John Watson: Motor Sport Ranch: a sports car country club for car lovers

When most of us think about a country club community, we think about golf. The Motor Sport Ranch is a country club community centered on a race track, fast cars and speed This is the brainchild of Jack Farr.

I met with Jack recently to learn more about this sports car country club. He told the following about how he got started.

“I got the idea in 1995 and it took a few months to find the property. I bought the property in June of 1996 and it took about three years to get it open, until June of ’99. We have been in operation ever since. It was the first ever sports car country club. Everybody told me I was crazy; of course the pioneers take all the arrows.”

There are single-family housing units presently at trackside, and plans are being made to add condominiums. The present homes are two-story with a second floor balcony overlooking the track. Some have a third floor balcony to give an even better view of the track. There are 304 acres in the total project.

Work is to start soon on a restaurant, a 4,000 square foot, sit-down steak restaurant. There is a convenience store/restaurant there now; also a race car prep shop and a hotel will be going in later.

“When I bought the property in 1996” Jack continued, “it was almost like a ghost town out here.”

“The original track design had two loops to it. The 1.7 mile track was built first. This is the one seen from Hwy 171. The new track built a couple of years ago is 1.3 miles. These tracks can be used separately or they can be linked together and have one track of 3.1 miles.

“This is not a race track, technically or legally, our insurance does not cover racing. We just drive fast for the fun of it. Insurance defines racing as passing in the corners. We have an agreement that we don’t pass in the corners, we just pass on the longer straight-a-ways.

“We have put as many as 30 cars at a time on the track and in nine years of operation we have never had two cars even touch each other. We have had two cars hit something on the track and roll over and several have blown engines.

“We’ve had 757 people join this club. A few of this group are actually competitive racers. They use this facility for testing or tuning. Mostly it is for people out to have a little fun; entertaining their friends, family or business associates.

“As you might expect, most members are from the Dallas/Fort Worth area — about 90 percent. However, we have members from other towns in Texas — Houston, Austin, San Antonio and Midland. Out-of-state members come from Kansas, Minnesota, Florida, Alaska, Mexico, New Mexico and Oklahoma.”

The track is mainly for the use of the members, but they do rent it out to other groups on weekends, like the Porsche club or the motorcycle group.

“I have another business that I have had for 22 years,” Jack said. “I make electronic printing equipment. You can sit at a table with your clients and they look so serious, stone-faced and reserved, this was before I moved my business out here. We’d have a business meeting in the morning and talk about the product, contracts and such, and then we’d go to lunch. And then I’d drop the question, ‘Hey, you want to go check out a road course?’ Nine out of ten of the men will go for it.

“After three laps around the track you sit back down at the same table, talking about the same stuff, and they are totally different people. They have opened up, they’re friendly, their guard is let down because they feel like they have just had a life changing experience. They had just trusted their lives to me around the track, so it is easier to sit here and trust a contract over a printing system.”

As a club member you can reserve one of the meeting rooms at the clubhouse for one of your company meetings and afterward take your clients for a few laps around the track in your sports car. Garages are available for members to store their sports cars here.

I also had one of those life-changing experiences. After the interview we took a lap around the track in Jack’s little yellow mustang. I could not see the speedometer to tell how fast we were going, but I could tell we were pulling some Gs on the corners. Toward the end of the ride, as we approached a corner, Jack said, “We’ll take this corner at 85 mph.”

I could hear the tires howling as we rounded the corner. As we came out of the turn, Jack look at the speedometer and said, “No, that was 87 mph.”

Now that kind of ride will give you a rush!

This sports car country club is only 20 miles from Cleburne on the southwest side of Cresson, just over in Hood County. The public is welcome to come watch the cars run the track. You can sit on the balcony at the club house, where you have a good view of the track. Normally there is no charge to watch except on some of the special events an entrance fee is charged.

If you are a sports car enthusiast and enjoy watching them run, this is the place to go.

To find out more, visit www.motorsportranch.com

John Watson is a Cleburne resident who can be reached at texastraveler@sbcglobal.net.