Was reading through jan 87 edition BMXA and came across the coverage of the 87 USBA grands that was moved to Cowtown BMX, with a layout of the track and the famous "Widowmaker". This brought back a flood of memories as it was one of my hometown tracks. Man this track was fast and smooth. I don't recall many (if any) complaints on the track as described in the article. The lack of berms in favor of jumps in the middle was way rad back then. Both Cowtown and Casino Beach here in Ft Worth had them. You could get some serious flatties on them for sure. Anyway just thought I'd share with yall. Maybe some of you got the chance to race on this track back then? This track was so hoppin back then that every fri and sat night's races ended well after midnight, every time. Great track it was.

Nice look like a fun track

Sure does make me wish i was around at that time. I keep getting told on how sweet a track, and how well it was taken care of. Milk and Honey type stuff!!

I raced there many times. If I recall I had better results on the old (Bruton Road) DCCP track of the same era. I didn't make it out of motos at the '87 USBA Grands; kept sliding out in the first turn. I also seem to remember the gate being kind of narrow; dude's bars (30" wide) almost overlapping; and if someone ran a long stem or their bars forward they would immediately have an elbow in front of you when the gate dropped.

Watching guys like Todd Slavik and Cody Smart tear it up are my fondest memories from the old Cowtown track.

If there was really one complaint about the track it was usually that it wasn't wide enough. I dont think Porter could make it any wider without tearing down the fence. That fence was way to close and I seen many riders eat it on the long second straight, myself included.

I know exactly what you mean about Slavik and the commander out there. Slavik was the greatest jumper i ever seen. I'd easily put him up there with Tim Judge as one of the best back then.

Cowtown was home to a lot of great riders.. Slavik, John Hamilton, Mike Moore, James and Joey Pritchard, the Eudaleys, David McAfee, Matt Bradshaw, Shaun March. Geoff Scoffield and Parnell Haley raced there quite a bit. the class with Hamilton, Moore, McAfee, Bradshaw and Haley was probably one of the most competitive classes ever from one single track. They all were worthy of factory sponsors and several of them did. That 15x class was blazingly fast. I was glad I was a year older haha.

I use to like going to the ABA Nat'ls there......................just don't crash and get that nice red dirt embedded in your uniform.........

I raced the 1987 USBA Grands. Cowtown was the smoothest track in the nation bar none.

That's cause he was a construction contractor and had all of the heavy equipment and paid his day laborers to do daily maintenance on the track.

There were a bunch of fast dudes in 17+ expert on top of the names mentioned above; Sadowski, Carnes, Ricky Jackson, Sheely. That might be 1988-89, but same era.

Dave Molenda was another fast local.

Cowtown was like today's Desoto, but it wasn't covered. Check out that last straight. Certainly not something you see today. You'd actually have to <gasp> pedal to win there. Could have been a reason for some great riders coming from there.


Dave Molenda sure sounds familiar but I cant put a face to the name. I've forgotten way more than I can remember.

i used to race there but it was right after the widow maker was taken out and replaced with what they called the monster. i would go there on friday night and would have semis, wouldn't finish untill way after midnight. Those were the days this brings back alot of memeries, porter had one heck of a operation unmatched by anything i have seen nowadays.

David Wray raced there during this time & I watched alot of video he has from this track. Great footage of him winning most of his races too. There was this one race where him & Carnes were fighting down the last straight & Carnes ended up ran into the finishline table/people. Pretty spectacular crash.

b.

i have some pics of cowtown from back then if i can find them i will put them up.

Who is David Wray? I've never heard of him.

David Molenda was on the same factory Elf team as Pritchard, "Dr. Jama" Julian Hurst, and Brian Latimer; he was on the Hawk team of 1987 (with Jacquie Chidester), and was on S&S in the 90's with everybody. I'll post some photos when I get home.

He won the Grands many times (around ages 12-14).

Oh, and what about Tim Schaeffer. I think that dude hit every single USBA national in the history of that sanction.

It was actually the 1986 USBA Grands (appeared several months later in the Jan 1987 magazine).
84: Tarrant County Convention Center; Ft. Worth
85: Texas State Fair Grounds
86: Cowtown

Here are some photos from that era.
David Molenda on Elf Cap City, Austin, TX

David on S&S; ABA national at Cowtown (1990ish)

Kurt Sadowski (at Meadowbrook)

and I can't believe I forgot about this guy, Kevin Gentry on ESP (riding a re-stickered JMC cruiser)

what about zack roebuck he was fast also, what ever happened to molenda

David Wray was a Cowtown local in the mid 80's somes of those I raced and got beat by Jimmy Ball,Terry Thornton,Brian Turner,David Popkin,Joey Mesa,Frank Vega,Keith Mcwilliams,Mike Moore

I used to race out at Cowtown in the late 80's. That picture brings back memories. That is the way I remember the track. I just recently got back in to riding and went to take a look at Cowtown the other day and it does not look anything like that anymore. In fact last night was my first trip back out to a track in about 20 years. I went to the Desoto track with Budone and R1zzle. It was fun and I started to get back in to the groove of things by the end of the night.

I remember a night race in the summer of 85! ill never forget it either ! Right at turn 2 where the concessions and bleachers were...A rider lost control of his bike andit flew into the crowd at the concession area and unfortunately the bike hit an older senior citizen in the head i think! That was a crazy night! I remember just barely it was a tall rider maybe 16x at the time with red hair. I raced with chad standard , pj dunn , cory roth , jeff brown, chris mcormick, johnny hamilton , mike urbanski just to name a few that i remember!! What a great time in 84-85!!

best time of my life
man i miss those days
i was 17 expert back in 87
i was 14 or 15 in these pictures
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you will.

like bnd stated ive got a few hours worth of video footage from my time there. included is a good half hour of practice and racing the very first night the lochness monster surfaced and the widowmaker went the way of its previous victims. i know most dont remember me because my style was to take care of business, while quietly going about it, in a polar opposing style to that of the TRUE elvis.

as a matter of fact, and speaking of titles in reference to the title of this thread, my highlights at that track culminated in 15x and 15 cruiser TX state titles in 1987. that year at the BIG T nationals i followed david mcafee (pedalport) in for 2 seconds in 15X and cruiser on saturday at cowtown. since the ABA used to run split track national weekends, sunday took place at DCCP which had only been open for a few weeks prior to the national. i ended up soil sampling the last turn with michael jones in a little bout of throwin some boney ass 15 year old bojangle chicken wings in the cruiser semi.

i faired much better in 15x by taking home the win for mom on mothers day, sending home parnell haley, david mcafee, sam arellano, brian parks, robbie miller, jimmy pitts, and max dixon with dashed hopes of makin mom proud. winning 15x secured my place in the 15 and over trophy dash, which included the heavy hitters of steve veltman, kenny may, john griffin, brian parks, and a no show terry tennette. galen starlin took home a triple that day, and david molenda took home an all too familiar for him quad that day. quads were only possible in the days of the trophy dash and david molenda didnt know any other way to go home.

i guess i was thought of pretty fondly by a few people, seeing as how shortly after that i joined the mcdonalds team with dj jarmon, christina webb, jamas stiber, and steve veltman.

james prichard's brother was CHARLIE not joey and geoff scofield wasnt a local.

bnd that race with carnes took place in witchita falls. one of, if not the only track of its kind with both a bridge AND a reversible starting hill where the gate could be switched from the "front" to the "back" of the starting hill, and races run in either track direction on any given weekend.

another note of recognition, tricky ricky jackson and i are the ones who made meadowbrook trails what it turned into. it was there and had been ridden before we took shovels and rakes to it but we built it up well enough to be covered in both the BMXer and BMX action. i had moved away before the photo shoots but that doesnt make my efforts there any less substantial.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5u0yiplamdw

Loved that track, won 15 y.o inter at TX state event there in 86 or 87 don't remember which sanction then.

The bang tango is not doing much for me. Is that what you intended Choke?

Oh man....now I remember that when I raced in '87, yeah! I raced Kevin Hull and Bill Griggs in Semi 17+over X. I love that track is hell smooth and fast! and also I remember I almost hit the side fence after the first turn at second straightway, too close!