A recent open letter from Houston Raceway Park (HRP) General Manager Seth Angel indicated this genuinely is the final SpringNationals at his family-owned facility that is set to give way to industrial and commercial sprawl at the start of 2023.
HRP will carry out its regularly scheduled racing program and events throughout this year. Global logistics solutions firm Katoen Natie’s expansion is planning to swallow the dragstrip land.
However, a few remarks – maybe hinting, maybe simply wishful thinking, maybe with no hidden meaning intended whatsoever – have come from racers that have fueled some hope that a return to Houston, or at least south of Dallas, might be possible.
The NHRA has been mum about that, perhaps because it has nothing to contribute to such a conversation. If it knows any plans in the works to fill the void caused by the disappearance of HRP, they aren’t for sharing. Neither has anyone addressed the rumor that popped up this weekend that the days are numbered for yet another prominent venue. Competition Plus is investigating that rumor.
Pro Stock four-time champion Erica Enders raised eyebrows a bit during an NHRA-sponsored conference call a week or so ago. She briefly said, “I saw they [HRP’s Angel family] renewed the Texas 2000 race for 2023, which is confusing why NHRA wouldn’t be going back.” [“TX2K” is dubbed “The Super Bowl of Street Car Racing.”]
Top Fuel’s Tony Schumacher began one sentence in a top-end interview Saturday with “Whether it’s the last race or not . . .”
Schumacher, like Funny Car’s Alexis De Joria, lives not far from COTA, the Circuit of the Americas at Austin, Texas. That’s a facility that hosts a Formula 1 race in October and looks like a strategic facility to add an NHRA-sanctioned dragstrip. And De Joria offered some insight into the NHRA’s past discussions with COTA.
De Joria said, “Back in the day, the people who run COTA met with the heads of NHRA, Graham Light at the time, and they wanted to know what every length of every track is – from the finish line to the sand trap. They wanted schematics for everything, because they wanted to do that. There’s tons of land over there – I mean, they’re building an amusement park over there. How great would it be to have the two quickest motorsports in the world at one facility, F1 and Top Fuel and Nitro Funny Car? That would be incredible.
“They wanted to make sure they weren’t stepping on anyone’s toes. I think it was a little political,” she said. “There are already two races in Texas, so they didn’t want to compete with the other tracks and whatnot. They said if one track went away, then they would look back into it. And it mostly likely would be a four-wide.”
De Joria said, “The memories I have from Houston will never be replaced, and hopefully, we’ll close out this weekend with another good showing here. It’s unfortunate to see Houston go. I never like to see a track go away, ever. I love the people. It’s definitely a bummer. Texas is a good place, so maybe there are some good things on the horizon.”
Whether these details suggest serious discussions or any “inside information” – or if such talk is nothing more than rumormongering – remains to be seen.
