HIGHLAND LAKES TIMING ASSOC.

Nov. 29th, 1951 -the Terrapins -temporary name for the Austin hotrodders first meeting was at Austin Zilker Parks club house hut to talk about race track problems. W. L Anderson the spokesman for the group had stated the organization of “The Terrapins” was almost complete except for locating a place for the hotrodders to drag race. They were looking for a flat stretch of smooth road of at least 1 mile long. Anderson had commented that they had not yet found a suitable location of enough room for the cars to stop at high speeds according to the local newspaper. The meet on that day would also be the last day for people to join as charter members. A list of topics to include in future meetings – drivers safety films, reliability runs to conduct safe and exact driving standards, a show of safety films provided by the Texas Dept. of Public Safety and campaigning for local support and finding a safe place to drag race.

Quote: All of the bad characteristics of young drivers have been lumped together in the mind of the public as “hot rodding.”  It was considered a mania for speed. Police were being swarmed with calls at all hours of the night from irate citizens in neighborhoods fed up with the noise of something called a hotrodder using the public streets for racing and misconduct activities at all hours of the night. This rapid growth of young drivers spread wild among communities across the nation. It was bringing a problem never seen before. As the news media papers described it, burnouts when traffic lights change and the sound of gutted straight pipe mufflers. News papers across the nation published many similar stories during those times of young drivers causing accidents and deaths on public streets. Dualling on the streets.. what they call ( “chicken games,” “pedestrian poker,” “crinkle fender”) and similar dangerous illegal activities with the so called hotrod. The hotrodders of Austin knew this was a negative effect to their sport and during those early years a campaign was created with a number of local clubs to bring a positive image instead. The campaign was to promote safety in a drag racing environment and hold exhibition of speed contest with all willing to join and follow the safety rules. The next step was to locate and purchase land to create a local drag strip. movie: Hotrod scenes