It’s been almost 4 years to the day that I had last been to Gulf Greyhound Park. GGP had become such a given presence on this page that I didn’t even bother uploading that 2017 Photo Set here directly. If you go back through the 8ish years of my motorsports coverage for Strange Rhythms you’ll find that the majority of drift events are at GGP Sportsland by large. We even have to give our beloved 3rd gear parking lot a cute nickname to deflect some of its mundanity. However, ladies and gentleman, we’ve reached the end of an era. In regards to drifting, motorcycle safety courses or just being a big ass parking lot used for everything but that, Gulf Greyhound Park will be making no more appearances here as they finally shut their doors.
Read MoreAuthor: ryan
The Hipster Prince of Hearts. Chuck a deuce and point at the camera, fam! The sensor loves you.
Lone Star Drift 2016 Round 1: The Birth of the Battle Royale (With Cheese)
Okay, so I did a bad job of treating the off season like an… off season. After just a little bit of scrolling the front page it’s fairly clear that I still drove and shot a few drift events during Texas’s really confusing winter months.
Honestly, off season should be called the Lone Star Drift reload period. It’s during this time that Aaron and his guys take some time off to travel and explore some new curve-balls to throw at the series. The big news this year is an unconventional competition format going into the well-aged Formula D Pro-AM as well as the Sophomore year TXSL series. At first mention it was met with a lot of confusion and a little bit of apprehension, but in practice it’s proven itself to be just the kind of shake up that the season needed.
TXDF: Same-Same But Different
Yet Still the Same.
Oh buddy, you better believe that the Houston Drift Scene has been waiting for this for a long time. Kudos to StatusWorks for delivering two things that we’ve all been asking for: 1)Drifting events in the winter months of Lone Star Drift’s Off Season and 2) A totally rad, new place to do it.
Starting near the end of last year, Status Works has been hooking us all up with access to the Houston Police Academy’s test track, giving many of us our first tastes of a non skid pad event.
Lone Star Drift: Drift Clinic
Ahhh, Gulf Greyhound Park. To some it’s known fondly as GGP Sportsland. It ain’t Ebisu but if you hit that crest in the lot at the right speed and your car’s stancey enough, you can pretend you pulled off the rumble strip jump drift. For me, it was where my drift game began. Not just the location of the first time I attended or shot a U.S. drift event, but also where I myself started learning to drive. Just over a year ago I began drifting right here at Gulf Greyhound Park, and this past weekend, I got to watch some others get their feet wet for the first time as well. Specifically, the track was host to a three day Drift Clinic organized by Lonestar Drift, and I was eager to see new faces and cars.
Via Colori Street Painting 10th Anniversary
It’s hard to believe that the Via Colori Street Art Festival has existed in its form for only 10 years. I’ve always looked at it as one of Houston’s most iconic events celebrating creativity. I’d honestly rank it right there with our many Art Crawls and our nation famous Art Car parade. Despite it’s comparatively short term of existence, it’s looked on fondly by Houstonians. And it’s for a good cause. Proceeds from the nifty merch swag benefit the Center for Hearing and Speech, so it’s a good thing that attendance rates only seem to get bigger everytime I visit. And during its big 1-0 it did not fail to deliver a More than pleasant afternoon.
Another Sideways Sunday Snippet
To be honest, I wasn’t planning on posting anything from this past weekend’s Sideways Sunday. Hell, it hasn’t been that long since I was out at the last one! A good handful of my friends registered to drive so I was certainly going to come out and show emotional support and encouragement (you go, girl!), but I myself did not register, so staying for an extended amount of time wasn’t in my intentions.
Of course, as soon as I got there I instantly became restless and wanted to drive. Watching everyone else have fun drifting was really tempting, but scrounging 50 bucks and driving another hour and a half to fetch tires wasn’t going to happen. Still, I did bust out the camera and hop on track for an hour. Well, looks like I just can’t completely say no to Sideways Sunday.