Slightly odd title, I know.
I've been contacted by a company there that might be interested in hiring me but before I get this started properly, I figured I'll better do some research about the place, given that neither me nor my wife have ever been there. Got some basic info already so this is more a case of - "teach me Abilene from a motorsports perspective".
A quick Google didn't find that much. Given the area it's in I guess hillclimbs are out 
and I did find the website of the West Texas SCCA but that seemed to be a little short on information accessible to me.
So, anything out there but drag racing and Nascar 
?
you too late, you just missed it... http://www.bborr.com/
but there are a couple of others , still half a days ride from Abilene, Texas is a big place... im going to do big bend one of these years...
Not a lot of motorsports activity around Abilene unless you count roundy round dirt racing.
Dallas/Ft. Worth has a pretty good motorsports scene, but its a 175+ plus mile drive (about 3 hours). For us Texans' that's nothing. For many people, that's a family vacation distance!! 
Not sure what you are accusom to, but it's going to be one of those "big" small towns. One that has lost most of the mom and pop shops (but not all) and has gained a WalMart, probably a Best Buy and maybe a Chili's. Probably not much in regards to arts and entertainment.
George Hamilton IV did say it was "The prettiest town, that I've ever seen" in his song, though!!
-Rob
rob_lewis wrote:
Not a lot of motorsports activity around Abilene unless you count roundy round dirt racing.
That's what I was afraid of.
rob_lewis wrote:
Dallas/Ft. Worth has a pretty good motorsports scene, but its a 175+ plus mile drive (about 3 hours). For us Texans' that's nothing. For many people, that's a family vacation distance!!
Heh. Some people I know would suggest that that's more than the average distance between breakdowns for a lot of vehicles I own or owned. I'm sure my wife will be thrilled if I drag her out of bed at 4am to go Auto-Xing.
rob_lewis wrote:
Not sure what you are accusom to, but it's going to be one of those "big" small towns. One that has lost most of the mom and pop shops (but not all) and has gained a WalMart, probably a Best Buy and maybe a Chili's. Probably not much in regards to arts and entertainment.
That's a pretty good description of the town I live in over here, only that every third ex-mom&pop shop is now a realtor. Used to be every second one but some went bust...
rob_lewis wrote:
George Hamilton IV did say it was "The prettiest town, that I've ever seen" in his song, though!!
Got to count for something, that .
mtn
SuperDork
4/24/10 6:49 a.m.
In the words of Gary P. Nunn...
"
I want to go home with the armadillo
good country music from Amarillo and Abilene
The friendliest people and the prettiest women you've ever seen"
Rust will not be an issue.
If it were me, I would find something old and fun and keep it running strong though you will want to be sure the AC works.
rob_lewis wrote:
Probably not much in regards to arts and entertainment.
Depends on what you're looking for. You'll probably only get community/university theatre. My guess is that most of the touring shows don't make it to Abilene. However, there are decent art and history museums in Abilene. I think they also still have a drive-in movie theater, which may not be the height of culture, but is a pretty cool piece of Americana.
Abilene is also the home for the National Center for Illustrated Children's Literature. (My wife has a M.Ed. in language arts instruction, and we have small kids. Things that interest us may not apply to others.)
As far as motorsports go, don't underestimate the entertainment value of dirt-track racing. As much as I love road racing, it's hard to have more fun at a track than watching the locals go at it on Saturday night.
Just keep in mind Abilene isn't near ANYTHING! If you don't find what you need in Abilene it's a long, long way to anyplace bigger.
But it does have some great landscape vistas, both trees can be seen for miles.
It would be great for land speed records. The roads go for miles with barely a bend in them. (think "Vanishing Point") Miles and miles of nothing but miles and miles. West TX is not a great motorsports area, though Shelby and Hall came from that west TX.
