The long awaited TX2K17 presented by Induction Performance has come and gone, but it will go down as one of the largest and fastest four days in TX2K history. Hosted at Royal Purple Raceway in Houston, Texas, the spectator attendance and number of racers grew substantially from the previous years and right off the bat we could tell this was going to be an action-packed event with non-stop racing action. Records were shattered and personal bests were broken due to perfect weather and optimal track conditions thanks to the one and only Jason Miller. Our very own Kevin Cox and supporting photographer, Luis Renova of 405 Photo, were on scene all week long as the action went down.
Thursday morning started off with racers unloading and setting up camp in the pits, preparing their cars for the vigorous four days of racing ahead. The staging lanes filled up and cars started to get a feel for the track during the early morning hours of test-n-tune. Now, if you are familiar with the past few years, the weather hasn’t quite been on the cooperative side. Just a few hours into the event, the clouds thickened and it started to rain. Peter Blach, Founder of TX2K, wasn’t the happiest at this point. There had only been a 20% chance of rain and the only storm cell was right over the track. Luckily the rain storm was brief and after about an hour Jason Miller had the track dried, re-prepped and the racing continued. Other than that little rain storm, the rest of the weekend went as smooth as possible.
As a racing continued, everyone noticed that the cars had gotten a lot faster this year. “The cars have gotten incredibly fast,” Says Blach. “In years past, FAST was 160+ mph, this year, I could tell, the bar had been raised. Qualifying proved my gut that the cars had gotten faster as the #1 qualifier (Underground Racing Twin Turbo Huracan) went 211.59 mph (for comparison, last year’s #1 qualifier went 201.91 mph). Qualifying is truly the place to judge the increase in speeds as the all cars must be at 65 mph and slower at the start line and the start line is a fixed point on the track (same as last year). The Unlimited class qualifying speed traps ranged from 190.08 mph to 211.59 mph. The Super Sport class qualifying speed traps ranged from 179.61 mph to 187.99 mph. The Sport class qualifying speed traps ranged from 172.52 mph to 176.21 mph. For reference, at TX2K16, 148.97 mph got you into the Sport class, at TX2K17 it took 172.52 mph. The speeds were just insane this year.”
Friday started with more amazing weather and as the final rounds of qualifying ended, Myles Kerr managed to hit an astounding 186.46mph in his ETS English Racing Acura Integra. Soon after, Underground Racing ended up resetting the mile per hour record by running 217.11mph in round 1 of eliminations in their Twin Turbo Huracan. Multiple winners in round 1 in the Unlimited class went over 200mph and several others near 200. At the end of it all, KC Howeth took the win in the UGR TT Huracan over Sijin in his Dallas Performance Twin Turbo Gallardo. The Super Sport and Sport Classes were highly competitive down to the finals as well. Erik Litviak took the win in Super Sport in his Nissan GT-R and Ty Wiseman shocked the crowd when he took the win in Sport over Stacy Barnett in his UGR Twin Turbo Gallardo.
Shortly after the finals, we attended the award ceremony where the winners and runner ups were presented with cash prizes and trophies. (Official results and pictures included below) By the time the track was ready and prepped for Drag Racing test-n-tune, the attendance seemed to almost double as the night went on. The pits and stands were packed the entire rest of the night until the gates closed.
It was now Saturday, day 3 of TX2K, and the line to get in was absolutely HUGE! We have never seen a crowd of this magnitude, the attendance was at an all record high to witness a full day of drag racing. Racers were anticipating lining up to race as the track was perfectly prepped by Jason Miller. As we were walking around the pits, we noticed that tensions were high as Gidi Chamdi in his AMS Performance Alpha G, Lucas English in his Extreme Turbo Systems GT-R and Tony Palo in his T1 Race Development GT-R were all preparing to for their shot at getting the first ever 6-second pass in a GT-R.
As rounds 1 and 2 of qualifying came to an end, it was almost time to see the heavy hitters try to hit a 6-second pass. “Around 5 pm, Jason came to me and said “the GTR needs a prep like I’ve never seen, but I’ve been watching them all day, and I’ve figured it out, give me 20 min, and the track will be 6-second ready,” says Blach. “We called up the fast GTR’s and saw Gidi come up to the line first. Ever single person at Royal Purple Raceway was on their feet as Gidi took off down the track. By now, you already know that car left the line PERFECTLY with a 1.21 second 60-foot and a 3.10 second 330-foot. The MPH came up on the board as 196 mph and my heart sank, I knew that something happened on the big end to the power (turns out the car started missing in 5th gear) as the MPH was lower than usual for that car. You could hear a pin drop at Royal Purple Raceway, and then the 6.937 second ET popped up on the board and the whole place erupted. I completely lost my mind and a celebration ensued. We witnessed the FIRST GT-R EVER in the 6’s, the quickest GT-R in the world, let that sink in.”
The energy and excitement that came over everyone after the record-setting pass can be seen in the video above. It was probably one of the most incredible passes we have ever witnessed in person. As Saturday came to a close, Gidi and AMS Performance team felt relieved as they had attained the one thing they were aiming to achieve. They were the first in the 9’s, first in the 8’s, first in the 7’s and now the first in the 6’s, what a purely amazing accomplishment.
The fourth and last day of TX2K had arrived, and it was time for the final rounds of qualifying and eliminations for drag racing. Every single person, in every single class, raced their heart out for the best rounds of drag racing in TX2K we have seen to date. Racing came to a close around 8 pm and everyone moved over to the award presentation where the winners and runner-ups were awarded a trophy and prize money. (The entire list of drag racing results are listed below by class along with award ceremony photos.)
As the day came to a close, we can officially say that TX2K17 went down in history as one of the most remarkable TX2Ks to date. Special thanks to Peter Blach, the entire Royal Purple Raceway staff, the racers and attendees for an absolutely amazing event, we can’t wait for TX2k18!
Full Photo Galleries of Awards and Racing up located here: https://www.facebook.com/pg/streetracemag/photos/?tab=albums
Official Results of TX2K17
TX2K17 Roll Racing Results
Unlimited Class Winner: KC Howeth – UGR TT Huracan – Top speed of 217.11mph
Unlimited Class Runner Up: Sijin – Dallas Performance TT Gallardo – Top speed of 202.39mph
Super Sport Class Winner: Erik Litviak – Nissan GTR – Top speed of 185.05mph
Super Sport Class Runner Up: Chris Bixler – Boost Logic GTR – Top speed of 184.19mph
Sport Class Winner: Ty Wiseman – JMS Racing Turbo C5Z – Top speed of 178.78mph
Sport Class Runner Up:
Stacy Barnett – UGR TT Gallardo – Top speed of 172.28mph
TX2K17 Drag Racing Results
Quickest E.T. – Gidi Chamdi – AMS Performance Alpha G Nissan GT-R – 6.937**
Fastest MPH – Lucas English – English Racing ETS Nissan GTR – 206.45mph
Class:
2JZ Class Winner – Lydia Dugas – 1997 Nissan 240 – 7.832 @175.75
2JZ Class Runner Up – Vijay Ramkissoon – Toyota Supra – 8.217 @180.77
Street Car Class Winner – Sheldon Lewis – SPR Mustang – 8.262 @170.71
Street Car Class Runner Up – Tyler Garcia – 1990 Mustang – 9.020 @154.35
Stick Shift Class Winner – Aaron Lopez – 98 Honda Civic – 8.860
Stick Shift Class Runner Up – Lucas English – 08 EVO X – No time/Broke
GTR1 Class Winner – Francisco Perez – 2015 Nissan GT-R – 10.421 @130.58
GTR1 Class Runner Up – Luna Rose – 2014 Nissan GT-R – 10.533 @130.32
No Picture
GTR2 Class Winner – Nick Dixon – 2009 Nissan GT-R – 8.380 @168.30
GTR2 Class Runner Up – JD Cicio – 2009 Nissan GT-R – 8.388 @154.05
GTR3 Class Winner – John Shepherd – 2011 Nissan GT-R – 7.728 @183.34
GTR3 Class Runner Up – Jordan Martin – 2014 Nissan GT-R – 7.681 @187.08
10.5 Index Class Winner – Owen Priest – 2016 Dodge Hellcat – 10.495 @131.86
10.5 Index Class Runner Up – J Williams – Mustang – 10.384 @128.26
