TX2K 2023 Friday Update – Roll Racing Completed, Drag Racing Classes Get Underway at Houston Raceway
With day one in the books at the TX2K event at Houston Raceway, Thursday would crown champions in four classes of roll racing, while drag racers would get their first shot at the Houston Raceway surface.
The top tier roll racing class is the Elite 8, marked as a first-to-the-finish-line with no break out, and Billy Sitaras led then qualifying sheet courtesy of a 221.71 mph blast from the 2013 GT-R. He would up his mph clocking to a 232.23 mph result in a round one victory.
Number two qualifier KC Howeth would be upset by number seven qualifier Ricky Crossley, but number three qualifier Aaron Miller and fourth qualifier Kevin Howeth survived to the semifinal round.
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The final four pitted Sitaras against Howeth, and Sitaras unleashed a 237.55 mph shot, the fastest in TX2K history, to deny Howeth’s stellar 226.89 mph effort and move to the final. Crossley and Miller would battle to fill the other slot, and this one found Crossley’s 217.21 mph run edging out the 216.97 mph pass from Miller.
The final would be an all-T1 race camp affair, and both cars decided to save the wear and tear for the drag racing action, coasting down the track where Sitaras was ahead at the stripe for the win.
The Unlimited class had Oscar Morales had in the top spot at 203.43 mph, but he suffered an early round exit at the hands of number sixteen qualifier Joseph Santos.
Santos survived to the semifinal round to stage opposite number thirteen qualifier Sebastian Robles, and Robles holeshot-aided 204.82 mph run held off the 205.22 mph shot from Santos.
The fifteenth qualifier Mario Inoa would battle fourteenth qualifier Jordan Jackson in the other pairing, and Inoa got the nod to the final round. The title round found Inoa unleashing a 213 mph blast against the 194 mph run of Robles, but Robles would be declared the winner after Inoa ran more than 5 mph over the top qualifying mph, disqualifying his run.
Tony Turan closed qualifying at the top of the Super Sport class with a 195.36 mph blast. But just as in Unlimited, the top qualifier would be upset first round by the sixteenth qualified car, this time wheeled by Josh Hogenmiller.
The Viper would make it to the semifinal round, but that was where Hogenmiller’s winning ways ended at the hands of Moe Akbari and his 187.94 mph run.
Brandon Carter and Jan Buhler would determine an opponent for Akbari, and number two qualifier Carter was upended by the holeshot-aided 184 mph run from Buhler.
The final would once again be determined by the better jump on the green light, as Buhler’s 181.23 mph effort held off the charging 198.38 mph lap from Akbari, netting Buhler the win.
The final class, the Sport class, found Ryan Carruthers at number one thanks to a 188.52 mph time slip, and the field was anchored by a 179.83 mph pass from Ronald Rodriguez.
Carruthers avoided the upsets in round one and two, getting him a semifinal round date with Cody Murany. There, a better leave for Carruthers kept his 182.03 mph pass in front of the 185.26 mph shot from Murany.
Jonathan Clavijo and Mark James comprised the other pairing of the final four, and once the better reaction to the green light came into play, as Clavijo’s 187.57 mph lap stayed in front of the 188.67 mph effort from James.
The final between the GT-R of Carruthers and the Audi R8 of Clavijo would go to Carruthers in a tight battle, as the 181.20 mph from Carruthers stayed in front of the 187.68 mph from Clavijo by half a car length.
The Drag Racing portion of the event got round one of qualifying under way yesterday, and today TX2K will continue drag racing class qualifying.
The TX2K event is available on Flo Racing’s live stream, continuing at 10:15 a.m. EST today on www.Floracing.com.
Written by Derek Putnam. Photos courtesy of Chris Story and 1320 Video / Scott Witty.