Desert Thunder Raceway (Midland)
ClosedClosed No longer racing, but some of the track is still there.
- Closed because oil field wages made it impossible to staff
- Raced
- 2005-14
- State
- Texas
- What's left
- The site was redeveloped, but the strip or its layout lives on in whatever replaced it.
- On the site today
- Sold to developers for a planned business park
- Raced on
- Built as a drag strip
- First race
- 2005
- Track
- 1/8 mile
- Surface
- Concrete
- Location
- Between Odessa and Midland
- People
- Mike Waldrop, builder and owner (2005-)
- Becky Waldrop, builder and owner (2005-)
- Jimmy Farmer, lessee
- Elevation
- 2,878 ft (877 m)
- Coordinates
- 31.93662, -102.17229
Mike and Becky Waldrop built this eighth-mile concrete strip between Odessa and Midland in 2005 for about $2 million. Jimmy Farmer later leased it from them but had to give up the lease because he couldn’t hire help at reasonable wages. In the oil-rich area, workers wouldn’t take less than oil field pay, which made running the track unworkable. The Waldrops had no interest in running it themselves and sold the land to developers who planned a business park.
Video
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