an off-road race and I was super super excited, to the point where I wanted to drive by and have my excitement validated when I drove by to see the beginning of the rekindling of a speedway I'd been to a long time ago in 2005 for a drift demo during Octoberfast, as it would be so incredibly cool for me to be able to race on that track I'd been to as a kid with nearly 20 years ago.  The place I had then seen on Lost Speedways, along with Texas World Speedway, which I essentially grew up at, and have watched vanish before my eyes.  But I was deflated a little seeing the lot size they have to work with.

With that being said, if they do have a volunteer day, if HMP has a volunteer day to clean that place up a little too, and if I can afford to go time wise, I'll be there as soon as we are allowed to do whatever we are allowed to do, and hope you all find yourself in the same situation.  Whether it ends up being a waste of time or not, at least I'll try.

It would be awesome to race there.  I was excited when I first saw it on Facebook, and am a bit concerned seeing it first hand a couple days later, but I'll try if I can. I hope you all do as well. I'd rather risk wasting some time and looking stupid, but have put forth some effort, than to sit on the sidelines and watch something fail knowing I could have tried to help. 

I understand how some people can get burned out to the point of no return.  As someone who'd really like to see circle track be sustainable around here, I do wish some you guys would bite down just a bit, and have a bit of careless optimism and hope. 

 

Edited January 3, 2023 by trlrider

[24nomo]

With the proper team behind a race track, there is plenty of money available to succeed.   Did anyone witness COTA this year?   They sold 7 million dollars worth of booze in November.  We just need people to step up and quit crying about $175 tires.   That is just a round of drinks at COTA.

[MikePeters95]

4 hours ago, 24nomo said:

With the proper team behind a race track, there is plenty of money available to succeed.   Did anyone witness COTA this year?   They sold 7 million dollars worth of booze in November.  We just need people to step up and quit crying about $175 tires.   That is just a round of drinks at COTA.

I don't think you understand the two very different demographics.

People who casually put on their rolex, polo shirt and take their GT3 to party with the boys have little to no interest having a truck, trailer, shop, physical labor etc. Those demographics do not necessarily overlap, nor does the experience of an F1 race versus grassroots circle track.

Would be nice, but a study of "who is your customer" needs to be applied to some of these logic patterns imo.

[Josh42]

If im not mistaken I thought the drag strip was taken completely out and should be right around where i put the purple highlight mark.  The fence line being the grandstand is the fence line for the race track.

 

Now I will say there is a lot of race tracks that are multi purpose drag strip/circle tracks in operation in smaller areas that work fine. 

But best thing that could be done is they start from scratch and turn it into a dirt track. Run on Friday nights. You have Waco and Boyd running Friday nights in North Texas but no dirt track in south Texas for Friday nights. Between CBS, I-37, STRR and Texana you could pull cars for a Friday night show.

[Josh42]

Reason I say go to dirt is because cars are there, they are readily available. Yes there is asphalt cars some left but not a whole lot.  Most that had them converted them to dirt or they have been sitting in the weeds for so long. 

Next your only gonna really pull racers from Austin and San Antonio.  You will get a couple from Corpus but Houston none of them will come to SA to race. That was evident during the hay days of asphalt racing in Central Texas. 

Next thing asphalt racers bitch non-stop about rules and their classes. Dirt cars throw an IMCA or USRA sanction on them and bam you can go run where you want. Plus dirt racers will travel to race multiple nights because they don't have to be at a track all day long. 

[HiTech]

7 hours ago, Josh42 said:

Reason I say go to dirt is because cars are there, they are readily available. Yes there is asphalt cars some left but not a whole lot.  Most that had them converted them to dirt or they have been sitting in the weeds for so long. 

Next your only gonna really pull racers from Austin and San Antonio.  You will get a couple from Corpus but Houston none of them will come to SA to race. That was evident during the hay days of asphalt racing in Central Texas. 

Next thing asphalt racers bitch non-stop about rules and their classes. Dirt cars throw an IMCA or USRA sanction on them and bam you can go run where you want. Plus dirt racers will travel to race multiple nights because they don't have to be at a track all day long. 

 make it dirt and u will have  poeple from all over ..

[MikePeters95]

@Josh42 I was so excited I drove by to look at it on the way home from a NYE race in San Antonio, I can confirm that is where the drag strip was on old ariel photos, and it is now occupied by new businesses and warehouses that are actively in business.  There is zero chance the old drag strip can be used because it has been redeveloped to profitable tax paying businesses.

Also you guys aren't wrong on the assessment of car count and fan support as a dirt track being much higher.  I think for the SAS tract that probably makes the most sense.

If someone was to develop or redevelop whatever tract of land Nick talked about on Rodney's show or the old Alamo City Motorplex (San Antonio Raceway/Dragstrip on I-10 whatever it is called) that would make sense.  I know before the dispute happened there were plans for motocross, drifting, and an oval that were being acted on.  Shame that never panned out, maybe that will rekindle.  Who knows.

[chenley]

Race tracks and housing subdivisions  don't get along, never have, never will, you can have a race track that's been operating  every weekend for 50 years  and a new subdivision  comes in , race track is gone  within 3 years, now a race track is the new kid on the block, never gonna happen,  sorry kids, there is a huge housing subdivision  within shouting distance of the track.

[rebelracewriter]

9 hours ago, MikePeters95 said:

If someone was to develop or redevelop whatever tract of land Nick talked about on Rodney's show or the old Alamo City Motorplex (San Antonio Raceway/Dragstrip on I-10 whatever it is called) that would make sense.  I know before the dispute happened there were plans for motocross, drifting, and an oval that were being acted on.  Shame that never panned out, maybe that will rekindle.  Who knows.

Mike, while that is certainly the most logical idea, it's not in the works. According to my sources that property has been sold with no intentions of it EVER being a racing facility again. Since the Stovalls once ran ACM I'm certain that would have been their first choice since everything was mostly in place.

 

18 hours ago, Josh42 said:

But best thing that could be done is they start from scratch and turn it into a dirt track. Run on Friday nights. You have Waco and Boyd running Friday nights in North Texas but no dirt track in south Texas for Friday nights. Between CBS, I-37, STRR and Texana you could pull cars for a Friday night show.

Josh, for whatever reason, Friday night racing is a tough sell in Texas. While Boyd and HOT still continue on Fridays, Devils Bowl switched to Saturdays some time back. I'm sure if Lanny thought Fridays were more profitable he wouldn't have changed. I will definitely agree that dirt track would be more viable versus a pavement track. The only caveat would be if the paved track was reduced to a 1/4 or 3/8(to match HMP). But you're right about rules, and why common rules can't be a thing here in Texas is beyond me.

[MikePeters95]

40 minutes ago, rebelracewriter said:

why common rules can't be a thing here in Texas is beyond me.

Hard to be egotistical when you didn't ''write your own rule book''.  Seems to be a common theme....from people who can't seem to actually write a rule book ironically.

Only reason I brought up ACM, somehow there is a lease on the facility with a drifting and stunt school, which they've openly stated they aren't sure the exact fate of the venue, but buyers that had planned to buy and redevelop fell through in the final hour for some reason when I was hearing a discussion about it a few months ago.

It's sad to drive by it when I come and go on I-10.

[rebelracewriter]

10 hours ago, MikePeters95 said:

Only reason I brought up ACM, somehow there is a lease on the facility with a drifting and stunt school, which they've openly stated they aren't sure the exact fate of the venue, but buyers that had planned to buy and redevelop fell through in the final hour for some reason when I was hearing a discussion about it a few months ago.

Mike, there has the drifting thing out there for some time using the pit parking lot....I don't know the longevity of that lease, but a guess would be the first of the year. They had cut out a small dirt oval for go-karts, etc. in the spectator parking area before the spam hit the fan....They also were going to utilize that area as a rodeo area with portable stands.....Last I saw those they were parked in the pit area a year ago.

The "rumor mill" continues to swirl, even to this day, but as optimistic as I'd like to, I just don't see it happening there.

 

[24nomo]

There isnt anything going on out there and there will not be any race track

[Budman]

HUH? What? A racetrack less than 150 miles from me? I can only hope. Haven't been to a car race in years.  

[24nomo]

The city bought half of the Speedway property and a Food service built a nice facility where the dragstrip was.  

[HiTech]

5 hours ago, Budman said:

HUH? What? A racetrack less than 150 miles from me? I can only hope. Haven't been to a car race in years.  

well bud came out of the woodwork .. tell u what u drive half way here ill go pic u up and drive the other half .. and take u back .. 

[Budman]

'preciate the offer HT, but no, it ain't gonna happen. Everybody nowdays wants to sit on their asses, grow huge beer bellies and play with their little things on a Saturday night. They ain't gonna show up at a racetrack. 

 

[NickHolt]

For Immediate release:

From the office of San Antonio Motorplex. Due to unforeseen circumstances the building of San Antonio Motorplex will be delayed. The reason for delay has to do with business matters that were made prior to our announcement and our offices were not made aware of.

Effective immediately Mr. Cameron is no longer part of this venture and any future business with him does not represent S.A.M.

Our lawyers are working day and night to get the current location on track. At this time we are currently looking at different locations to continue with this project.

Thank you for your understanding, Desirae Gonzales.

[RodneyRodriguez]

If the lawyers are working those hours there goes the $ for the track lol