I've lived here a long time and I've never heard of this. From na-motorsports.com.... If they aren't HAMBers, they should be! 1966, shot of racing at T2 looking towards T1 hairpin. The bottom of a TR-3 is just barely visible through the dust cloud. Photo by Wayne Hill 1973, looking north from the (now demolished) baseball outfield. Photo by Wayne Hill "Races were held from ca. 1966 through ca. 1973. Races in the 1960s were SCCA sanctioned and later races were sanctioned by the Green Valley Racing Association." Wanna see the course? Click here. Anyone out there have anything to add?
Wow this is a flashback! I crewed for a TR-3 team and a Fiat Abarth team from San Antonio for the 1968 and 69 Austin Aqua Festival road races. The races ran on the old roads which bank Lake Austin (now Lady Bird Lake) around what is now the Palmer Center. They also raced carts and super carts (shifters) and motorcycles too. Good times with absolutely no money to be won.
Everyone knows about Aqua Fest and the boat racing on Town Lake but I never knew about any road racing, pretty cool!!
I 'crewed' (mostly hung around and watched) on George Koehne's Cooper-Buick in one of the very earliest years races (I want to say it was '64) and took a bunch of B&W photos. I sent them to California hoping they'd get published in Sports Car Graphic. Their comment was, "Wow, what a course, how many people did they kill running that close to traffic?" The hot cars that year were Martin Grantham with a Merlin-Ford 2.0, a Chev-powered Ferrari TR, and a 289 Cobra, whose driver's name has escaped my memory. Fearless
Wow, what a cool piece of Austin motorsports history. Life was a little simpler and much less congested at that time. Thanx for sharing this cool happening. Viva downtown Austin!! ~Sololobo~
The sixties still had street courses like that, we had the Met stadium races and the Hillclimb behind the Guthrie theatre . Then insurance, lawyers, and spectators with no common sense kill that kind of racing in the US. But that defiantly was the heyday of road racing.
back in the 60s I used to go to some races that were held on un-used airfield at Brooks AFB in San Antonio..the guys were always talking about trailering up to Austin for the Hillclimbs..any pics of that?
I'm pretty sure that's my dad, Buell Owen, driving the yellow TR3a in the hairpin! He wore a red and white striped suit (Peppermint Racing Team) and a white Bell helmet. I've got pics somewhere that included Austin. Guess I need to go dig them up.
If I recall, 77 or 78 was the last year for the Aqua Fest road race. They killed the drag boats on Town Lake maybe the year prior to that. For at least one or two years they held a big late model race at Speed O Rama, after that. They paid big tow money to a few, Freddie Fryar, Terry Labonte, and even Bobbie Allison. Although Bobbie sent Neil Bonnet in his place, he would book more shows than he could attend and send Neil to some. Those were the days............
Very cool. The Austin Aquafest was a fun time. Check out the Porsche RSK turning out onto Riverside drive in either 1978 or 1979 (if they had it that year). He was running a 911 6 cylinder engine and was brutally fast. I think it was the Fabulous Thunderbirds that played on the stage across the street that evening. For Mansfield Dam Hill Climb video, check out "Mansfield Dam hill climb" on you tube.
Yes, that is your Dad, Buell Owen. I worked Flags at these races in the early 1960s (63, 64, 65, 66) and was priveleged to win the BP class at one of the last River City Road Races (which is what they were called, altho they were "associated with" the Austin Aqua Festival) in the summer of 1977. These were glorious times, before the shame of Tree Huggers, and political Correctness. The entire city turned out for theses races, about 100,000 spectators over two days. Today is full of Califorians, who would never understand:-(
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