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Bigger and Better in TX and OK: CVAR’s 2021 Finale and 2022 Schedule

by VM Staff Ex-Roger Penske Buick V8-powered Birdcage Maserati driven by Enus Wilson won the Sunday feature race in the River City Road Races event in 1963. CVAR is looking to bring back the spirit of those races in 2022 at its Feb 11-13 River City Road Races Revival at Circuit of The AmericasCorinthian Vintage Auto Racing (CVAR) launched in Texas in 1988, and over the last 33 seasons has become the preeminent vintage auto racing organization in the Southwest U.S., putting on races and racing schools in Texas and Oklahoma with a focus on safe and fair racing — and friendliness — offering plenty of track time, sensible rules, and reasonable entry fees.

This Nov. 4-7 weekend, CVAR’s 2021 schedule wraps up with the U.S. Vintage National Championship, drivers in its seven Race Groups sharing the stage with the Sportscar Vintage Racing Association’s Austin SpeedTour Vintage and Trans Am extravaganza.
Photo: Brandall BinionMeanwhile, CVAR has released its 2022 schedule, featuring five race weekends and two schools on its three host tracks:

• – Jan 14-16 CVAR Driver’s School | Eagles Canyon Raceway, Decatur, TX
• – Feb 11-13 River City Road Races Revival | Circuit of The Americas, Austin, TX
• – Mar 18-20 15th Mike Stephens Classic | Hallett Motor Racing Circuit, Jennings, OK
• – Apr 29-May 1 Marvelous May Races | Eagles Canyon Raceway, Decatur, TX
• – Sep 9-11 Brad Balles Races and Driver’s School | Eagles Canyon Raceway, Decatur, TX
• – Oct 7-9 Thunder on the Cimarron XXI | Hallett Motor Racing Circuit, Jennings, OK
• – Nov 3-6 U.S. Vintage National Championship | Circuit of The Americas, Austin, TX

A major addition to the 2022 CVAR calendar is the River City Road Races Revival at COTA, the 3.426-mile circuit north of Austin that is the home of the Formula 1 U.S. Grand Prix, among other notable events.

The original River City Road Races (aka “Carrera de la Capital Races”) were sanctioned by SCCA and run on a street circuit incorporating sections of Riverside Drive along the Colorado River, directly opposite from downtown Austin. The race was one of the signature events of Austin’s Annual Aqua Festival.

The first race in August 1963 included a “Who’s Who” of U.S. sports car racing, with cars entered by John Mecom and drivers including Augie Pabst, Delmo Johnson and Roger Penske. Well-known Texas drivers (and future CVAR members) included Charlie Barnes, Bob McLaughlin and Willis Murphy.

Pabst won the Saturday qualifying race in Mecom’s Lotus 19 while Enus Wilson, a native American from Oklahoma, won the feature race on Sunday in an ex-Roger Penske Buick V8-powered Birdcage Maserati.

In 1969, sanctioning for the event was taken over by the Green Valley Racing Association and Texas Spokes who ran it through 1980 when the curtain fell on an amateur sports car racing event that was, during its run, the preeminent “road race” in Texas.

Several of the cars that ran in period on Riverside Drive, and even some of the drivers, will be competing in CVAR’s River City Road Races next February.