This is a story about one of Austin’s drag strip legends, August “Hands” Hartkopf who passed away on April 15, 1967.
He could be considered the most famous drag racer in Austin, TX. and also known very well across state in the early days of the Texas drag racing sport. Out of all the the information I’ve come across, one interesting read about him said that there is an article about “Hands” at the Garlits Museum and while not verified maybe even worked as a crewman for him too. The famous 56 Chevy known as “The Little White Racer”- more than likely had a built 265 small block -the car you mostly see him standing by on these photos. The man back then was truly known for the build up of 10,000 rpm red line Chevy small blocks and being that they were the early years of the drag racing sport in Texas, people were always amazed of the screaming motor & shifty business coming out of his car.
Auggie or August, as he was called by the general public never failed tech inspection- the removal of one cylinder head. The story once told was that while that cylinder head removed appeared to be all class spec internals it was the other side of the engine that had tricked out stuff to make it all work. He was known truly as a mechanical genius. One article in hot rod magazine listed that he held the NHRA C/S record set at Houston drag strip on April 17, 1960 13.23 @ 100mph. By the mid 60s there was also a 55 Chevy panel wagon painted in blue/ white called “The Hands Hauler Too” that was also raced/owned by his brother Butch Lake (Sparky) -very competitive. Remembered by some people as having one of the earliest known tunnel ram setups (converted fuelie intake) on the drag strip. The wagon set record E/MP modified production in 1967.
“Hands, in one highly promoted race, challenged by the (1965) NHRA U.S Nationals title winner Ferd Napfel’s, with his nationally known ‘The Stormin Bull’ 55 Chevy came down to Texas, and after 3 match races was put back on the trailer. At this famous race held in San Antonio at the “Old Double Eagle” drag strip, in the flyer it read Ferd was coming down to take care of this “Auggie” Character, Auggie says- Bring him on!”
The name “Hands” as people say was from seeing the amazing size of his hands and amazing grip strength he had that possibly developed after a child hood accident that caused him the “Andre The Giant” type syndrome. It was said you could drop a 50 cent coin through his ring and even at times was seen able to lift heavy engine parts singly handed. To many spectators and racers his presence at any track was truly an experience to see just being around him. There was a great example someone mentioned to me.. that he was once seen picking up a battery with one hand and holding it like a football. The shop he worked out of was located in Austin, TX. and known as the “Austin Speed Shop” located on Barton Springs road.
Locals back then also remember him setting up a go-cart strip next to the shop for the kids to pay up and ride around. A hand print of his hand was created into the cement sidewalk by the shop and remained until the late 90’s when the building was torn down. Close friends of August made a cast mold of his hand and put on display at Manny’s Automotive on Airport Blvd. Other interesting facts, he was featured in a 1960’s magazine called Strength & Health magazine. The magazine featured a story on grip strength written by Dr. Terry Todd, famous strong man power lifter – read something like “Pumping Gas While Pumping Iron”.
In other old Texas drag strip stories, in the mid 1950s August was also part of the “Austin Racers” group along with George Cox, Buck And Bohls, Emmit Glass, & others. With support from other central Texas car clubs the “Highland Lakes Timing Association” was formed. The idea was to cure the street racing problem by getting them organized. Some of the earliest races held by the HLTA were located at an old Abandoned WWII de-functional airstrip in Clear Springs Texas known as the New Braunfels City Airport today. For this drag racer out of Austin many stories have surfaced and in the most unlikely places of all things. It just seems everyone has a great story to tell about the gentle giant & the crew that followed along to just about every event held in Texas. -Paul Hrdez
Rust and Chrome Mag 
I’m Don West of the Jackson and West
B gas dragster. 247 inch debored 265 V8 Chevy block National Record Holder.
Ran at Caddo Mills, Green Valley, Oklahoma City and many others.
National Record: 157.6 mph, 9.17 sec in 1960.
Knew Hans or Hands for more than 6 to 7 years. Have some really great and funny memories of Hans.
I ran out of Dallas and Richardson.
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I first ran across hands at Dickenson drag strip about 1962. He was racing a1956 chevy. Two things impressed me while watching him work on the car. He was working on the distributor from engine and was having a bit of a problem getting the little screws that held points and condenser in with his huge fingers. Another thing was watching him peel and enjoy a banana with fingers larger than the fruit. He was quite spoken and very polite. He could also drive and shift that four speed better than most.
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I was in my late teens and met Hands at Garden Valley drag strip. He was behind the wheel of his 56 Chevy. The wheel looked like a toy on his hands.Also at that time we had a kid named Burkhart whose father backed him in our racing club in Dallas.
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Thanks for the memories of Augie and the era. My older brother Reese Greene got a ’55 Chevy with one those 265 engines bored out to a 301 in 1965.
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Wow, I had heard of “Hands” but hadn’t seen him, and asked a guy who ran a yellow T-bucket with a 4 single bbl side-draft carbed, Latham Blown Studebaker engine, how I could recognize him. He said you’ll know him as soon as you see him. Seeing a guy with hands twice as big as mine, plugging an iron top-loader 4-speed into a bell housing as he held it by the tail shaft in one hand, steadying the engine with the other hand left no doubt in my mind that I was looking at a person called “Hands.”
I was stationed at Randolph in 1966, running a Honduras Maroon 39 Chevy Coupe with a decked 389 GTO motor, 3/4 grind Melling, and a few other mods to get it to turn 7,300 rpm in all but 4th. It wasn’t set up for drag racing, with 3.08:1 rear end, and Aluminum close ratio (2.20 1st gear) 4-speed, but it got 18 mpg driving it down from Massachusetts to Texas. I don’t know what the guy who built it had as a setup, but found a timing slip that indicated it ran a weird 12.64 quarter at 126.4 mph. It would do an indicated 80mph in 1st gear and almost 150 in 4th (on a Stewart Warner 160mph speedometer that seemed to indicate about 8% low). I used to pass cars coming out of Universal City once they hit the 70 mph zone, shifting down one gear at a time before pulling away in 1st gear.
I overdid it once, not braking slightly for the entrance curve (from Pat Booker Road to I-35 S) and had the right front extra shock mount break (welded to the stamped steel spring plate), dropping the right front and doing a very slow 180 to go off the inside of the curve, a bit over a mile a minute backwards before dropping into the drainage ditch and planting the left rear into the concrete divider wall that took the water under the ramp. I’d slowed enough to limit the damage to pushing the left rear outside the frame up to the tire, but sprung back enough to let me drive it (crabbing a bit askew to the left) back to the base. (The roads are very different now, and Pat Booker doesn’t go directly on to I-35.) I sold it to the Junk yard off Pat Booker Rd near there for $150, and they amazed me by fixing it better than I could imagine. Apparently they were so pleased with it, they called me up a month or two later and offered me a rare steel wheel 62 Austin-Healy 3000 MK II for $600 (one of my all time favorite cars).
I went to Vietnam in 67, so didn’t spend that much time at the drag strip. I do remember packing the chute for Doug Co0k when Stone Woods and Cook’s Funny Mustang took on Arnie Beswick’s Pontiacs, and when Bob Tatroe went off the end of the strip in what I think was the Cyclops/Green Monster No. 13 Jet Car. IIRC, he couldn’t stop it but managed to turn slightly left to go sort of west bound on the county road before going off the right side of the road. A DPS officer was there almost instantly, and once he found Bob was ok, wrote him a ticket for speeding. Bob was hopping mad at getting the ticket, but I told him there was no way a police officer could pass up a once in a lifetime opportunity to write a ticket on a Jet Car.
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