The Texas Mile is an event that has been running for the past nine years and it offers any Motorsport enthusiast the opportunity to participate in a high speed, mile-long run.

It takes place at a Goliad industrial air park on an 8,000 foot long tarmac/concrete blend track that offers extremely smooth surfaces for high speed drag runs.

The industrial air park was once used by the US Navy as a training facility for jet fighters.  But now it sees annual use every March for petrolheads and weekend-warriors, to tune, tweak and drag their cars to the maximum limits, trying to tag the highest speed.

The event started bright and early at 7:30 AM with the daily driver’s meeting and media check-in.  As the sun started breaking the horizon you could smell the fumes of racing fuel being poured into the hungry tanks of different race equipped vehicles. After some last minute preparations the eager drivers and riders started filing into the grid, trying to gain a prime position for the morning start.

As the grid expanded rapidly and the clock neared 9am, we noticed the huge variety of cars, bikes and people. The cars varied anywhere from your standard “Texas proud” Mustangs, Corvettes and Vipers, to some rare exotics such as Ferrari, Lamborghini, and Porsche. With over 220 actively registered racers traveling from over 22 different states and 3 different countries ,you saw anything from your seasoned professionals to grass-root enthusiasts.

Over 3,000 people attended the Texas Mile last weekend but there were 3 teams that stood out from the rest.

The first team to catch our eye was Evolution Motorsports out of Tempe Arizona with its bright, flat-red Porsche 997. What you notice immediately about this car is its tasteful red and black color scheme with various carbon fiber accents. Once your eyes scan the beautiful bodywork you then notice the EVT 1500 sticker on the bottom of the doors. This sticker represents the ungodly 1500 horsepower that this 997 produces at the crank.

Evolution Motorsports has a reputation for finely tuned German cars, and they proved their reputation by trapping one of the top speeds of the weekend at 234.5mph. Evolution Motorsports gained some of that extra performance by taking the stock 3.6liter engine and modifying it to obtain an extra .4 liters of displacement, making the final stroke a 4.0liter twin turbo H6.

The top team of the weekend was American Racing Technology and their Ballista twin-turbo Dodge Viper.

They claim to have the world’s fastest Dodge Viper which was most certainly apparent this weekend when they grabbed the top time for 2011 at a blistering 240.9mph. The #1800 car from A.R.T. was wrapped in carbon fiber to give us some eye candy and show off its Motorsports roots.

American Racing Technology is a high-end shop that specializes in high performance foreign and domestic automobiles and prides themselves on not building “fast food performance” but rather custom tailors your automobile to your needs and budget.

Another top competitor of the weekend was Houston based shop Late Model Racecraft. Late Model is know for making high performance upgrades on any LSX series GM engines.

Having some of the highest horse-powered cars of the weekend lead to some unfavorable events like when the Late Model Camaro tore its tires right off the rims.  Their 4th generation Camaro was unable to grab the top speeds of the weekend but Late Model Racecraft proved they meant business with some very high horse-power C6 Corvettes.

The Texas Mile event brought thousands of people together from across the world to a small town.  Here we all shared one thing in common – the love for speed.

Overall the weekend was great aside from one major accident. Saturday morning during some early runs a Chevrolet Corvette lost control at over 200 miles per hour sending it into a continuous roll lasting over a 1/4 mile. Despite rumors of death, the driver amazingly jumped out of the mangled automobile just after the car stopped moving without a scratch on him.

Due to standard insurance regulations anyone who flips their vehicle at over 200 miles per hour must seek immediate medical attention. The whole event stopped for over an hour as Life Flight escorted the disoriented driver to the hospital.  And of course for emergency services to clear the track of the debris that was left behind by the demolished Chevy.

The 2012 Texas Mile event is still up for discussion as far as location and date, but APEX US will be sure to make it one of our yearly pilgrimages.

For more information and history on the Texas Mile visit their official site http://www.texasmile.net/

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