The Houston Grand Prix
Welcome to The Houston Critic’s coverage of the 2014 Houston Grand Prix
By Mehran Khavarian
The Grand Prix experience is quite overwhelming for newcomers, but it really is entertaining. From the parking lots to the stands and tents to even the racing, it will be an experience you won’t forget!
By entertaining, of course it is the action that your mind will venture off and not feel like it has been brought to simple event. You start on the road with construction signs telling you to take an exit for the event, only to make another loop around and circle the NRG Stadium a couple of times until you find the correct parking lot. For out-of-town visitors, (as many of the volunteer racers are), this can be quite confusing and annoying; however, for in-Houston residents… this will just frustrate you. So be sure to bring a companion to complain to while you are driving around Houston’s most-known stadium.
Upon the arrival to the parking lot of your choice (one of roughly eight), you are taken by surprise by half of the entrances being blocked off by cones and other obstacles. Just drive around them to find a cheap $15 parking spot and get misdirected by the workers. Although volunteers, it seems as if they are last-minute replacements for about 50 people! Going to ask a question for which parking lot accommodates us, we asked a total of 8 people only to be misguided to the wrong parking lot. So if you decide to park at the actual stadium, please be ready to ask a few people at least.
If you don’t mind a few people who don’t know what they’re doing, you are about to enjoy a spectacular show! Unfortunately, one of the days was full of cloudy and rainy weather; yet, even the few hours that we experienced it was an amazing event. You are filled with an intense mechanic’s sensation that this is your dream, to be at an event where Americans get to show off their cars and sponsors to fill competition into their lungs. Loud buzzing fast cars, the smell of burning rubber, exotic and vintage cars – this is one experience YOU WON’T FORGET.
The racing is quite a moment, but it does not stop there! If you are lucky enough to know (because frankly everything at this event is a mystery) where to go, there are inside shops and zones where your mind will just be fascinated like a little kid at a candy store. Every individual’s racer-side comes out and there are many fun activities to enjoy. You can build a small saltwater-powered Shell car, or drive in Verizon’s stimulations, or even paint a donation truck for the 4th of July! Whether what your hobbies include, you won’t be disappointed!
The food is covered in a few tents roughly the size of 200 square feet and the food smell awfully good! They have classic barbeque sandwiches, burgers, corn dogs, and more. For about $10 an item, you can purchase any of the treats when your stomach wants a snack.
The event is for every individual, a young toddler or an elderly couple, and is sure to keep you entertained through puzzling and hands-on activities. If you are not backed off by slight obstacles and want to experience something you will never forget, go to the Grand Prix and embrace its wonders on you. Other than the uninformed staff, the event overall is quite worthwhile and a pleasant experience. I would recommend it to patient and forgiving people.
By Julia Barrera
The Grand Prix of Houston was overall a good experience that I would reccomend to everyone that has a chance to attend. It is more than just a race, the Grand Prix is a place for the whole family. There are many adventures that the Grand Prix has to offer.
When you first arrive at the Grand Prix of Houston, it is all sorts of confusing (even with a GPS). Most of the entrances are playing tricks on you because they are all blocked off. Only two lots that I seen are available and I can imagine people didn’t know which ones they belonged in. On top of the confusing colored lots and crowded parking lots with no entrances; the parking lots that did have people to assist you, didn’t even know the answer to the simplest questions. I give them some slack because they are just volunteers and do not really know the area, but the least they can do is study a map ahead of time or even put signs out pointing in the right direction as many other popular events. The frustration was high and the feeling of helplessness kicked in. Once you decide to just follow someone else that seems to know what they are doing, you find someone else is just following you with the same stress levels.
Once you have found your destination, you are convinced that everything will become better from there; and for the most part it does. The cars are hands down just plain loud, but I mean what else to expect when you are at a racetrack. Yet, you’d be surprised to learn that the races are almost unseen. There is not that big of a crowd when you subtract the racers family and friends. But I think that is only because most people didn’t come prepared. The Grand Prix does need some preparation work, but nothing too far from the basics. You will just need a small bag of water, sunscreen, sunglasses, ear plugs, and maybe a hat. Sunscreen, ear plugs and water are essential, especially if you plan on staying the whole day at the track.
On the bright side the few complaints I have come from the track. The stands only show about one fourth of the track and the rest of the lap you are forced to look at the screen. Which is slightly annoying because the video is mostly from the racers perspective and is only showing the inside of the car. Believe me, after a while that stuff gets boring and old. Also if you do not have a hat or umbrella; you will have no shade whatsoever. You are literally baking in the sun watching cars drive by you in about six seconds and have to wait the rest of the lap to be entertained again. Then on top of that you are forced to wobble back and forth because the bleachers at this event are not stable at all. Even with an ever so slight lean back or forth the seat will tilt and if you’re like me, will leave you having a mini panic attack as well. Don’t even want to mention the people running up and down the seats making everyone grip the railing next to the their seats. Just a frightening experience, but if you’re a daredevil and don’t mind falling no more than fifteen feet (if you’re at the top of the bleachers), the go right ahead. In fact I dare you.
If you ever decide to roam around and look for things other than the racing, you’d be surprised what you will find. At the entrance of the Grand Prix of Houston, there is another entrance to booths of companies that sponsored the event and an acceptable sized food court. Some of the sponsors were: Shell, National Guard, Target, and Verizon. These sponsors were also apart of the ads that were on the cars that were racing. These sponsors held a very big part in the Grand Prix of Houston. In fact I was glad to see all of these major companies being generous for cancer research.
Besides all of the booths, you will find that there are a lot of cars just sitting there ready to be shown off by their owner. Also there is a entrance into another parking lot, which contains a small sized carnival and a big building with blown up shells besides the doors. At first sight it will looked like a closed building, but if looked at long enough you will begin to notice people walking in there. This building is just for the Shell company. Well don’t they feel special having fifty plus booths and leaving Honda to have one mediocre sized mat for their cars and a type of open up RV all upgraded. The RV contained games for people to play, which of course involved a process. You had to sign up for an email subscription and all the basics. Then they let you register a “special” Honda card that you must scan to play a game. Well these games seem cool at first. It give you the full experience; surround sound, big screen and remote controls. Yet, once your card is scanned and you’re all pumped up to play these games you realize, there’s a problem with the controllers. In fact you can’t play at all, the controls are almost like their super glued and you notice that the game is playing by itself. It is all nothing more than a video tape that is signaled to play by a card scan.
The more you walk around this big stadium and go through all of the booths, you already have two bags full of free things and tons of pictures of classic and new cars. The cars in this stadium are way nicer than the cars on display outside, except the national guard jeep, painted in blue camo. In my opinion the best thing that was in that stadium was this truck painted in red, white and blue. You can tell immediately that the layer of pain is over a centimeter thick. Being greeted by some people hosting this booth, they tell you that you can chose to have your nails done for free or paint the truck that will be in the Fourth of July parade in Houston. Also allowing people to donate to the cancer fund.
Overall the Grand Prix of Houston was great in my opinion. I didn’t feel so great about the fact that all the burning rubber did bad for the environment, but the event was big on recycling so that kind of made up for it. I do recommend going more than one day, because I don’t think it will be possible to cover all of the ground in one day. This really is an event that the whole family can go to and enjoy; plus it’s not that pricey either. If the sun isn’t your thing, but racing is; you could move a chair to a cool down station, which is basically a light fog or water. You could also stay in the stadium and have fun there.
I feel as if everyone in the Houston area should come to this event. It is for a good cause and is just a good getaway. A fun weekend with the family is just what the Grand Prix of Houston ordered.