Speedway Club at the Texas Motor Speedway Features Latest Life Safety

By Consulting Specifying Engineer Staff November 2, 2018

The Speedway Club is a nine-story tower in a famous racing setting. It is located outside the first turn of the 1.5-mile main track at Texas Motor Speedway in Fort Worth. Both the Speedway and The Speedway Club are recognized as among the most modern in the world, and both are busy almost every day of the year.

The Speedway hosted its inaugural NASCAR Winston Cup and Busch Series races in April 1997 and its first Indy Racing League and NASCAR Craftsman Truck events that June. In addition to the 1.5-mile tri-oval, the speedway has an infield road course and a dirt track. The facility seats 154,861, with an infield capacity of more than 50,000, offers parking for 80,000 vehicles and speedway camping for 8,000. When races aren’t being run, track time is rented by driving schools for stock car and road racing, film and video productions, public events and concerts.

The Speedway Club celebrated its grand opening in March 1999 with a concert by Wayne Newton in the 14,000-sq.-ft. Texas Grand Ballroom, the posh penthouse which forms the ninth story of the tower. It’s a private, members-only club complete with fine dining and state-of-the-art health club and spa. It also houses the Texas Motor Speedway corporate offices, and offers banquet and meeting facilities for events ranging from corporate retreats and conventions to weddings, proms, dinners, meetings of many organizations and holiday parties galore.

Guests enjoy awesome views overlooking the Speedway. The ample adjacent parking is in contrast to limited space at many downtown facilities.

Life safety for the Speedway Club Employees, guests and the sizable investment in this glittering nine-story clubhouse/office building/hospitality and conference center are well protected by a modern Siemens Fire Safety system. The impressive nine-story tower is clearly a major investment by its owners, Speedway Motorsports, Inc., and premium life safety and property protection were essential for employees and guests. The busy building routinely houses nearly 200 people, including Speedway employees, banquet personnel and members working out. Its year-round events bring in hundreds more of employees and guests.

Life safety and property protection is provided by an MXLV multiplexed, distributed-intelligence detection system from the Fire Safety Division of Siemens Building Technologies, Inc. of Florham Park, N.J. The fire alarm panel is teamed with addressable smoke and duct detectors, addressable pull stations and ADA-approved horn/strobes. The system includes a digital communicator, 115 smoke detectors, 110 smoke control points, 35 duct detectors, 8 heat detectors, 30 manual fire alarm stations and 228 horn/strobes.

The detectors are located in the electrical room, mechanical room, supply and return air ducts, telephone room and elevator lobbies as well as office and meeting spaces and corridors. There are pull stations at each stairwell and elevator and heat sensors in the shaftways. The building is also fully sprinklered.

The fire alarm system is completely self-monitored and is considered the optimum selection for the application. It is maintained by technicians from Siemens Dallas branch office under the company’s codeLINK test and inspection agreement. Response time and efficiency of service has proved to be excellent.

Paul Eadie, Building Superintendent of the Speedway Club at the Texas Motor Speedway Fort Worth, Texas, contributed to the successful completion of this manuscript. Paul has been in building maintenance for almost twenty years. Before he joined Texas Motor Speedway as Building Maintenance Supervisor of the nine-story Speedway Club tower three years ago, he held a similar position at the Towns of Williams Square complex at Las Colinas in Irving, Texas.