1980 Hillclimb Spokes Autocross Club (video)

Very cool, wish they still had stuff like that around here - maybe need to take the Wag-O-Van to Pikes Peak...

 

Thanks for posting this.

 

Randy, I may have been to this one. I went to a few of them but never drove in one. It was an interesting event, but viewing was difficult due to the terrain.

 

My grandfather was actually an organizer of the event in its' infancy.....I think I still have a couple of his very old posters.

Last week, I was just returning from taking my wife to the Oasis and took her across Mansfield damn and pointed out where the hillclimb used to take place in the day, and I attened a few back when. It was weird to see this post only 5 days after going by there on vacation.

I have to tell you a story my grandfather told me....apparently, one year, someone got the idea to run the road downhill. Well, a well known local Austin Healey 100-6 managed to over cook the corner towards the bottom (it is the starting left hander in your you tube, where the camera is facing away from a cliff that juts out over the river below the dam) and very nearly ended up in the river below the dam....as in teetering on the brink having gone off the road and through a gravel 'turn out'. I think this happened in the late-50's early 60's, and was one of, if not the only, times the downhill direction was used. By the way, before the start line, the road jags back to the left and crosses the river over a low water crossing which I think I spotted on the drive.

I wedged a 350 Chevy and drivetrain into a 1960 Austin Healey in the mid 70's and drove it up the hillclimb event one time, and also several times when it was just open for traffic. Talk about bringing a gun to a knife fight.....2000 pounds, 400+ RWHP, and no weight over the back.....that road was pretty fun stuff in that car. I also had a stock 62' 3 carb 3000, and later, a 67' MGB. Also, a couple of mini's....997 model and my brother's 1275 S. He and I used to race on local roads in the 2 mini's. FM 166 out of College Station was a favorite road with lotsa marked 35 mph turns that were great for railing in a mini cooper. I know that I took the mini up the hillclimb road at least once and it was a good road for FWD 1275.

I just finished watching the youtube and have to mention that I remember that Europa being around Austin back then. There was also a guy from College Station that took his Elan over there at least once. The 240Z had a V-8 in it.....I remember hearing about that car but never ran across it lurking on the streets. We did our fair share of street racing back then, travelling to Austin and Houston (downtown Prince's hamburger joint) to find some competition.

BTW, their was several other events back in the mid-60's in the central Texas area: One was at what is now the old SAC base west of Bryan Texas at what is called the Riverside Campus (saw my first Ferraris there when I was about 6 yrs old). Another was east of Austin at a small track for which I have some old footage I will dig up about it and post. Drag racing at Little River on a converted public road was a place straight liners went, outside of Killeen....lots of soldiers bringing out muscle cars for some bracket racing for cash. The old Aqua Festival Races downtown Austin around the streets and old convention center parking lot. Raced motorcycles there back in the day....and for those that were around, Kevin Schwantz (a world champion in 500cc GP) and Hogman and others were really fun to watch in their days on the streets of Austin.

Thanks for posting.

 

Here it is: Austin Raceway Park, circa 1973. It is situated between Loop 1 and I-35, and just south/southeast of Burnet Road. If you find where Quick Hill Road dead-ends into Burnet Road, you can find the top end of the dragstrip. It will be straight across Burnet from Quick Hill. Had a 1/4 mile and a road course...here is the original layout:

http://www.historicaerials.com/?poi=3357