Photos courtesy Xtreme Raceway Park/Chris Graves

If you want a lesson into the complex task of building a dragstrip from a barren plot of land, spend some time on the Facebook page of Xtreme Raceway Park to see the overall build and final phases of construction.

“We are motivated to fulfill a huge need for the Texas drag racing community,” says Gary Lynch, XRP General Manager. “If you consider the racing community based around Texas Motorplex, Denton Dragway, and Texas Raceway (closed), there is a strong racer population that needs good places to race.”

Before the track has opened for its first event, the owners have taken a proactive approach to working with their surrounding community of tracks. One initial goal was to host a grand opening with Keith Haney and the first Mid-West Pro Mod Series (MWPMS) event for 2018 at the facility on March 2.

“We were afraid we might come up short with the fully finished track and amenities by then,” comments Lynch. “The last thing we wanted was to make a last-minute cancellation with so many MWPMS racers traveling here. We contacted our neighbors at Texas Motorplex and worked it out for them to take that race for us. We hope this shows that tracks can work together for the good of the racers and fans.”

Despite some infrastructure delays, the track is still coming together at a rapid pace.

“The installation of power lines and transformers are finishing up as we speak,” Clyde Scott, track owner tells us. “With the track lighting already in place, getting electricity out here will greatly help the construction pace.”

Xtreme Raceway Park will be a 50-foot wide track with over 2,000-feet of shutdown area. The return road is concrete with a complete scale system in place. Lots of design effort is going into the sea of concrete beyond the racing surface.

“The only thing that is not concrete is our spectator parking, and that will be asphalt,” describes Lynch. “There will be an obscene amount of concrete surface here for the racers. Of the 92 acres that make up the entire track, most will have concrete surface.”

Lynch noted they have two goals in mind.

“We want to have happy racers and happy spectators,” he says. “Clyde and I race everything from Pro Modifieds to sportsman cars. We lost our entire shop filled with race cars and hot rods to a tornado in April of 2017. That made us more drag racing spectators than we wanted to be, but was a good learning opportunity for the track at the same time.”

Lynch commented about some of the unique features they’ve put in place for both spectators and racers.

“Texas loves all sports,” he says. “We will have multiple 82-inch monitors tactfully located for racers to race while still keeping up with the Dallas Cowboys. Lots of other Texas-based amenities will include shade, shade and more shade with large fans running constantly to battle the Texas heat. This is an effort we think the racers will really appreciate.”

“Our official website is going together right now,” Lynch says. “We have the new track maintenance equipment arriving now from dragstrip traction guru Kurt Johnson of Total Venue Concepts. Kurt will be an integral part of preparing the racing surface for our opening weekends that will work up to our big kick-off, a Redemption 11.0 No-Prep Series event on April 13-14.