Forum: HoseHeads Sprint Car General Forum (go)
Moderators: dirtonly  /  dmantx  /  hosehead

Well, I've been under a rock I guess.  I haven't lived in Houston for several years and noticed that they were no longer having a WoO race.  I just now saw that it shut down before the 2017 season.  Dang, it was a nice facility and I thought the Outlaws were good there with both configurations.  I guess the shorter track wasn't enough for weekly racing to keep it afloat?

I think there is three main causes of Racetracks closing 

1. Neighbors

2. Ran or poorly / or what promoters call social media

3. Lack of Interest from the owner

I think number 3 was the main cause from what I remember was said on here

Is this the old Big H Motor Speedway?   

No, Old Big H is now known as Houston Motorsports Park.  It has been paved and they occasionally have races there as best I can tell.  Not only has Royal Purple Raceway closed it has been torn down.  Last I saw the stands were still there but the track itself is gone.  A real shame it was a great facility

So, did they tear down the circle track to make more room for the drags, or is the drags closed as well?  I was only there once, but really liked the track.  

From what I can tell, lack of interest in the sport killed it.  Back when it was around, you had Royal Purple in Baytown, Battleground in Highlands ( about 20 miles away I think), Golden Triangle in Beaumont (70 miles away), Bronco in Cleveland ( about 70 miles the other direction), Gator Motorplex (which I think is 30 miles past Cleveland), and Big H.  As far as I can tell, there are not near enough race cars within reasonable driving range to make a decent show at all those tracks.  Add to that, they all want to run 7 divisions a night, no fan can sit throught that.  So they tried to survive on back gate, and killed the front gate, now they have no gate.  At the end of this season Battleground closed, and I don't see how they will re-open unless a deep pocketed philanthropist appears on the scene.  I am kind of worried that the entire Gulf south sprint car scene will die off without any tracks to run at.

That sounds exactly like what things are like up here in D/FW metroplex.   In recent years we've had as many as 9 tracks operating at one time, and of course all running 8 classes.   The one exception is Devils Bowl, which only runs 4 classes.   I think we now have 6 track with the recent closings of Thunderbird in Crandall, Mountain Creek in Grand Prairie, and Cowtown in Kennedale.   You are very right about fans not wanting to sit through that many classes.   I only go to watch sprint cars and don't care for factory stocks, mods, sportmods, IMCA hobby, IMCA stock, Jr Mini Stock, etc.    It just ain't worth sitting through all the other crap to see the sprints that I came to see.    

I used to go to Cowtown whenever the ASCS sprints came to town.  I know they ran lots of support classes, but 75% of the people in the stands were family or friends of the local lower classes drivers. 

The announcer wished happy birthdays, anniversaries and funerals for locals lost.  One night he talked about his recent divorce.  Corny as it was, I have never been to a track with that feeling of close family since.

Bo usually ran the ASCS sprint feature before most of the other features.  He knew they all had to travel to get home.

Nowdays I only make it to the WoO show when they come to Devils Bowl.

That makes sense, although I think Big H was long gone as a dirt track at the time Baytown opened.  Battleground is really close.  I'm just surprised that they didn't keep the track for special events.  It was a track with plenty of seating and the times I was there for WoO the crowd was decent.

One of the best races Ive ever seen was at Royal Purple Raceway. It was an Outlaws race and for 15 laps Tim Kaeding and Jason Sides passed each other every lap, throwing sliders on each other! I believe Kaeding won but Sides gave him all he wanted! 

Proudly supports:

Logan Seavey, Brent Marks and "Big Sexy" Brandon Overton

I rode down from Cincinnati to meet my buddy there when the WoO was there. Like has been said it was a really nice facility.  1 memory I have of the place is I think it's the only time I've ever seen an emod feature go green to checkers non stop!

Know exactly what you mean about Cowtown.    My brothers and nephew raced there for years.    My nephew won a track championship in the old bomber class and later won street stock and limited mod features there too.   Once Devils Bowl started running limted mods though, they moved over and started running there.    I loved the ASCS at Cowtown, that was just awesome.   

Royal Purple was a nice track, seemed to get good crowds and provided good racing.  If memory serves me correct that was the track where Steve Kinser picked up his 500th win.  We drove down from DFW for the races after their stop at Devils Bowl.

Several factors were at work

The track was an odd size and shape.  In it's original configuration it was prone to single file racing.  They tried to shorten the track, but it didn’t help. I know that the second configuration, and possibly the first as well was tough on motors.

I believe in both configurations it required different gearing even then Battleground, the next larger track.  Since most classes didn’t have quick changes, that locked cars in or out.   As stated elsewhere, they tried to run the same nights as two or three other tracks. Obviously due to the gearing differences, racers took a hit on rain out nights going to or from Royal Purple.  They didn't run as many classes as the other tracks, and at least one of their stock car classes wasn't run anywhere else .

The owner who was involved in operations was not a people person, to put it mildly.  He didn't like dirt racing or racers, and had a propensity to bad mouth publicly, which was reciprocated .The owning brothers in general never were particularly interested in investing much time or money in the dirt track, they just expected it to be a cash cow with the same amount of required involvement as the NHRA drag strip, so things gradually just fell apart, including the facility.  At the end of the last full season they welched on the driver’s points fund.  The few remaining loyal drivers predictably refused to patronize the track any longer.  After that the track only ran special events – USMTS, ASCS, enduros, end of year races, etc, for possibly a year.  I suspect the returns didn’t justify the effort in running it only periodically, so they stopped. 

Last I heard they used the property for storage of vehiclkes impacted from Harvey, then I just lost track.

It was a great track.  I met my current wife there!