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01/13/2012 05:22 PM

Elroy residents react to F1 track transformation

By: Dan Robertson

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With a world-class auto racing facility rising from nearby farmland, reality is setting in for the people who live in the tiny Texas village of Elroy.

Near the future site of the Circuit of the Americas race track, traffic and construction is everywhere. It’s a change for Duffy Short, who has lived here since he was a kid.

"There was all farmland out here then, there are a lot of cattle, livestock," he said. “Very few, probably a dozen families between here and Pilot Knob, I guess."

Grumpy Stubbs, who has lived in the area since the 1960s, said the area has changed quite a bit in recent months.

"There was about 20, 25 people here for years and years," he said."This was all dirt road, wasn't nothing but farmers out here. Horse and buggies was about the only way you could get back and forth."

Now, Elroy is changing forever. With the Formula One moving in, some people are moving out.

However, instead of selling out, some residents are looking forward to Elroy's future.

“It's kind of fun to sit back and watch to see what's going to happen. Yeah, it's going to happen -- there's nothing I can do about it, but you know, you can either make it a good thing or a bad thing,” Short said.

The U.S. Grand Prix race is slated to be in November of this year.

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