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I know this site is mostly about Stock, Sprint, and Drag racing, but would anyone like to contribute stories about Sports Car racing in Texas?  The SCCA had some memorable events in Texas, particularly the National Championship races at Bergstrom Air Force Base in 1953 and 1954.  The Greenhill Racing Association (out of Dallas) hosted the Capitol City Road Races as part of the Austin Aqua Festival events in the late 1970's.  Texas Spokes Sports Car Club (celebrating its 70th Anniversary this year), ran a Hill Climb at the foot of Mansfield Dam up to 1980, and TWS hosted its share of Can-Am and IMSA races as well.

I raced Autocross with Texas Spokes from 1981 through 1984 and am now part of an SCCA group compiling the history of racing (in Central Texas mostly) for possible publication.  Please share you stories, photos, etc. if you can.

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  • 2 months later...

This is my first post to this Board.  I found it via a Google search for pictures from the GVRA events.

I received a Kodak Super8 movie camera for Christmas in 1966.  I lived in McKinney at the time, and found out about the sports car races at Green Valley Raceway.

I have numerous movies that I have had copied into digital format.  I have shared some of them with the folks at the City of North Richland Hills for their proposed GREEN VALLEY RACEWAY HISTORIC PLAZA PROJECT.

I've attached a sample of my movies here.  Please forgive the foolish teenagers in the first minute or so of the first film.

These are from the 1967 Polar Prix.

I also have some from both Polar and Sunburn events for 68, 69, and 70.

 

 

 

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Many thanks Oldtimer!  Its old photos and movies like these that are priceless to a dying culture.  I don't mind the teenagers having some fun in the snow either!  The Cortina at the end of that film looks very similar to a car I saw at the Groesbeck Grand Prix in 2020.  See photo attached. I don't think its the same car but it sure has a canny resemblance to it.

The Green Valley Racing Association's activities went beyond their local track also - from 1974 to 1978 they sanctioned the River City Road Races in Austin in conjunction with the Texas Spokes and Austin Aqua Festival.  

Thanks for sharing!

 

Groesbeck number 59 Cortina.pdf

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  • 1 year later...

Hi.  My dad was the Chief Photographer for the Texas Region of the SCCA and I helped him carry his equipment to most of the races between 1951 and 1954.  We were at Bergstrom AFB in March of 1954 shooting the great “Lone Star National Sports Car Race” and I do have his photos from there.  

I have scanned well over 1,000 of his 4x5 negatives, covering his career from 1938 to November 1954 when he died in a traffic accident, rolling his ’53 Jaguar XK-120M to avoid a driver running a red light.  Except for that Bergstrom race, unfortunately, I can find very few of the negs from the many sports car races he photographed.  They (and the 1936 Olympics in Berlin he shot as an 18-year-old) I guess have been lost to time.  As far as auto racing, at least I still have a lot of his open wheel dirt track  photos that range from 1938  to the late ‘40s.

Attached is a photo of the overall winner, 'Gentleman' Jim Kimberly in his #5 Ferrari. 

Best of luck with your book project!

Connell R. Miller
Bella Vista, AR
 

25.1.7.C.jpg

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I think although Texas has not been as rich in motorsports when you look at the population : racer ratio, road racing and sports cars are about the healthiest there is.

With over 5 clubs having events with 100+ regular attendants in autocross, NASA and SCCA regularly having 60-100+ cars per events at 7 different venues, and track days being always busy, probably the healthiest spot to be a gearhead. I've been in those circles and they're healthy.

Fun fact:  Texas has a two time defending 24 Hours of Daytona team housed in San Antonio, and 24 Hours of Lemans winner Ben Keating in Victoria. Been trying to drag them out to some circle track stuff.

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