Devil's Bowl Speedway closing

From a few sources today, they sold the property and next week's World of Outlaws race will be the last event before they close the gates for good. So sad all of these race tracks just keep going away one by one.

So no electric dirt track races?

Loved going there.

On certain nights we can hear the races from the track and we are about 7 miles away.

Sad they are closing.

Had a lot of good times there in the 80's and 90's , seems like Drag Racing is slowing down too now , stands are not as full

What is going to be built down there?
That’s gotta be in a flood plain.

This supports is my theory on musclecars (tier 2 and below; tier 1 are your iconic 67-9 Camaros, 65-70 Mustang fastback configurations, 1st gen Broncos, etc), Harleys and classic motorcycles of any kind, etc.). The Lord doesn't make men who love and understand vintge carbureted machinery...thus the market on them will tank in our lives. Closing circle tracks and dragstrips are clear indicators. End of an era boys.

A lot of race cars don't have carburetors any longer and they're much quicker and more reliable. Don't think it's a lack of knowledge. It's prohibitively expensive to race OR operate a track. Even flood plane land is skyrocketing to values more than a dirt oval can make by hosting a few events plus the regulars.

I don't disagree. Lack of knowledge, interest, mechanical understanding and DIY skills.

I miss the kennedale tracks too. Spent many Friday nights there.

Back in the 60's we raced Kennedale Friday night, Crandall Saturday night, and Devils Bowl some Sunday nights. Sure had good times at all the tracks. Had to change rear ends to race Devils Bowl. It was longer. Some of ya'll might remember us. Number 14, red and white 55 Chevy, Dean Daniels was our driver.

There are cheap and easy to tune electronic fuel injection systems on the market that cost considerably less than a top tier racing carburetor and are MUCH, MUCH easier to tune. Aftermarket engine management systems are hardly a new thing. I installed my first one on a vehicle in the late 1980s when Haltech Engine Management Systems first set up shop in Garland. I then went on to be one of their largest distributors for many years. I think there are simply not as many Gearheads anymore because people have other things to do to occupy their time and later model cars are a little bit more difficult and expensive to modify.

Nope, it's cheaper to go faster with new tech. 3500 pound street cars with 275 width street legal tires are running mid-6's at 225 and they don't have carbs.

Me too. Drive there from Lewisville, swap tires, race, drive home. Better when the track near Sanger was open but it has closed as well...

This from Kennedale mid-90's.

I spent several weeks researching the best route to take, rebuilding my 1979 Ford 400 c.i.

The internet provided ample videos and text to read. The "knowledge, interest, mcheninical understanding and DIY skills" are widely available and free to obtain.

I will keep it carbureted, but I could change it to fuel injected if I chose to.

Anyone that us going to restore, modify, and repair any vehicle needs to be fairly financially secure. And have a decent amount of expendable income. Most of American is not living with that financial freedom.

Before buying any parts, the tools, toolboxes, and equipment alone can be very expensive. I know you're well aware of that.

I find rebuilding a Motorcraft 2bbl carb much easier than trying to decipher fuel injection wizidry.

A quadrajet not so much.

You should try one of the mid 80s Motorcraft variable Venturi carburetors.

Disassembling a carburetor and putting it back together is easy for the most part. Trying to establish a reliable fuel curve in three very distinct different operating conditions is very difficult. The majority of the carburetors on the market are effectively three carburetors built into one . You have the idle circuit , you have the main circuit , and then you have the power enrichment circuit. On a factory carburetor most of that work has been done for you from the factory and they are effectively programming the carburetor to match the engine. Make a few changes and suddenly the fuel curve that worked in a factory engine becomes very lacking for the new combination.

All of this reminds me of when I lived in Pleasant Grove in the 70's.

They are superb carburetors but you have to be familiar with them to be able to tune with them. I still have a tackle box full of tuning parts for those carburetors. My only complaint with them was a fixed jet size in the secondaries.

Right you are. Mid 60's Tyler area had 2 drag strips. One East of Tyler (I-20) had a lot of big names just starting out. Another in Whitehouse an outlaw track. Gene Snow was a frequent racer at I-20. Now even Tx Motorplex in Ennis is seeing a decline in attendance. Sad. When Ennis first opened, seats were hard to find. Now you can sit anywhere you want.

I actually liked the Quadrajet.

I had a 77 heavy half with a 454 with a good 4 barrel quadrajet. Ran superbly.

I've parked in that exact spot many times. Great memories.

I grew up in Mesquite, and on a Saturday night with the wind right we could hear the cars going around the track. Another note on Devil's Bowl, my grandparents lived off of La Prada and John West back in the 70's, and when exploring the area on my bike one day I ran across the remnants of the original Devil's Bowl track in a field. Had no idea what it was until my dad informed me after being told about it.

With the current Devil's Bowl being between the gun range across the street, which is absolutely flood plain, and the airport, I'm guessing it will be an industrial park or something. But in today's world it wouldn't surprise me if they built a bunch of houses and then the tenants start complaining about the noisy airport next door or gun range across the street.


As for the tracks (of all kinds) disappearing at an alarming rate across the country, I have this to say:

Building and repairing anything is becoming a lost art in the modern world. Everything we buy is disposable, planned obsolescence. No shop classes in schools either. It's all by design. 70yrs ago the owner's manual of a car had instructions on how to set the valve lash, now they have warnings to not drink the contents of the battery. Self reliance is being cycled out of society in every way it possibly can be. They want us soft and dependent upon them, indebted for the entirety of our lives. As a result instant gratification rules the day. Nobody wants to toil in the garage at home on weekends building a hot rod anymore, you can just go out and buy one. The gratification of building and doing things yourself is lost on today's society.

Admittedly, I own a "modern muscle car". For what it is, I couldn't have built one that runs as well for twice the cost. But even then, mine will likely never see a mechanic shop while I own it. Not for something as simple as an oil change or as complicated as an engine rebuild or major component R&R. It's a great platform that I will maintain, upgrade, and service as needed while I have it. I've built plenty of them in my life, and still have a few projects I'm working on.

The reason for the rambling above is to point out that we are killing these tracks as a society. We're not raising kids to work on stuff, and as a result they have no interest in building and racing anything when they can turn on their gaming console, log in, and race virtually. I attended a road racing "track night" event this past week, and there were maybe 4 actual participants there under 30yrs old. Most of us were 40+. That's very telling. There's no game console that can simulate the feeling of making it thru a high speed sweeper at 80mph+ with all four tires in a controlled slide, or what the car feels like when you crest a hill braking into a blind corner and the weight shifts from the rear of the car to the front, and how that effects the handling. But are we communicating that to the youth of today? Are we getting them out there and showing them that life doesn't have to be a simulation? That they can actually do it? And in doing it the gratification is often immeasurable?

As hunters we all see the value of passing on the heritage to youth so a way of life is not lost forever. This situation is no different. And each are beneficial in more ways than can be calculated. Our inaction is feeding this decline. Society has re-prioritized our lives, only we can fix it. Will we though?




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Sammy Swindel was my racer!!

Good post, psycho. Do you write for any publications? If not, you should. The stuff I read these days is just horrible.

How did I dual copy? Crazy site...

Used to go there in the 70s when I was a kiddo and had a lot of fun.

My SIL raced out there.

sammy and me at knoxville in '22. RIP devils bowl.

I thought they closed years ago. My goodness, whats next, Yellow Belly?

Bush toll road will be coming through there. Devil's Bowl was in the middle of the preferred route IIRC. Assuming it got bought for that.

I think that's off the table. Getting a toll road thru there now will mean dozing a whole bunch of brand new homes, and however many more they can get built befor it would happen. Developers are scratching up every bit of ground they can along Lawson rd building homes as we type.

I knew that originally GB tollway was slated to go to hwy 80 at least, and possibly all the way to I20, but pretty sure Sunnyvale put the brakes on that one.

The owner has a gun range, pig farm and a dirt track. He said after 50 years he's ready to move on.

Where exactly was original devils bowl ? Saw a guy lose his head back in early 90s. Bad night.

The original location was at La Prada and John West on the Mesquite/Dallas border. Referred to as being off of Buckner Blvd, but in reality the track itself was much closer to La Prada than Buckner.

Moved from there to the Lawson Rd location back in the late 60's or early 70's.

The original D Bowl was behind the area where Young Chevrolet is now.
There used to be a small airport and the old drive in theater about where
that restaurant is (was?)
All that was farm fields and such back when I was little.
All of the land on the south side of 30 was part of Buckner
Orphanage property from the current UPS terminal to the Grove Hill
cemetery and back to Forney road. Buckner orphanage was still farming
the land where the big Coke place is when I was little. My
folks said that there was different places where different crops were
grown. Just about where Coke is was a 40 (?) acre peach orchard.
Much of this where I'm sitting was rural farm land until it was
annexed by the city of Dallas in the 50's (?)

went last nite. was good racin but i have seen the outlaws do better. 5-6 yellows in the a-main and some tore up equipment. was packed!