 
March 27-29, 2009
4th of 24 2009 NHRA Full Throttle Events
First of Five O'Reilly Auto Parts Sponsored '09 NHRA Events
Spring Nationals, Houston ~ Midwest Nationals, St. Louis ~ Summer Nationals, Topeka
Fall Nationals, Dallas ~ Mid-South Nationals, Memphis
Event Schedule | Entry List | Team Reports | Live Audiocast (WMPlayer Direct) | Results
2008 Winners: TF Antron Brown ~ FC Del Worsham ~ PS Greg Anderson ~ PSM Matt Smith
Fans Assistance KBase | Tickets | Weather: Baytown Race Track
Surface Maps: U.S. SCentral SC IR Satellite | Live Radar: Multi NWS Severe Storm Loop
Forecasts may be inaccurate. Houston Spring weather is unpredictable and can change on short notice.
FlA Says: After the legendary NHRA Gatornationals comes the legendary Spring Nationals. While this is the 22nd event at Houston Raceway Park, the first Spring Nationals was held in 1965 - Champion Spark Plugs NHRA Spring Nationals, Bristol Dragway - which makes this event the third oldest on the NHRA tour. Prior to moving to Houston, the Spring Nationals was held at National Trail Raceway, Columbus Ohio, since 1972. Before Columbus, it was held at Dallas International Motor Speedway from 1969-71 after Bristol Dragway switched to AHRA sanction.
NHRA Funny Car driver and visionary Billy Meyer built the Texas Motorplex supertrack south of Dallas in Ennis. Debuting in 1986, it was a state-of-the art facility with an all concrete drag strip. With the long standing Dallas-Houston rivalry we(my hometown of Houston) demanded a new drag racing supertrack. Houston Raceway Park("HRP") was built in 1988 by Greg(President) and Seth Angel(Track Manager, "Angel Brothers" Enterprises) and is situated on 500 acres on the eastern edge of the greater Houston metropolitan(Harris County) area in Baytown. The drag strip has a large three story tower building that incorporates 23 VIP suites, a media center, and race control facilities equipped with state-of-the-art timing and scoring equipment.
HRP's first NHRA national event, in the Fall of 1988, established it as one of the sport’s quickest with NHRA’s first four-second Top Fuel quarter-mile pass and a new national record. Since then, the track has been host to a dizzying array of record runs, including the first sub-4.5 seconds Top Fuel quarter-mile pass by Larry Dixon in 1999. The current HRP quarter-mile track records are Top Fuel dragster: ET 4.480 secs, Gary Scelzi, Oct 1999 - MPH 335.32, Tony Schumacher, Apr 2005; Funny Car: ET 4.695 secs, John Force, Mar 2006 - MPH 328.06, John Force, Mar 2006; Pro Stock: ET 6.649 secs, Jeg Coughlin, Mar 2007 - MPH 208.59, Greg Anderson, Mar 2007; and Pro Stock Motorcycle: ET 6.947 secs, Angelle Sampey, Mar 2007 - MPH 195.73, Andrew Hines, Apr 2005.
The largest problem for the Spring Nationals is the annual Spring rains and/or overcast, humid, and windy conditions. Also, daily weather fluctuations this time of year can make the track very tricky for the pro drivers and crew-chiefs. It appears the track will be tricky again this year with a weather forecast of isolated thunder storms for Friday's Day 1 Qualifying, from a front passing through the area that will drop the temperature 10-15 degrees. For Saturday's Day 2 Qualifying, a humid, windy, and partly cloudy high of only 65 degrees. For Sunday's Final Eliminations, a sunny high of 72 degrees with moderate winds and lower humidity.
Over the last decade, the other problem has been the east side of Harris County has experienced several significant flood events that affected HRP's drag strip. Again, at last year's Spring Nationals, one lane had a significant problem due to a drop-off at the end of the concrete launch pad where the track transitions to asphalt. It was so bad that, for some nitro and pro stock cars, it unloaded their rear drag slicks when they went over it. In September 2008, Hurricane Ike - the third most destructive hurricane to ever make U.S. landfall - addressed this problem by causing over $100,000 of damage to Houston Raceway Park. Not only did Ike damage the track, it completely destroyed the two top-end scoreboards, and damaged the control tower.
From insurance proceeds, the Angel Brothers had everything repaired and updated the facility. The entire drag strip was completely repaired and resurfaced, using an expensive road construction machine(see photo, 2nd post down), in two phases. The second phase, which consisted of resurfacing the concrete eighth-mile starting line launchpad, was completed in January 2009. The shutdown area gravel trap and catch-net was extended from 150 feet to 250 feet. For additional safety, the new finish-line scoreboards were placed 35 feet away from the retaining walls. The spectator parking lot was expanded along with new permanent lighting infrastructure. And, all VIP luxury suites and the HRP media center was completely remodeled and outfitted with 42-inch plasma TVs. HRP is now a newly renovated facility and drag strip with possibly the best racing surface on the NHRA tour.
NHRA continues to experience reduced attendance at their 2009 Full Throttle events. Accordingly, they are again discounting selected tickets for the Spring Nationals. Their reduced selected tickets prices didn't appear to help attendance at the Gatornationals. It will be interesting to see what attendance is for the Spring Nationals. In the past, it has attracted very large crowds.
The other good thing about having the Gatornationals and the Spring Nationals together is that, I strongly believe, Floridian and Texas women are the hottest in the Country. . . but I only waste one eye. My girlfriend likes a number of the NHRA drivers (more like she has the hots for some of them *lol*) so she enjoys our time in the pits when I get to tech talking too much. This will be my 17th time to attend the NHRA Spring Nationals. We fly to Houston Thursday evening, March 26, and are attending all three days of pro racing and hanging out in the pits with our group. It's my first trip back home since Christmas to see family and friends.
O'Reilly NHRA Spring Nationals ESPN2 Coverage (ET)
Sat, 03.28: Qualifying 8:00 - 9:00 pm (1)
Sun, 03.29: NHRA Race Day 11:00 - 11:30 am
Sun, 03.29: Eliminations 4:30 - 7:30 pm (2)
Mon, 03.30: Repeat Eliminations 2:30 - 4:30 am
(1) Only 1 hour, instead of 2, due to NCAA Basketball March Madness
(2) Watch Full Coverage On-Line at ESPN 360
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