Rabbit Run

Holigan
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Holigan
Edited Date/Time 2/19/2015 5:15pm
For those of you that raced and rode around DFW in the 70's and 80's, probably the worst track was Rabbit Run. Flat as a table, with a handful of manmade jumps. Terrible black soil, dusty and slick when dry, and the most clinging mud known to man when wet. I think it was the catalyst for Jody’s “Chicken Licks Raceway”. We spent almost every day after school and on the weekends in the early 80’s riding there. Man, I miss that track.

Here is what it is about to become. Old tracks never die, they just get buried under $500,000,000 in new development.
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Mini Elsinore
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Mini Elsinore 2/18/2015 1:15pm
2/18/2015 1:15pm Edited Date/Time 2/18/2015 4:29pm
Raced an AMA (or GNC---cannot recall) qualifier on my YZ80 in '76 or '77. Not a great track, but I took 5th which was memorable for someone of marginal speed.

Edit: my 86 year old Dad has a better memory than me. It was '76, "because you ran a GYT cylinder with a 28 Mikuni (flat side, he believes), straight-cut gears and a PVL ignition. And you insisted on running that Myerscough pipe when the GYT pipe with Stinger silencer was the ticket. Your Boge shocks had the 28 springs. And, you didn't go to Six Flags on that trip." That's all he could recall. Not bad for 86.....
mb60
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mb60 2/18/2015 1:17pm
2/18/2015 1:17pm
Agreed was not the best track to ride on growing up. But who can forget the Trans Am series that came once a year ?
Saw Roger D and a bunch of other euro's as a kid growing up.
Cygnus
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Cygnus 2/18/2015 4:00pm
2/18/2015 4:00pm
Did a guy named Skip run that place or work there. Think he's the same guy with rabbit run here.http://www.rabbitrunmx.com
Rabbit Run 41 2/18/2015 4:34pm
2/18/2015 4:34pm
What a flashback! That was the first real track I ever rode on my 1979 RM125. It was a hard baked blue groove track. By the time I rode there, it was in pretty bad shape but I loved it. Wasn't it out Central Expressway? I recently started posting on Vital and picked my name after the track. Never thought anyone would mention Rabbit Run!

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Rabbit Run 41 2/18/2015 4:38pm
2/18/2015 4:38pm
What a flashback! That was the first real track I ever rode on my 1979 RM125. It was a hard baked blue groove track. By the time I rode there, it was in pretty bad shape but I loved it. Wasn't it out Central Expressway? I recently started posting on Vital and picked my name after the track. Never thought anyone would mention Rabbit Run!
Holigan
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Holigan 2/18/2015 7:15pm
2/18/2015 7:15pm
Mini, your dad can remember everything about a bike you raced 39 years ago. I can't remember where I ate lunch yesterday .

MB, what do you think Roger and the euros thought about American MX when the track was RR?

Cygnus, not sure who owned the track. We practiced there for years after it was closed. No one ever claimed it.

41, SE corner of Central and GB Turnpike. Busy corner.
731chopper
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731chopper 2/18/2015 7:29pm
2/18/2015 7:29pm
I grew up 5 minutes from where it use to be. I was born in the late 80s though so it was gone by the time I came along. There were some riding trails in the area for a while but they got wiped out 12 years or so ago when they built a DART rail station there. State Farm is currently building two huge skyscrapers to be their new home office next to that station now. I'm too young to have ever seen the real track but my old man and grandpa use to always tell me about it (although they didn't speak too highly of the track haha).

Maybe one day somebody will be posting a similar article about something being built where Mosier Valley use to be. All in the name of "progress"... Unsure
newmann
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newmann 2/18/2015 7:41pm
2/18/2015 7:41pm Edited Date/Time 2/18/2015 7:45pm
Hannah and Burgett doing a parade lap on works Yamahas with Halloween masks on. Good friend of mine took this one along with a bunch of other good pics there. Only one I could find on the net, small...



http://mikelcycle.com/index.html
Mini Elsinore
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Mini Elsinore 2/18/2015 7:46pm
2/18/2015 7:46pm
Holigan wrote:
Mini, your dad can remember everything about a bike you raced 39 years ago. I can't remember where I ate lunch yesterday . MB, what do...
Mini, your dad can remember everything about a bike you raced 39 years ago. I can't remember where I ate lunch yesterday .

MB, what do you think Roger and the euros thought about American MX when the track was RR?

Cygnus, not sure who owned the track. We practiced there for years after it was closed. No one ever claimed it.

41, SE corner of Central and GB Turnpike. Busy corner.
Michael, he's an amazing guy! He also remembers that we were driving his Licoln Mark IV pulling a 3-rail trailer and he locked the keys in the trunk at the hotel. Funny, he and I remember from a different perspective. Example, I didn't remember the straight-cut gears until he mentioned them; his response, "I do 'cause I paid for 'em..."

Those were great times and that race at RR in particular stands out to me.
mag250
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mag250 2/18/2015 8:06pm
2/18/2015 8:06pm


Rabbit Run 41 2/19/2015 12:15pm
2/19/2015 12:15pm
By the time I started riding there, it was just some old battered tattered banners left behind. Not to bad on the rain ruts because of the hard clay. I did not have a truck or trailer, so I removed the fenders from my RM125 and slid the bike into the trunk of my 68 Catalina to get there. Ironically when I moved to San Diego in 82, the practice track at Palm Ave. had the same clay based blue grooved conditions. Good training for Carlsbad. Still track ride at 53!
Holigan
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Holigan 2/19/2015 12:29pm
2/19/2015 12:29pm
Mini Elsinore wrote:
Michael, he's an amazing guy! He also remembers that we were driving his Licoln Mark IV pulling a 3-rail trailer and he locked the keys in...
Michael, he's an amazing guy! He also remembers that we were driving his Licoln Mark IV pulling a 3-rail trailer and he locked the keys in the trunk at the hotel. Funny, he and I remember from a different perspective. Example, I didn't remember the straight-cut gears until he mentioned them; his response, "I do 'cause I paid for 'em..."

Those were great times and that race at RR in particular stands out to me.
Ha! Old guys remember every nickel.
Holigan
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Holigan 2/19/2015 12:30pm
2/19/2015 12:30pm
Rabbit Run 41 wrote:
By the time I started riding there, it was just some old battered tattered banners left behind. Not to bad on the rain ruts because of...
By the time I started riding there, it was just some old battered tattered banners left behind. Not to bad on the rain ruts because of the hard clay. I did not have a truck or trailer, so I removed the fenders from my RM125 and slid the bike into the trunk of my 68 Catalina to get there. Ironically when I moved to San Diego in 82, the practice track at Palm Ave. had the same clay based blue grooved conditions. Good training for Carlsbad. Still track ride at 53!
We probably rode the track at the same time. I was there all the time from '81 to '83.
Rabbit Run 41 2/19/2015 12:59pm
2/19/2015 12:59pm
No doubt Holigan! I OJ'd some jumps out there and bent my forks. there was a wall jump best I can remember. Moved to San Diego in 82. Got a job at a Suzuki shop in El Cajon. (Suzuki of California) Kid in a candy store. Did you go to the Dallas Supercross back then? I went to the '77 round. Hannah destroyed the field.
Did you know a kid named Scott Rogers? He was a mini star moved down from Oklahoma. He was my neighbor. Rode a YZ80.
mb60
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mb60 2/19/2015 2:28pm
2/19/2015 2:28pm
Holigan wrote:
Mini, your dad can remember everything about a bike you raced 39 years ago. I can't remember where I ate lunch yesterday . MB, what do...
Mini, your dad can remember everything about a bike you raced 39 years ago. I can't remember where I ate lunch yesterday .

MB, what do you think Roger and the euros thought about American MX when the track was RR?

Cygnus, not sure who owned the track. We practiced there for years after it was closed. No one ever claimed it.

41, SE corner of Central and GB Turnpike. Busy corner.
Holigan I was about 7 or 8 when I saw the Trans Am series out there and I think I raced a couple of years later on the track. All I know is Kent Howerton was my hero and he was winning a moto when his Husky locked up while I was standing in the same place. I remember busting out in tears as they pushed his bike off the track. LOL

I'm not sure what they the euro's thought of the track but for back then it could have not been too bad. Hard to believe that land still stands vacant until plans now.
mark293
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mark293 2/19/2015 2:43pm
2/19/2015 2:43pm
Earned my first trophy therein 1977. 7-11 80cc on my 77 YZ80D. Also was there and in awe at the Trans AMA. I don't remember the track being horrible, but I was just 10 years old and excited at the chance to race. I did however, love Wolf Creek.
WhipMeister
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WhipMeister 2/19/2015 5:15pm
2/19/2015 5:15pm
Holigan wrote:
For those of you that raced and rode around DFW in the 70's and 80's, probably the worst track was Rabbit Run. Flat as a table...
For those of you that raced and rode around DFW in the 70's and 80's, probably the worst track was Rabbit Run. Flat as a table, with a handful of manmade jumps. Terrible black soil, dusty and slick when dry, and the most clinging mud known to man when wet. I think it was the catalyst for Jody’s “Chicken Licks Raceway”. We spent almost every day after school and on the weekends in the early 80’s riding there. Man, I miss that track.

Here is what it is about to become. Old tracks never die, they just get buried under $500,000,000 in new development.
My first race was at RR and it was my after-school practice track. Hardpack blue groove. At least Rabbit Run Version 1 (Motomasters/Janish owners). RR Version 2 (the MacClaskey edition), which hosted two Trans-AMAs in 76 and 77, was much better, though it was all hauled-in dirt.

I have many fond memories of Rabbit Run. Interestingly, the original Rabbit Run posse persists to this day as the core of the core of Texas motocross. Mike Hance (aka Lord Hance), Jim Whitten, the late LaRoy Montgomery, Randy Johnson (#125 at the top of the Lone Stare Series +50 class now and owns a Yamaha shop in Whitney) all originally hailed from Rabbit Run as kid racers, Saw a bunch of them at the Texas Motocross Reunion last weekend.

Probably one of the most valuable plots of raw land in all of North Texas. Surprised it sat vacant so long. Here's a link to updated article:

http://www.dallasnews.com/business/commercial-real-estate/headlines/201…

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