Temple Academy Dragway

[dameeks]

Has anyone ever been to the Temple Academy Dragway? I'd like to take my car down the strip to see what she'll do, but I don't know anything about this track. Their web site is kinda vague as to whether it's 1/8 mile or 1/4 mile. Also, I have a co-worker who says he's heard the track isn't in that great of shape (he usually goes to the River City dragstrip in San Antonio), but I don't really want to base my decision on 2nd or 3rd hand news.

If it's worth going to, are there any other Cobra owners in the area that would like to make a night of it? No competition, just for fun. If so, we can post a date in the next 2 or 3 weeks that we could try to make.

Darren

[WACO BLUE COBRA]

darren there are a few of us from the waco club that was thinking about going there sometime. i dont know anything about the track if you hear let me know. also let me know when you are thinking of going there if on a sat night might can make it.
james yates

[Johnnyquest]

By simply clicking on Track Info it states it is a 1/8 mile track. New owner took over last weekend due to a death. There is a email link to him on the website.

JQ

[joe garland]

Darren, This drag strip is a trip back in time. I have been going to this track since I was 15! 55 now. I believe they still run 1/4 and 1/8 time slots. I still go to this track about twice a year, and still find it to be a blast! As for the track itself, I would not want to push it over about 140 or 150mph. I have never run this fast, but some of the old "altered"s would get pretty loose at 3/4 track, there is a slight dip that can get things out of shape.

HUGE PECAN trees make this track cool and beautiful in the hot months, and they have some of the best burgers around.


Let's put something togeather, I'll be ready.

"Uncle Joe"

[dameeks]

JQ, the website is very confusing. It states that it is 1/8 mile, but there are several references (in their forum posts) to it being 1/4 mile. Sounds like Joe is saying it is 1/4 mile for sure.

The planets may be aligning, and I may actually be able to make it this Saturday night. I know it's short notice, but is anyone up for heading out on Saturday? I think they open at 5 pm and start racing at 6 pm. I have a buddy with a pretty wicked Corvette that may go with me. He might push that 140 speed. I think I'll be happy if I break 100. If I end up going it alone, I'll report back here with my findings.

Darren

[kountzecobra]

Road trip??? Sounds like fun, but I can't this weekend. Maybe later this summer?

[Johnnyquest]

How confusing can it be? This is what it says at THE WEBSITE! If it was 1/4 or is 1/4 mile why the heck doesn't it say so. If it is tell the webmaster to change it...

Temple Academy Dragway is located 9 miles south of Temple Texas on Hwy 95 near Little River.


Click HERE to get complete driving directions

Track Length - 1/8th Mile (660 feet)
Shutdown Area - Approximately 1,800 feet
Timing System - Accutime

JQ

[mustangmendez]

I have raced the track in Tempo and dont like it. .
When I ran the track it was 1/4 mile There is a turn at the end of the track and you had very little time to stop .

I have not raced at the track at San Antonio been there for races .Now thats a real race track it is not even in San Antonio It is right off the hyway 10 in Marland Texas verry nice Road Trip .Dont waste your time in Tempo no offence anybody but its a no brainer
Big T

[Ed Hubbard]

I was down at San Antonio Raceway (SAR) last Saturday and it is one *long* trip from where we live Darren. I think it was 85 miles one way with a large part of it on the racetrack otherwise known as I-35S. Trucks, rocks, idiots, old folks, hot heads, etc., it wasn't a fun drive in a normal car, I wouldn't do it in my Cobra.

As for Temple, I haven't been there yet but would like to go with you if you head up there this weekend. I think Friday night is street racing / test & tune, but I'd have to check. Make sure they aren't running brackets on Sat or it won't be worth the trip.

Call me or swing by and we'll figure it out.

[WACO BLUE COBRA]

good burgers cobras and 1/4 or 1/8 mile strip well that sounds like fun to me just so david shelton keeps it under 200mph ......

[Johnnyquest]

Ed, that is another reason to build that Austin Drag Strip! What is the latest with that group and the idea of building on that site in Austin area?

Randy

[Greg Duffield]

Sorry for the confusion regarding whether Temple is 1/4 or 1/8th mile. I recently purchased the facility and I still have a lot of work to do to the site.

The track runs 1/4 mile on Friday's and Saturday's for street cars, however, it's officially listed (at least as far as IHRA is concerned) as an 1/8th mile track.

TAD has been severely neglected over the past 10 or 15 years and we are going to try and change that. My biggest priority is turning the Sunday bracket program around, cleaning the track up, doing some maintenance and general improvements. I see the track for what it can be, not what it is.

So if any of you have had bad experiences with the prior management, please make a point to give us a chance. I can promise you we are not the same. I am a racer first and foremost, and a fan of drag racing. I grew up racing at TAD, and it's like home to me. Sure it's not the greatest, it's not SAR, but it is a beautiful place when it's taken care of. It didn't get this way overnight, and it won't flip overnight, but we are working hard at making Temple Academy Dragway the best it can be.

[Johnnyquest]

Thanks for the update.

Randy

[dameeks]

I sent Greg Duffield an email last night, asking him about the best night to go for doing simple runs down the track. Here is his response:



Friday night is our open test-n-tune, where you can make as many runs as you want. Saturday is similar in format. We do run our Outlaw 10.5 event and a bracket race that night, but we are also going to be running heads-up match racing that night. We will probably divide the staging lanes up according to class. Sorry if this doesn't seem to make sense, but I've been out at the track about 12 hours a day for last 9 days, and I'm running on empty about now.LOL



So, I know it's incredibly short notice, but I think Ed H. and I are gonna head up there tonight. Hopefully, I can get in a couple of runs and see what the car will do. (I had my car dyno'd yesterday. See this thread to see why I'm not happy about it. ) Looks like gates open at 6:30. I'll report back afterwards.

Darren

[dameeks]

Ed H. and I went Friday night. I met Greg, the owner, and was able to get in one run (I'll tell you why only one in a second.) Greg seemed like a great guy, and no doubt will be doing everything he can to fix up the track. That being said, I'll never be heading back that way, at least not with the intent of racing down the strip.

This track is seriously dangerous. The lanes are so narrow that you have no wiggle room at all. Literally, the two lanes combined are the size of one lane at San Antonio Raceway. If you start getting sideways at all, you have to shut it down and hope you don't plow into the wall that's 4 feet from you on the left, or the other car that is 8 feet to your right.

The dip in the track that was mentioned earlier is definitely there. The track on Friday night isn't treated with HVT, so it seemed to be hit or miss as to whether you were going to stick or not. There was no way of knowing, at least without having run down the track previously, where the 1/4 mile ended. Then, the track takes an abrupt left turn at the end, not a great distance from the end of the 1/4 mile mark. You have to be hammering your brakes to make sure you don't run out of room.

My buddy that came with us in his Corvette ended up plowing it into the wall about halfway down the track. He wasn't hurt, and it appears his car has only superficial body damage, but it was certainly scary as hell. He was pushing it hard in 3rd when his tires broke loose. He started getting squirrely, and was trying to shut it down when he shot across the other guy's lane and kissed the wall on the full opposite side of the track. He said he felt like he was driving on ice when the tires broke loose. Now, he probably shouldn't have been pushing it as hard as he was with street tires on, but he didn't really start hammering it until he was in 3rd, so he felt pretty confident the track would hold at that point. But the track must have had a slick spot on it and his tires just went up in smoke. I'm not sure if it was in the area of the dip or not, but that could have come into play, especially when he was trying to get it back under control. Just speculation, though.

I know Greg will being working hard to make this a better track, but the first thing I would do would be to find a way to widen the track down the left side and fix the dip. Greg inherited these problems, so it's not like he's at fault for the current shape it's in. I just hope it gets safer before something really bad happens.

So, now we need to organize a group trip to the SA Raceway. I think the crowd would be going nuts if there were a bunch of Cobras there. I was the only Cobra Friday night, and I felt like a rock star!

Darren

[kountzecobra]

Did you get a time?

[Johnnyquest]

Darren, send me you email addy. I sent a email to SAR and they responded on what is necessary to run there with our Cobras.

randal@zeecon.com


Randy

[dameeks]

David: I ran a 13.35. The slip didn't show my mph, but someone said they thought it was 108. I was pretty happy, since that was the first time I had ever been down the strip.

JQ: dameeks [ at ] austin.rr.com

darren

[Ed Hubbard]

Guys, I forgot, I'm headed to Corpus Christi on Friday night to go sailing over the long weekend. Bad news is I can't bring my Cobra, but good news is that SAR is sort of on the way down so I'm game to tag along. Keep me in the loop on this. Thx.

[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.