Houston Raceway Park/Royal Purple Raceway (Baytown)

Don Gay and Greg Angel started building Houston Raceway Park in March 1988. The 440-acre complex cost $6 million. Its first major race was an NHRA divisional on September 10-11, 1988, where Don Gay, Jr. won Top Alcohol funny car. The first national event, the NHRA Fram Supernationals, followed on October 6-9, 1988, and Eddie Hill made NHRA’s first four-second run there. In 1994 Rachelle Splatt became the first woman in NHRA history to run 300 MPH. The Supernationals were held at the track for 36 years. In 2004 brothers Greg, Gary and Glen Angel bought out the Gay family’s share. In 2019 the Angels sold the property to a Belgian company that planned to turn it into an industrial site. Instead of closing right away, the family leased the track back for four more years, and it held its last NHRA national event on April 22-24, 2022. The track closed for good after a final event on April 1, 2023.