On the first weekend in October 1998, big-time road racing came to the streets of downtown Houston for the first time with the running of the inaugural Texaco Grand Prix of Houston. Three series took part in the Grand Prix – the Toyota Atlantics, SCCA Trans-Am, and CART FedEx Championship Series. This was my first time at a race as a journalist. My job was to file reports for Motorsport News International (now Motorsport.com). Although not there as a photographer, I did manage to acquire a photo pass for all but Sunday’s CART Championship race. Those photos were taken from the George R. Brown Convention Center, which served as pits, paddock, press center, and race control..
The weekend's events actually started on Thursday, October 1, with a ceremony in front of the George R. Brown Convention Center to open the track. This was followed by a charity golf tournament with many of the drivers in attendance.
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CART FedEX Championship practice and qualifying took place on Friday and Saturday.
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Sunday afternoon began with the Toyota Atlantics race. The race started under full-course yellow when Masaoki Nagashima and Case Montgomery had a "coming together" on the final turn of the pace lap. It ended under yellow on lap 30 of a scheduled 45 because of a torrential downpour, with Anthony Lazzaro beating pole sitter Alex Tagliani and 1998 KOOL Toyota Atlantics Champion Lee Bentham.
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The inaugural CART Texaco Grand Prix of Houston is remembered for three things - heavy rain, teammates Paul Tracy and Dario Franchitti making contact in turn 5, and Tracy having a "dust-up" with team owner Barry Green after limping back to the pits. Franchitti would go on to win the race over 1998 CART Champion Alex Zanardi and 1998 CART Rookie of the Year Tony Kanaan.
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