{"id":202247,"date":"2026-03-13T01:20:10","date_gmt":"2026-03-13T01:20:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/202247\/"},"modified":"2026-03-13T01:20:10","modified_gmt":"2026-03-13T01:20:10","slug":"arlington-archives-revisits-citys-open-wheel-roots","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/202247\/","title":{"rendered":"Arlington Archives Revisits City\u2019s Open-Wheel Roots"},"content":{"rendered":"

Published on March 12, 2026<\/p>\n


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\n \"OK <\/p>\n

By Office of Communication<\/p>\n

\u201cRacing Through Time: Arlington\u2019s Open-Wheel Legacy\u201d hits the track as the newest episode of Arlington Archives. Host OK Carter teams up with Erica Rousseau, Processing Archivist with University of Texas at Arlington Libraries\u2019 Special Collections & Archives, to uncover the city\u2019s nearly forgotten racing era just in time for the Java House Grand Prix of Arlington<\/a> March 13\u201315, 2026.<\/p>\n

\u201cI kept hearing how this big race coming to town was being called historic,\u201d Rousseau said. \u201cThat made me wonder, has Arlington really never seen open-wheel racing before?\u201d<\/p>\n

Rousseau curated a mini-exhibit, Uncovered Speed: The Legacy of Open-Wheeled Racing in Arlington, which puts the spotlight on Arlington being firmly on the map of racing history in America. The exhibit runs through March 30.<\/p>\n

Rousseau\u2019s research led her to Arlington Downs, a former horse track and auto racing track located less than half a mile from today\u2019s sports and entertainment district.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Arlington Downs was a former horse and auto racing track located less than half a mile from today\u2019s sports and entertainment district. According to the Texas State Historical Association, Arlington Downs opened Nov. 1, 1929, and was built by oilman W.T. Waggoner as a 1\u00bc-mile track with grandstands to seat about 6,000 spectators.<\/p>\n

It was an ambitious gamble. Waggoner invested heavily even before pari-mutuel betting was legal in Texas. Once that happened in 1933, Arlington Downs quickly became one of the state\u2019s premier racing destinations.<\/p>\n

While it began as a horse racing venue, Arlington Downs\u2019 story didn\u2019t end there. After pari-mutuel betting was banned again in 1937 and the property changed hands, the track hosted a variety of events, including rodeos, stock car races, and, most notably, open-wheel auto racing. Between 1947 and 1950, Arlington Downs hosted AAA Championship Racing events, sanctioned by the AAA Contest Board, the organization that helped lay the foundation for modern open-wheel and IndyCar racing.<\/p>\n

Uncovered Speed: The Legacy of Open-Wheeled Racing in Arlington brings that history to life through photographs, maps and rare materials from UTA Libraries\u2019 collections. Visitors will see images from the Fort Worth Star-Telegram Collection, original race-day programs and a detailed map of Arlington Downs.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe found some great negatives that have never been printed before,\u201d Rousseau said. \u201cIt was really cool to dig into that history.\u201d<\/p>\n

The exhibition runs through March 30, 2026, on the sixth floor of the UTA Central Library<\/a>.<\/p>\n

About Arlington Archives<\/p>\n

Produced in celebration of Arlington\u2019s sesquicentennial in 2026, the series features voices from historians, city leaders and longtime residents. Future episodes will further explore Arlington\u2019s history, spotlighting milestones and anniversaries in the city\u2019s storied past.<\/p>\n

Visit\u00a0Arlington150.com<\/a>\u00a0for more historical articles, photos and events planned throughout 2026.<\/p>\n

\u201cRacing Through Time: Arlington\u2019s Open-Wheel Legacy\u201d is now available on all major podcast platforms and the City\u2019s social media channels including Facebook and YouTube.<\/p>\n

\"Arlington<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Published on March 12, 2026 By Office of Communication \u201cRacing Through Time: Arlington\u2019s…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":202248,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[150,152,151],"class_list":["post-202247","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-arlington","tag-arlington","tag-arlington-headlines","tag-arlington-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/202247","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=202247"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/202247\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/202248"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=202247"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=202247"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=202247"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}