Temple Academy Dragway

[Greg Duffield]

With all due respect I would like to take issue with a few points made in Darren's post. This was only our second weekend of operating the track, so we were somewhat limited as to what we could get done in preparation for the weekend. Obviously a resurfacing was out of the question. However, let me start by saying that I came into this role of owner as a racer first, fan second and business man third. With that in mind, as a racer, my biggest concern is the condition of the track. I currently have a 6 second car that can, will and has run 4.30's on that track in the 1/8th mile. Prior to that, I have run a 1/4 mile best of 8.42 at 164mph there, with a chute that failed to deploy. Even with a chute, I could run 8.40's and 8.50's comfortably in a short wheel-base '77 Vega.

My point is, the track is only as dangerous as you make it! We cannot babysit drivers; they have to be responsible with their own vehicles. Friday night Billy Martone ran quicker than he ever has, with a string of consistent low 5.0's, Trey Montgomery ran a 4.91, a '99 Camaro ran 10.50's (he DROVE his car home afterwards), and a host of cars were running 11's and 12's, with many of them coming up to me saying they were running their best times ever. In regards to the VHT, we used more on Friday night than the previous owner would use in 3 weekends. On top of that we drug the track, which hadn't been done in years.

Saturday night we had the track prepped identically to Friday and we had cars running deep in the 8's, 9's and 10's. Not to mention we ran an Outlaw 10.5 race, with cars running 1/8th mile times anywhere from 4.60's to 4.80's (these are low 7 second cars).

The track is at it's narrowest (36 feet wide) for about the first 100 feet or so, then it tapers out to 48 feet. We are not an outlaw track, we are sanctioned by the IHRA (as is SAR) and we are approved by their insurance provider. Yes we have a lot of work to do, and I appreciate your understanding in regards to us inhereting many of the problems. However, to say that the track is "seriously dangerous" is a pretty harsh, and I feel inaccurate judgement against a facility that has one of the best safety records of any track in Texas. One thing was very obvious Friday and Saturday night, the guys that REALLY have fast cars, have a much better handle on things than those who THINK they have fast cars.

Speaking of SAR, you should ask the owner, Todd Zampese, about Temple since he races there regularly now, in fact he won today running consistent low 4.90's.