Baytown, Texas’ Royal Purple Raceway is set to re-open in March with a full slate of drag racing events — highlighted by the NHRA’s annual SpringNationals Mello Yello Drag Racing Series national event in April — after suspending racing activities last fall to support the clean-up and recovery effort following Hurricane Harvey. Located in greater Houston, Royal Purple Raceway has served as a storage facility for tens of thousands of hurricane-flooded vehicles in the aftermath of the historic storm.
“We’re very happy to reopen in March for the 2018 race season,” General Manager Seth Angel said. “In this extended offseason we had a great opportunity to complete a series of major facility projects, most importantly the repaving of our race track.”
Despite the break in racing operations, Angel and the RPR staff have been full-steam-ahead in preparation for 2018, laying down a fresh new racing surface and completing various upgrades to the facility. Most notably, the asphalt from the 660-foot mark to 200-feet beyond the quarter-mile finish stripe was taken up and repaved using laser-guided equipment, giving racers an improved surface to compete on in the years ahead. The return roads were also widened and resurfaced, thus allowing clean-up and emergency vehicles to enter and exit the drag strip in a more timely fashion with less interference to the race teams navigating the road to collect their cars and drivers.
“We have always taken great pride in having one of the quickest and fastest drag strips in the country and these enhancements should continue that legacy for many more years to come,” Angel said. “The racers themselves suggested these upgrades and we always like to deliver for them.”
In addition to the NHRA SpringNationals, the Royal Purple Raceway’s 2018 schedule will feature TX2K, the NHRA Lucas Oil Drag Racing Series, Import Face-Off, and the HPT Truck Shootout.