We are smack dab in the middle of TX2K23, this year’s edition of Texas’ drag and roll racing event dedicated to street car-based builds. Things have heated up at the Houston Raceway Park, which hosts the event, in terms of both racing achievements and crashes.
TX2K kicked off in 1999 as a Supra gathering but has evolved into the full-blown straight-line battle arena mentioned above. The 2023 edition marks the end of an era, with Houston Raceway set to close its gates soon, as this Facebook post from December last year confirms.
This marks the closing of the fourth important drag racing site since 2018—after all, higher-tier (compared to TX2K) NHRA-sanctioned events have been held here for decades. As for where TX2K24 is set to take place, fans on the Houston Raceway Facebook page expect the event to head over to Texas Motorplex in Ennis.
March 15 was the first day of roll racing, where the winner is decided by the trap speed. As for drag racing (best Elapsed Time gets the prize), this was supposed to kick off today, March 17. However, the organizers just canceled the day’s schedule—not more—as the rain and temperatures have affected the track prep, and it’s being redone from the ground up. From the starting line and across the track, the current surface prep will be scraped off, with new rubber and glue being laid down, a process that will take at least 8 hours.
And, as we wait for this safety measure to be deployed, we’ve brought along a few of the most intense shenanigans from the first two days (roll racing). The first is the crash in the title, which nearly turned into a double accident.
The Mustang accident at TX2K23
As documented at the 4:41 timestamp of the YouTube clip below (lens tip to 1320video), a battle between a Lamborghini Huracan and an S550 Ford Mustang saw the driver of the latter losing control after water reportedly leaked via the cylinder head.
The ‘Stang, which was in the left lane, swerved to the right and came close to cutting off the Lamborghini. Nevertheless, since the driver of the supercar hadn’t fully stepped on the gas—he explains it, and you can hear it in the video—he managed to stop the Italian exotic in time.
The Ford wasn’t so lucky, as the car spun into the wall, sustaining serious damage to its front end and left side. Fortunately, the driver walked away, and we can see him standing there as the Lamborghini driver points out some aspects after the accident, all in front of the camera.
Now, as stated in the clip and the TX2K drag racing rules (the server was down at the time of press, but the content is still cached by Google), cleaning up the track after the fluid spill was covered in just a few minutes thanks to the use of water. Coolant would’ve been much more difficult to remove, which is why this was banned by the organizers some years ago.
The taped Viper that got tested in the wind tunnel
Now, there are many aspects that stand out in the footage, but the Viper game closer to the end caught our eye in particular. For one, if you head over to the 32:26 point, you’ll find a white Gen V Viper GTS with white tape covering its front bumper, hood air intake, side air vents, and cowl.
And while we’re used to people sealing up their cars with tape for higher trap speeds, the crew behind this Viper had taken the thing to the wind tunnel for testing. Apparently, the tape allowed the machine, whose factory V10 features a Calvo Motorsports twin-turbo kit to gain 8 mph over its previous trap speed of 185 mph! They also brought along a green Gen V Viper, whose aftermarket active wing also spent some time in the wind tunnel.
Nissan GT-R sets 237 mph rolling race record at TX2K
Until recently, the record for the fastest rolling run at TX2K sat with a yellow Lamborghini Huracan, which had been heavily modded by Underground Racing. The changes went way beyond the twin-turbo kit for the V10, which pushed the engine past 3,000 hp and saw the Italian exotic hitting 236 mph.
Nevertheless, as you can see in the TX2K Facebook clip below, a massively modded R35 Nissan GT-R, whose twin-turbo V6 presumably also sports over 3,000 hp, topped that with a 237 mph pass.
And with these arguably being the two main platforms in terms of street car-based racing (those Vipers keep rising), you can expect the brawl to carry on.
At this point, it looks like TX2K23 will carry on starting tomorrow, March 18 and we can’t wait to see the four-wheeled monsters at the event making full use of that fresh track prep.
