gentlemen’s room outdoors
Speed
Racers track is busy, you might not know it’s there at all. From the highway, he checkered flags are the faraway buildings and garages real and so is the racing look out of place among adjacent experience at MSR rice fields, but not so much that Houston, a first-class road course you’d give them a second thought. about midway between Houston MSR Houston’s entrance gate and Lake Jackson. is on a two-lane county road, Now in its fifth year of and the sign out front is about operation, this track and its staff the size of a single plywood have already hosted some of the sheet. Behind that sign and gate, world’s top race teams for tests however, lies a road course that of new cars and drivers. Ganassi, winds for more than two miles Andretti and Foyt, they’ve all and features long, fast straights spent time on this track, as have interrupted by more than a dozen teams from nearly every other highly technical turns. division in the worlds of car and Rather than go empty when motorcycle racing. the “big boys” of racing are Unless you drive by with your away, MSR Houston’s owners windows down on a day when the elected to offer a variety of racing
Story & Photography | Doug Pike
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get there MSR Houston offers a variety of racing- and driving-related experiences on a world-class racecourse a short distance south of Houston. 1 Performance Drive, Angleton 281-369-0677 • msrhouston.com
experiences to the public. You and I—for a price—can ride in or even drive a real-deal racecar. After orientation and safety briefings, we can thrill ourselves for an hour or over several days of all-out racing school. If you own a fast car, you can bring it to MSR Houston and unleash it, it’s your car. Learn what it can do. Or, if you’re not brave enough to drive full throttle around the big loop, go karting on a downsized but equally exciting track where MSR Houston again offers multiple options. Rookies can cruise in karts that top out at a relatively tame 48 mph. Beyond those sleds, there are three upgrades, the fastest of which— with your backside just a couple of inches off the ground—are 37-hp Honda rockets that will do 90 mph. Primarily a membership facility, MSR Houston is open
363 days per year and boasts a calendar filled with professional and amateur events. Between races, track time is available to almost anyone. By the way, if you’re driving one of MSR Houston’s racecars and tear it up, they’ll expect you to fix it. Let your conscience—and your wallet—dictate how hard you press that accelerator. It takes a little less than an hour, at posted speeds, to get from downtown to MSR Houston. Or, if you’re in a Champ car and the highway ahead of you is unoccupied, about 20 minutes.
doug pike Doug has traveled the world to satisfy his passion for the outdoors. During his career, he has won 100-plus state and national awards for writing, broadcast and photography.
november/december • 2010
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