Lotus Elan race car for sale on BaT from BCS

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This Elan race car is now offered in College Station, Texas, with VARA and CVAR logbooks, a binder of records, racing photos, an owner's manual, removed window frames, a car cover, and a bill of sale.

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Just went down a bit of a Texas World Speedway wormhole, always knew of it's existence but never went out there for anything. I didn't realize it hosted legit NASCAR races, was used for "illegal" training by Indy and Nascar drivers, and was seemingly pretty popular among amateurs before going belly up. And also didn't realize it was totally defunct and being built over by new housing.

One of the coolest gigs I ever fell into during college was being a wrecker driver at Texas World Speedway during the CVAR races. The gig consisted of me getting there before the race and starting up the old Mack rollback then driving it out to the pit in case somebody wrecked. Gotta keep in mind, all the cars are old classics owned by well to do folks and most aren't seriously trying to win a race like their paycheck depends on it, so wrecks were pretty much nonexistent. They had a normal tow truck that got used primarily for folks running out of gas or mechanical issues. Only time I ever loaded something up on the big wrecker was when a car had its suspension go out or something like that. I basically got paid $10 an hour on the weekends to watch cars race and when it was over I got to drive the ole lumbering mack truck once around the track to get it back to the barn. Very fun gig for a broke college kid who appreciated the old cars!

Also hosted Willie's 4th of July Picnic in 1974

50 years ago today, Robert Earl Keen’s car caught fire at the second Willie Nelson 4th of July picnic near College Station. Here’s the story from his “No. 2 Live Dinner” album in 1996, paired with video of the fire from the Texas Archive of the Moving Image. pic.twitter.com/SD4TVH5g6i

— Dave Wilson (@dwil) July 4, 2024

It was pretty much a right place at the right time kinda deal. I worked for a fire protection company in college and one of my townie coworkers knew the folks out there and asked if I wanted to make some extra money driving the wreckers. Wasn't super steady as they'd only race like once a quarter out there but a fun way to make extra cash. I know I worked several CVAR races and some of the Porsche club events. My favorite cars to watch were the old muscle cars but they were all pretty fun to see zooming around. It would have probably been 2009-2011ish when I out there.

Groups - CVAR

I'd always report to a chubby Mexican dude named Froy when I'd show up and he'd tell me which truck to drive and all that good stuff. He was an early adopter of the now infamous "Edgar" haircut but he kept his extra-long on to top so he kind of resembled Moe from the three stooges. I gathered that his job title out there was something like "dude who handled stuff" and I think he did maintenance, general upkeep on the vehicles at the track, and other race day operations. The standard wrecker was an old F250, manual transmission but no parking brake, so there was a perfectly sized piece of rebar that would wedge between the brake and the seat to keep you from rolling. He'd always cuss the Mack truck and gripe/brag that he was the only person who could get it running right. I think he wasn't super familiar with diesel engines and would just hop in and start cranking the hell out of it. One morning I beat him to the barn and noticed that if you let the glow plugs warm up for just a minute it would start right up! That day I was promoted to the big truck, which was way more fun to drive around the embankment. Was always careful to keep it low because it felt like it was going to tip over if you got too high around the curve. Fun memories!

back in the mid-80's, I guess there was a TAMU Sports Car club. I don't know the extent of the activities, or if there was even such a thing as a "membership," I just showed up and parked my car at the (Albertsons/Hastings) parking lot hang-outs when they had them. Somehow, thru those guys, I wound up volunteering to work a corner at a motorcycle race on the inner road track at TWS.

I still remember the dude with the orange bike and long black hair streaming out the back of his helmet. Worst paint job in the field, but also seemed to be the most balls-to-the-wall guy out there (and had the loudest bike). No idea how anyone did overall, but there were no bad wrecks at my corner. Just a few lay-downs or guys getting off in the grass. This was probably 85 or 86.

Oh, I forgot... In order to get to our corners, we drove our own vehicles. So my Firebird did get on a track once! Took one banked turn before I got to where I had to turn in. I was VERY surprised how steep the bank was!!!!

I had pre-race pit passes to the Coca Cola 600 in Charlotte many years ago. To get to the pits, you went to a gate in turn 1 and just walked across the track. Needless to say, if you wanted to watch the race from your seats, you'd better get back across before the cars fired up.

It's very similar to Texas Motor Speedway and I believe Texas World Speedway in College Station was a similar design. The corners don't look that steep on TV, but walking top to bottom, then back to the top feels like you're about to fall. It's very steep.

A buddy of mine worked out ant the race track
around 2010 or so and one day asked if I could help him move an old fire truck from the infield to the parking lot. I think the owner said he could have it if he'd haul it off or sold it to him cheap and he was going to make a bbq rig out of it. It didn't run but the tires were ok.

Anyway I went out to help and somehow I became designated the firetruck "driver". There was a steep tunnel to go from where the truck was to where we needed it to be, so the plan was for my buddy to push me with a tractor down the ramp in hopes that I'd build enough speed to make it up the other side. If not I'd hit the brakes and he'd come push me up the rest of the way. Of course we didn't do any further planning and decided to give it a go.

He built up some speed for me getting to the down ramp/tunnel, and on my way down I quickly realized that the tunnel was just wide enough to get the dang truck through, much less with zero power steering. Aside from my white knuckles though, all was going well. I shot through the tunnel without hitting or scraping, came out the other side, and started the climb.

This is where additional planning might have helped. I made it most of the way up before running out of steam and realized I'd need to hit the brakes so my buddy could push me up the rest of the way. Only problem was, in addition to not running or having power steering, the brakes that we had definitely not tested were also totally ineffective. In about half a second I realized I was going back down, this time in reverse at uncontrolled speed, also without rear view mirrors properly adjusted for such a maneuver. Somehow I managed to make it back through the tunnel without smashing anything up and my buddy was able to catch me with the tractor and push the firetruck up through the tunnel for a third time.

We got it out to the parking lot after that and I don't believe I ever heard what became of that truck. I think the only person cussing louder than me in that adventure was another buddy riding shotgun in the firetruck who had even less control than I did. Good times!

I was in the TAMSCC most of my A&M years. We held Aggiecross events twice a year on TWS that used the road course and part of the oval and straights. Yes, the banking was a lot steeper than it looks from the stands. Great times! My best A&M friends were all club members. Some photos below:

Rule 1 from the Press Box overlooking the infield and front straight. Married 37 years this fall! ;-)



Me on the road course in an '85 Shelby Charger.