The Airport as Racetrack

Motorsport was both a symbol of scarcity and hope in Austria after 1945. With antiquated motorcycles and cars, races were held on temporarily closed streets. Drivers wore oil-smeared overalls, repaired and improved their own vehicles and often, it was the most cunning mechanic and not the best driver who achieved victory. Severe accidents and occasional fatal crashes were the order of the day. Those participating in motorsports, from returnees marked by war to young, careless lads, seemed to perpetuate rituals of masculinity of a faintly bygone era.

Neither the athlete nor the audience, but the sports authorities brought this thrill and defiance of death to an end: After a harmless accident at a race in Traiskirchen, motorsports were limited to permanent racetracks as of 1956. Because there was no such thing, racing drivers resorted to former military airports in Zeltweg and Aspern, and also in Innsbruck, Linz, Graz, Langenlebarn and Klagenfurt. A new generation of racing drivers, soon more dandies than mechanics, thus conquered former military-defined spaces in two ways.