He purchased the historic Louisiana track in February 2020 and just weeks later, the track was shut down due to the COVID-19 pandemic. As time drew closer to get back racing, one of the first orders of business was to become an International Hot Rod Association (IHRA) sanctioned facility.
“We were closed for almost a year so now we’re just getting back going, establishing ourselves with the points and things we needed to keep up with,” Heaney said. “One of our steps forward was getting sanctioned.”
Located in Monroe, La., Twin City Raceway began hosting events in 1962, making it one of the oldest tracks in the region. Heaney and company have embraced the history, while also targeting new fans. He has learned the appeal of fast cars and record speeds has no age limits.
“There’s a lot of history there. We have guys in their seventies who remember racing there when they were teens,” Heaney said. “Every now and then, the newspaper will publish stories about the events that happened there. But, we get a broad range of fans from new drag racing fans to the old fans and racers who have been doing it for decades.”
With a schedule heavy on bracket racing, the IHRA Summit SuperSeries is a perfect program for the track. Track champions who are IHRA members are invited to participate in the IHRA Summit SuperSeries World Finals at Memphis in October.
On a normal weekend, drivers come from a four-state area of Arkansas, Mississippi, Texas and Louisiana to race. For larger events, they’ve come as far away as Virginia.
Heaney, who has a background in the oil and gas industry, knows all about long distances as his work had taken him overseas to Southeast Asia. After taking his company public, he decided to come back home to the Bayou. A longtime fan of drag racing, he decided to take on the new challenge of track ownership.
Since becoming owner, Heaney has invested in the facility with a variety of upgrades. Beyond going from an outlaw track to being sanctioned, physical modifications include a switch to LED lighting, changing the guardrails to concrete barriers and painting them orange. The 1/8 and 1/4-mile marks are now painted blue, making them easily seen and giving the track its distinctive colors.
An upcoming project is to resurface a portion of the track. They’ve taken core samples to find out what’s underneath the surface to make sure the work is done properly. It’s just a part of Heaney’s plans to take the historic track far into the future.
To find out more about Twin City Raceway, click here to visit the track’s website.
