Royal Purple Raceway

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Houston Raceway (formerly Royal Purple Raceway) is a quarter-mile dragstrip in Baytown, Texas, just outside Houston. Built in 1988, the Park is situated on 500 acres on the eastern edge of the greater Houston metropolitan area and is Houston's only major multi-purpose motorsports venue. The dragstrip boasts a three-story tower building that incorporates 23 VIP suites, a media center, and race control facilities equipped with timing and scoring equipment. In 2000, Houston Raceway Park opened a new high banked 3/8 mile dirt oval at the facility.

Dragstrip

A dragstrip is a facility for conducting automobile and motorcycle acceleration events such as drag racing. Although a quarter mile is the best known measure for a drag track, many tracks are eighth mile tracks, and the premiere classes will run 1,000 foot (304.8m) races. The race is begun from a standing start which allows three factors to affect the outcome of the race: reaction time, torque, and traction.

Baytown, Texas City in Texas, United States

Baytown is a city within Harris County and partially in Chambers County in the Gulf Coast region of the U.S. state of Texas. Located within the Houston–The Woodlands–Sugar Land metropolitan area, it lies on the northern side of the Galveston Bay complex near the outlets of the San Jacinto River and Buffalo Bayou. It is the sixth-largest city within this metropolitan area. Major highways serving the city include State Highway 146 and Interstate 10. As of 2010, Baytown had a population of 71,802, and it had an estimated population of 75,992 in 2016. As of 2018 Baytown had an estimated population of 85,000 people.

Contents

Houston Raceway's spacious, paved pit area holds approximately 400 racing rigs, with additional pit parking available on grass. The spectator parking lots have a capacity of over 10,000 cars, along with a special VIP parking area capable of holding an additional 600 vehicles.

The Park has a seating capacity of 30,000, with additional grandstand seating brought in during major events to accommodate reserved seat requests. Houston Raceway has permanent rest room facilities and concession buildings, located near spectator seating on both sides of the race track.

Seating capacity number of people who can be seated in a specific space, in terms of both the physical space available, and limitations set by law

Seating capacity is the number of people who can be seated in a specific space, in terms of both the physical space available, and limitations set by law. Seating capacity can be used in the description of anything ranging from an automobile that seats two to a stadium that seats hundreds of thousands of people. The largest sporting venue in the world, the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, has a permanent seating capacity for more than 235,000 people and infield seating that raises capacity to an approximate 400,000.

Houston Raceway has an exclusive contract with the National Hot Rod Association to host a NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing Series National Event within a 200-mile radius of the Houston metropolitan area, called the NHRA SpringNationals. The track is owned by the Angel Brothers of Baytown, Texas.

National Hot Rod Association North American drag auto racing organization

The National Hot Rod Association (NHRA) is a drag racing governing body, which sets rules in drag racing and hosts events all over the United States and Canada. With over 40,000 drivers in its rosters, the NHRA claims to be the largest motorsports sanctioning body in the world.

See also

Notes

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    References

    International Standard Book Number Unique numeric book identifier

    The International Standard Book Number (ISBN) is a numeric commercial book identifier which is intended to be unique. Publishers purchase ISBNs from an affiliate of the International ISBN Agency.

    Coordinates: 29°47′25″N94°52′51″W / 29.7903°N 94.8807°W / 29.7903; -94.8807

    Geographic coordinate system Coordinate system

    A geographic coordinate system is a coordinate system that enables every location on Earth to be specified by a set of numbers, letters or symbols. The coordinates are often chosen such that one of the numbers represents a vertical position and two or three of the numbers represent a horizontal position; alternatively, a geographic position may be expressed in a combined three-dimensional Cartesian vector. A common choice of coordinates is latitude, longitude and elevation. To specify a location on a plane requires a map projection.


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