Sunday, June 11, 2000

Abilene’s loss may become Baird’s gain
By Ted Dunnam
Reporter-News Staff Writer

Score two more for David against Goliath.

Abilene’s loss will be Baird’s monumental gain, according to Bill Davidson, president of Central Texas Raceway Park near Thorndale, if the proposed Star of Texas Raceway is built in the small community 20 miles east of Abilene.

Glen Brabham, owner of the established Lone Star Raceway Park seven miles outside of Sealy, strongly echoed those sentiments and the city of Sealy can support Brabham’s claim.

Construction is scheduled to start this summer on Central Texas Raceway Park while Lone Star Raceway Park has been a thriving business for five years. Both are sanctioned by the International Hot Rod Association, the group with which Abilene’s Paul Lenker and Mike Dohrse struck a deal last fall to stage national IHRA events in Abilene.

That, of course, was contingent on a track being built. That fell apart last week, and now the city of Baird could benefit greatly.

Lenker and Dohrse met recently with the Baird City Council after Abilene’s Lytle Shores residents voiced a noise pollution complaint that resulted in investors backing out of the local project, which would have been located near the intersection of Highway 36 and FM 18 east of the Abilene Regional Airport.

“Based on a conservative weekly schedule with no national events, our estimated economic impact for this area is $42 million,’’ Davidson said. “You throw in a specialized shootout like the one they have in Abilene, then it just skyrockets.

“And this is based on a roll-over factor of three, not the customary seven or eight. For one national event plus the weekly schedule, you’re looking at a $60-70 million impact.’’

Abilene’s Shoot-Out Drag Race, which has been held on temporary facilities on the west side of the airport property in recent years, is the biggest fund-raiser for Rotary Club charities in Abilene and the Sunburn Grand Prix — a Sports Car Club of America event — ranks second. The roll-over factor is determined by the number of times money changes hands, according to Sealy city manager John Maresh.

“It’s basically a snowball effect,’’ Maresh said. “The more time money changes hands, the more increase you’ll see in the economy.’’

Maresh said the Lone Star Raceway Park has been an extremely welcome addition to the city of Sealy, which has a population of about 3,800.

“As far as actual hard-dollar figures, I don’t have any of those available,’’ Maresh said. “But when they’re having races out there, all of the hotels and restaurants are full, and the gas stations are always busy.

“There’s no question that the race track has a positive influence on Sealy. I would say the track is less than five miles from the outskirts of the city limits. It’s far enough out of town that there are no noise problems.

“It’s a first-class operation that has definitely helped our local economy. Except for the dead of winter, there’s something going on there all the time and the city of Sealy is very appreciative that it’s in our area.”

Davidson said he’s certainly familiar with the kind of opposition that Lenker and Dohrse have encountered in trying to get a drag strip facility built in Abilene.

“Ours has been funded by private investments, and we’re still finalizing it with an SBA (Small Business Association) loan. The city of Thorndale found us the property, and they saw it as an economic windfall,’’ Davidson said. “Initially, we had the same problem as you did there in Abilene.

“We went four or five years looking for property and every time we put up a sign, somebody threw rocks at us. It’s a long, hard process.’’

Thorndale, a community of 1,300, is similar in size to Baird, which has a population of about 1,600. The facility, in the engineering phase, will be built on a 500-acre plot five miles east of Thorndale off of state highway 79.

“We’re less than 30 minutes from Round Rock (20 minutes north of Austin) and sitting right next to a highway,’’ Davidson said. “We’ve got several factors in our favor. We’re on 500 acres of heavily wooded area in a valley that has a natural sound abatement.

“Racetracks, in general, don’t fail. They get encroached on. People start building, and in the case of Abilene, in 15 years from now the Abilene facility could have a neighborhood around it.

“The property we’re building on has been barren since 1836. If somebody had wanted to develop it, it would have been done by now. You’d have to clear mesquite, oak and pecan trees. It’s just an ideal site for us.

“It is fairly difficult to find investors, but that’s something that’s never simple. In Austin, if you can’t show them a 1,200 percent return in five years, they’ll jump ship.’’

Davidson said if the track is built in Baird, the city would reap huge dividends.

“The correlation between a $42 million economic impact is equivalent to a major manufacturing company coming in with 1,000 employees who are making $30,000 per year,’’ Davidson said. “Except this doesn’t require all the infrastructure.

“This isn’t like building a Wal-Mart shipping center in Baird. These people are going to go home after the race is over.’’

Brabham, a former contractor, traveled a different route than Davidson in building his track.

“Our track was funded out of my pocket,’’ Brabham said. “Basically, what I did was spent $4-5,000 with an attorney to handle the noise pollution situation. He told me that basically they can’t stop you from making a living.

“We went out of the city limits, something called an ETJ — extra-territorial jurisdiction. Nobody knew what we were building until we opened the gates. We don’t run past midnight, and we send all of our neighbors season passes.’’

Brabham said he best handled the noise situation with a low-key approach.

“A guy down in San Antonio is having trouble trying to get a track built but he’s having trouble because of the noise situation,’’ Brabham said. “We just basically avoided any publicity about it.’’

For Brabham’s largest races, he said he attracts about 5,000 fans. But like city manager Maresh said, there is almost always some weekly event to keep the dollar flow constant.

While the track in Thorndale will be a quarter-mile track with capabilities of hosting national races, Brabham’s track in Sealy is a one-eighth mile strip that restricts itself to divisional events as its most significant attraction.

“The city absolutely loves us,’’ Brabham said. “My wife is on the board of the directors of the chamber of commerce and we give back to the community.

“I couldn’t even tell you what the economic impact is. Sealy only has a 5,500 population, but all the gas stations and convenience stores advertise with us. I don’t have Abilene sitting next to me so I can’t speak for it, but we certainly have a big impact on Sealy.

“You can get someone from Abilene to call our chamber here, and they’ll tell you that Sealy loves us (Lone Star Raceway). We give to the food bank and several other causes.

“We probably draw 160,000 to 200,000 fans per year. It’s the hardest dollar I’ve ever earned, but it’s well worth it.’’

Davidson said too many civic leaders have tunnel vision concerning racetracks.

“They just have too many preconceived notions,’’ he said. “What they don’t understand is that racing is not blue collar, if that’s one of their fears. The image thing is a wrongly preconceived notion.

“Joe Gibbs owns several racing teams, and that was his first love before he was involved in football. It costs a lot of money to race. You have to have $35,000-$40,000 invested in it. These are good, smart, caring, close-knit people.’’

Davidson said his plans are to eventually put in a road course, but not an oval at his facility.

“IHRA has adopted a policy of build the track, then come talk to us,’’ Davidson said. “Ours will get built. Before they run a national event, they want to make sure the facility is ready. Then they’ll run it a year after the initial opening date.

“We’ll have our divisional races, Night of Fire, whatever. But they want to make sure the facility and staff are capable before you start staging national events.’’

Davidson has no doubts his track will succeed.

“This is the second fastest growing market in the U.S. It’s within two hours from every major city in Texas — Austin, Dallas, Houston, Fort Worth, San Antonio and Waco. No offense to Abilene,’’ he said.

“At the site we’re building now, we’ve had no opposition. At others we’ve attempted, yes,’’ Davidson added. “I certainly don’t know all the particulars, but I think a race facility in Baird could be extremely ideal.’’

Contact assistant sports editor Ted Dunnam at dunnamt@abinews.com or at 676-6771.