I spent this weekend at the Texas Mile off Hwy 59 between Goliad and Beeville in South Texas. The Texas Mile,
http://texasmile.net, runs twice a year in March and October on an old landing field with a speed trap at the end of a standing-start mile and a half mile to stop after the speed traps. People come from all over the US to run their bikes and cars. The event was limited to 160 participants with a goal of 800 runs over Saturday and Sunday. They didn't quite reach that, but had 155 entrants and maybe 700 runs. I was there for the first time and helped work the gate at the pit entrance (the taxiway alongside the runway). Maybe 800 spectators showed up over the two days, paying $10 to watch, good for both days.
The Texas Mile is hosted by 257 Racing which hosts NASA sportscar events in Texas, Louisiana and Oklahoma. They work hard, do a good job. There is almost no promotion of the event and spectators are more a byproduct than the reason for the event.
I've attached a few pictures I took of participants. You can see the rest on my picasa web album:
http://picasaweb.google.com/andrew.cripe/TexasMile0308
The first is Stormin' Norman's Turbo Hayabusa from Colorado. Norman usually runs at Bonneville. This was his first trip to the Mile.
The next is a Kawasaki ZX-14 with a wet NOX injection system. A rat-racing team from Houston brought their Ford and ran about 160 with a stock front end, solid axle, transverse leaf springs. Finally a Y2K turbine-engined bike that ran in the 180's. He didn't have any engine braking and was concerned about stopping so he didn't go as fast as he might've.
If someone can explain how you post the full-sized pictures directly to the post, I'll put some more up, including the Space Machine jet car that ran over 300 mph.
Texas Mile, Goliad, March 2008
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