Race track re-opens in Kennedale; that’ll make three

by Teresa Gubbins

Race track re-opens as Kennedale strives to get beyond its roots as a race-track town.

KENNEDALE — Already known as one of the hottest racing spots in the Dallas-Fort Worth area, Kennedale is about to get hotter with the March 17 re-opening of Kennedale Speedway Park.

It'll give Kennedale a distinction few towns can claim: home to three race tracks, including Texas Raceway, an asphalt drag strip; and Cowtown, the granddaddy that opened in 1963 and laid the ground for Kennedale as a racing center.

But its opening leaves Kennedale torn between its roots as a race-track town and its grander dreams of urban villages and upscale housing.

To make those dreams a reality, the city hired Mike Soab as its director of economic development. Soab previously helped oversee development in the ultra-prosperous Colleyville.

"Kennedale has approximately 6,500 people," Soab says. "We have an opportunity to double that in the near future with our residential construction. We're looking for a great growth spurt."

To racing insiders like Richard Snider, who's the promoter of Kennedale Speedway Park, having the track lie fallow seemed a waste. As small-town tracks go, you couldn't ask for a nicer facility; built in 2000, it boasts good restrooms, family-friendly stands, and solid grading of the 1/4-mile dirt oval.

"I was running this race track back in 2000, and it was one of the highest as far as car count in this region – maybe 50 or 60, it always had more cars than any other race," he says.

The Speedway closed in 2005 when its then-owner couldn't make a go of it. In 2006, it was rescued by Jerry Bransom, a cement manufacturer who shares a passion for racing with his son Jay, 40.

"My son has been racing for years, and it was a good track, so we decided to buy it," Jerry says.

The Bransoms secured a relationship with the International Motor Contest Association (IMCA), the oldest active auto-racing sanctioning body in the United States. As an IMCA track, the Speedway will attract cars from all over the country. IMCA standards are more stringent than other tracks such as those in Kennedale, where the action tends to be more grass roots -- what they call "Saturday night racing" that's strictly for fun.

"To have that many race tracks, and there's a lot of wrecking yards here, too," Snider says. "I've thought about it a million times, why is that, whether it's because it's right off of Interstate 20 so it's easy to get to, but it's been that way ever since I've known it."

Bransom and Snider spent a couple of months painting, pouring new cement walkways, and removing two years' worth of weeds. Who knows if they'll ever make money on it, but they hope to draw 150 to 200 cars per weekend night -- even as they face a newly imposed curfew of 11 p.m., another sign of a city with an ambivalent heart.

Soab says the city recognizes that the race-tracks are established and bring people to town.

"But their economic impact is small," he says. "They have no places to spend money, since there's not a lot of shops or restaurants. As long as the race tracks are here, we ought to make the best of it."

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