Texaco Houston Grand Prix Racing

[trymahjong]

Here's some background:

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/1998_Texaco_Grand_Prix_of_Houston
 

I was going through old pictures and found these. I tried to post ones that had buildings in background so comparisons from 1998 and 2022 could be made.

our whole family loved it and went to all the events.

Edited September 27, 2022 by trymahjong

[Ross]

We lived in Midtown at the time, and could hear the racing. I had tickets for one of the years, but it was kind of boring due to limited visibility from the stands. We walekd from Midtown to the race, which was far better than trying to park. A huge amount of work was done on the race course to improve paving, and bolt all of the manhole covers down so they wouldn't get sucked out by the car's aerodynamic forces.

[mkultra25]

I went in 1998, 1999, and 2000. Don't remember why I didn't go in 2001. At that time my office was within a few blocks of the course, and the last year I went I walked over on Friday afternoon of the race weekend to watch the practice/qualifying sessions.

[ChannelTwoNews]

I remember getting a shirt from the event one of the years. Might need to go through and see if my mom kept it in storage after all these years the next time I'm home.

[s3mh]

When it was downtown, you could feel the building shake when the cars went by.  When I lived in Cleveland, OH in the 90s, they also had a grand prix that got all the top Indy drivers.  Both races faded out around the same time in the mid 2000s.  I think the shift in popularity from Indy/Formula 1 racing to NASCAR was a big factor.