The owner and promoter of West Texas Raceway in Lubbock, Corky Matthews, passed away on July 8. The local racing community remembered him for keeping racing alive in the area.
“He bought West Texas Raceway with thoughts of doing something else with the property,” said longtime racer Jamey Huskey, whose son Austin races at the track currently. “When he found out Hub City Speedway [aka Lubbock Speedway] was going to close, he said we need racing here. He bought what he needed — lights, grandstands, fences and buildings — to make one of the nicest, cleanest facilities in Texas. He made a million-dollar place look like a million dollars.”
Matthews, 70, died from West Nile Virus contracted from a mosquito bite. Coincidentally, the former promoter of Lubbock Speedway, Jimmy King, also died as the result of an insect.
“Two of the roughest, toughest guys in Lubbock were taken out by a little bitty animal,” Huskey said. “Jimmy was stung by a bee.”
A Love Story
Cathy Howe, daughter of hockey great Gordie Howe, met Corky Matthews, a widower, when she and her children leased a building from him. The two became a couple and Howe co-promoted the track with Matthews.
“When we decided to open West Texas Raceway again, the weeds were so tall we couldn’t find the track,” said Howe. “I told Corky that it was too bad we couldn’t freeze the ponds at the track and make hockey rinks.”
Matthews, who had also owned sprint cars, started bringing the track back to life in August 2016. He reopened it the following March.
“The same year he opened the raceway, Corky lost two children,” Howe said. “Scooter had a coronary heart attack and Misty, who was on dialysis, died from kidney failure. Corky gave Misty one of his kidneys, but it didn’t take in her body.”
Amidst the tragedy, Howe credited the racing community to helping them keep going.
“From that first year on, we received so much support from our racing family — fans, employees, drivers — they’ve been my backbone and still are,” said Howe. “This year, when Corky went on a ventilator, we had to postpone Scooter’s July 4th memorial race.”
The residents of Lubbock missed the fireworks displays that Corky gained a reputation for.
“Corky loved fireworks,” Howe said. “We had fireworks every week. He had fireworks at the beginning of each main event — he just liked the sound of things blowing up. At Scooter’s memorial race, he would have a fireworks show that saw $50,000 of fireworks, at wholesale price, going off for 25 minutes straight. It was one of the biggest displays in the country. I pulled the show because he was on a ventilator and he would kill me if he woke up and found out he missed the fireworks display.”
Racing Goes On
Last Saturday Howe stood at the edge of the track as each feature in every class had a missing man formation to honor Corky Matthews.
“It was very special — a great way to honor a man who never had an intention to own a racetrack, but it bordered his property so he did exactly that,” said Howe. “He loved racing and loved his new role as a promoter.”
From the get-go, Matthews managed the track like it was one of his construction or demolition businesses.
“He loved racing, but as a promoter, he knew there was a line that could not be crossed — there could not be favoritism,” Howe said. “He was always fair and didn’t put up with fighting or disrespect of the speedway property.”
Howe said speculation about the track’s future is premature. Matthews’ son, Roy, a former late model driver, will take over ownership of the speedway at the end of the season.
“It is up to Roy as to what happens next,” said Howe. “It’s too soon to talk about it. We don’t know what the plans are for the future. All we know is that we want to finish this season. Of course, we want racing to continue — the track was Corky’s love and racing was his hobby.”
Mike Adaskaveg has written hundreds of stories since the website’s inception. This year marks his 54th year of covering auto racing. Adaskaveg got his start working for track photographer Lloyd Burnham at Connecticut’s Stafford Motor Speedway in 1970. Since then, he’s been a columnist, writer, and photographer, in racing and in mainstream media, for several outlets, including the Journal Inquirer, Boston Herald, Stock Car Racing, and Speedway Illustrated. Among Adaskaveg’s many awards are the 1992 Eastern Motorsport Press Association (EMPA) Ace Lane Photographer of the Year and the 2019 National Motorsports Press Association (NMPA) George Cunningham Writer of the Year.
