Once known as the “Superbowl of Street Racing,” TX2K (Texas 2000) has gone from an underground word-of-mouth gathering to one of the biggest sanctioned drag/roll racing events in the country.
Held annually in March, TX2K brings together some of the fastest cars from around the world. Here, you can walk past a 3,000hp+ twin-turbo Lamborghini, then see a Foxbody Mustang that was built in your neighbor’s garage. Make no mistake, though – every one of these cars is a straight-line monster.
In its first year (2000), TX2K was just a very large Toyota Supra meet in Houston. Highly modified cars that would still be incredibly fast by today’s standards would show up. Although it was always a track event, the real attraction was the street racing. There are countless videos online showcasing activities in the streets of “Mexico.” The capturing of these moments, along with the boom of the internet, led to viral clips and incredible exposure for the event.
By the early 2010s, TX2K was fully living up to its unofficial “Super Bowl of Street Racing” title. Each year, local law enforcement agencies became more active in shutting down the unsanctioned and illegal drag racing aspect, and, eventually, the days of massive meets beginning in hotel garages before spilling onto the streets of Houston came to an end. Only highly exclusive groups continued street racing away from the public eye, and as a result, the crowds shifted toward the racetrack.
Before the mid-2010s, TX2K organizer Peter Blanch would rent out the Hennessy Performance Drag strip in Sealy, Texas. The event then moved to Houston Raceway Park, formerly Royal Purple Raceway, until the track was sold and closed in 2023. It has since been moved to Ennis and is currently held at Texas Motorplex over a full week.
As the event has grown, so too has the number of sponsors and vendors. In turn, the prestige of winning a class – Street Car, Dual Clutch Trans, Stick Shift, GT-R, and 2JZ vs the World – in TX2K’s drag racing and roll racing categories has only increased.
2JZ vs the World pays homage to the engine at the heart of this event: Toyota’s venerable 3.0L twin-turbo straight six. This class brings in some of the fastest drag radial race cars on the planet, and 2026 saw a battle to the fives. That is, running the quarter-mile in under 6 seconds! What resulted was a milestone matchup between two famous TX2K cars: the 2JZ-powered “White Rice” Nissan S14 and the Coyote-powered “Snot Rocket” Ford Mustang.
Watching cars being pushed to the edge of what’s physically possible never gets old, which is why I’ll be back at Texas Motorplex next year for TX2K27. It’s incredible to think it all stemmed from a passionate group of Supra owners…
