Odessa Raceway Park/Penwell Raceway

History

Charles M. Leckbee filed incorporation papers for Odessa Dragway on June 27, 1966, for a strip fifteen miles west of Odessa. It opened in September 1966 as Odessa Raceway Park, with a big fuel meet on Sunday, September 11. More than twenty top fuel cars entered, among them Bennie Osborn, the Beaver Brothers, Ray Whisenhunt and Creitz & Greer. The strip was 4,700 feet long and known for very good traction. It was AHRA sanctioned in 1967. On May 4-5, 1968, it hosted an NHRA regional points meet, where more than 7,000 people saw Osborn win top fuel at 7.20 seconds and 207.84 MPH.

Bill Smith and Bill Hielscher bought the track in 1975 and ran it as Odessa International Raceway through 1976. It hosted the AHRA Longhorn Nationals on June 25-27, 1976, with Tom McEwen leading the funny cars. The name changed to Penwell Raceway in late 1977. Ronnie Burrows bought it around 1996, renamed it West Texas Raceway Park and ran it through at least 2007. In 2008 Gary Gardenhire paid $150,000 for it and, with his brothers Jerrod and Greg, ran it as Penwell Knights Raceway, an outlaw track, putting more than $1.5 million into improvements. In 2010 Gary and Jerrod were indicted in federal court on six counts of mail fraud and one of conspiracy, accused of taking $2.6 million from an oilfield equipment company in a scheme that started a year before they bought the track. They went to prison in 2011 and the track was forfeited and sold. The 2012 buyers named it Penwell Knights Raceway at Caprock Motorplex, and it runs under IHRA sanction today.