VIDEO: In 1988, Houston Raceway Park’s Future Was Oh-So Bright

Next weekend, the Houston Raceway Park in the suburb of Baytown, Texas will host its final (or maybe not?) NHRA national event, the 35th annual SpringNationals, as its tenure as a drag racing facility draws to a close. The 500-acre raceway was built and co-owned and operated by auto dealer Don Gay and his family from Dickinson, and brothers Greg, Gary, and Glen Angel, and hosted the inaugural FRAM NHRA Super Nationals in 1988. It has since been a fixture on the NHRA professional tour under various names and title rights sponsorships, serving up a number of history-making and memorable moments over three and a half decades.

In 2004, the Angel family bought out the Gays’ stake in the raceway, and in 2019, sold the facility in full to a shipping and logistics development firm. It has since continued racing operations via a lease agreement, with an unclear timeline but ultimately a certain terminus. Which leads us to the present moment: what is being billed as the NHRA’s final act in Houston.

The future was certainly brighter in 1988 for the raceway — it was one of four facilities added (or re-added, in the case of Seattle) to the NHRA Winston Drag Racing Series tour that year, a fresh boon to the greater Houston economy and racing scene, and was highly touted as the sport’s “super track.” It would have seemed inconceivable at the time that it would be wiped from the map within a generation, particularly to the two partner families who had invested millions of dollars, rushed to build the place in just six months time, and were right in the heart of the fourth-largest metro in the nation.

That first edition saw many of the sport’s greats wage battle on the newest, smoothest surface in the sport, including Bob Glidden, Ed McCullough, Joe Amato, Dick Lahaie, Bruce Larson, Darrell Gwynn, Butch Leal, and of course, and an at-the-time-championship-less John Force. We won’t spoil the end for you….kick back and enjoy over an hour of classic drag racing narrated as only Dave McClelland and the late-, great Steve Evans can.

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