Motorsport track in the United States
Texas World Speedway| TWS |
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| Location | College Station, Texas, United States |
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| Coordinates | 30°32′13″N 96°13′16″W / 30.537°N 96.221°W / 30.537; -96.221 |
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| Broke ground | 1967 |
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| Opened | November 1969 |
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| Closed | 18 September 2017; 6 years ago (2017-09-18) |
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| Major events | Former:
IMSA GT Championship (1972, 1995–1996)
NASCAR Cup Series
Texas 500 (1969, 1971–1972)
Budweiser NASCAR 400 (1972–1973, 1979–1981)
AMA Superbike Championship (1991–1992)
SCCA Escort World Challenge (1991)
Can-Am (1969) |
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| Surface | Asphalt |
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| Length | 2 miles (3.2 km) |
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| Turns | 4 |
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| Race lap record | 39.581 (181.910 mph (292.756 km/h))[1] ( Gary Bettenhausen, McLaren M16B, 1973, USAC IndyCar) |
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| Length | 2.9 miles (4.67 km) |
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| Turns | 15 |
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| Race lap record | 1:33.900[2] ( Denny Hulme, McLaren M8B, 1969, Can-Am) |
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Texas World Speedway (TWS) was a motorsport venue located in College Station, Texas. The track was one of only eight superspeedways of two miles (3.2 km) or greater in the United States used for racing, the others being Indianapolis, Daytona, Pocono, Talladega, Ontario (California), Auto Club, and Michigan (there are several tracks of similar size used for vehicle testing). The track was located on approximately 600 acres (2.4 km²) on State Highway 6 in College Station, Texas. There was a 2-mile (3 km) oval, and several road course configurations. The full oval configuration was closely related to that of Michigan and was often considered the latter's sister track, featuring steeper banking, at 22 degrees in the turns, 12 degrees at the start/finish line, and only 2 degrees along the backstretch,[3] compared to Michigan's respective 18, 12, and 5 degrees. The last major race occurred at the track in 1981. The track was used by amateur racing clubs such as the SCCA, NASA, Porsche Club of America, World Racing League, Corinthian Vintage Auto Racing, CMRA, various performance driving schools (HPDE) and car clubs, as well as hosting music concerts and other events. The speedway was also a race track location for the video game, Need for Speed: Pro Street.
History
Originally opened as Texas International Speedway, TWS was an almost exact copy of Michigan International Speedway[4] and was part of Larry LoPatin's American Raceways Inc. and operated a part of Riverside International Raceway, Trenton Speedway, and Atlanta International Raceway and in 1971 ARI went bankrupt.[5]
Texas World Speedway was the site of the 1974 Willie Nelson's Fourth of July Picnic with Willie Nelson and his guests Jimmy Buffett, Townes Van Zandt, and Kinky Friedman performing as well. It was also known for a fire that destroyed several cars including one owned by Robert Earl Keen. The cover of Keen' album, Picnic, shows a picture of his car on fire at the picnic.
During the 1980s the track fell into a state of disrepair, and both NASCAR and the Indy cars chose to drop it from their respective schedules. It continued to operate in a limited role for amateur racing. In 1991 Ishin Speed Sport, Inc. purchased the facility and repaved and modestly refurbished it. It hosted races for ARCA, but after 1993 the company withdrew. The facility did serve as a venue for amateur and club racing, along with private testing. NASCAR teams have used the oval for testing (as it mimics Michigan and Fontana), as a way of skirting the tight restrictions prohibiting testing on active tracks on the schedule.
On February 23, 1993, Jeff Andretti set the (then) unofficial closed-course speed record for IndyCars of 234.5 mph (377.4 km/h), the fastest speed ever recorded at Texas World Speedway, while testing for the 1993 Indianapolis 500.[6] This marked his first time back in an IndyCar since the 1992 Indianapolis 500 when he lost a wheel and crashed head-on into the wall, smashing both his legs. Andretti's fast run came at the conclusion of two days of testing where he consistently posted laps in the 230 mph range. Andretti's Buick-powered Lola was prepared by Pagan Racing of Corpus Christi, Texas.
During a January 2009 test, Greg Biffle managed to reach a top speed of 218 mph (351 km/h) in a test for Roush Fenway Racing as part of evading NASCAR's testing ban. This became the fastest speed ever achieved on this track by a stock car (amateur or professional). The average speed for the full lap was 195 mph (314 km/h).[7]
From 2012 to its closure in 2017 Texas World Speedway experienced a resurgence in use spurred by the growing popularity of road racing and the Speedway's 15-turn, 2.9-mile road course which was very popular with drivers worldwide, who recognized the fast, wide and rythmic road course as a "racer's track". During this period the track was completely booked with racing events, HPDE programs including the Speedway's popular Performance Driving School, professional team tests, motorcycle schools, "street drags" and non-racing events. During this time the track hosted its first 24-hour racing event by entry-level racing series ChumpCar World Series and later by the semi-professional racing series World Racing League.
On September 18, 2017 a Jalopnik article confirmed the closure of Texas World Speedway, which was being used as a dumping ground for vehicles flooded out by Hurricane Harvey.[8]
The entire 600-acre facility was being leased to Copart as a catastrophe storage facility for vehicles damaged by Hurricane Harvey. The vehicles were to be stored while the numerous contracted insurance providers processed the vehicles for disposition via auction, where the mass majority would be sold with a certificate of destruction title, i.e. parts only from dismantling companies.
As of July 19, 2018, developers broke ground to begin construction of the Southern Pointe master-planned community.[9] Southern Pointe is going to be 550 acres with 73 acres of green space and water retention systems. They expect 1400 single-family home lots. The old TWS frontage road billboard was covered with a Southern Pointe banner at the beginning of December 2018.
Video footage of the speedway site taken by drone in February 2019 shows much of the asphalt banking in turns 1 and 2 has been removed, as well as a portion of turn 4.[10] Over the course of February 27 and 28, 2020 the press box above the grandstands was demolished.[11]
