Horst Kwech

Horst Kwech (born 1937 in Vienna, Austria) is a retired Australian race car driver, race car constructor, engineer and inventor known primarily for his several wins and two championships in the early Trans-Am Series races of the 1960s and the beginning of the 1970s.

Although born in Austria, Kwech considers himself to be an Australian, proudly displaying the Aussie flag, the word "Australia" and other symbols such as a kangaroo on his race cars and drivers helmet throughout his career. Despite not having lived in Australia since his move to the United States in 1961, and being relatively unknown "Down Under", Kwech still travels with an Australian passport, though in recent years he has also become a US citizen following the Australian Government's decision to allow dual citizenship.

Due to losing their house in a bombing raid early in World War II, Kwech's mother used her connections to emigrate with Horst and his older sister to Australia and the small New South Wales town of Cooma, just 115 km (71 mi) south of Australia's capital city, Canberra. There his mother and sister joined many other immigrants in working on the Snowy Mountains Scheme while Horst attended school, and later went on to work for a local car yard called Region Motors. Kwech, who got the racing bug when riding motorbikes with his mates on the dirt roads throughout the district, began sports car racing in Australia in the fifties with an Austin-Healey 100/4 for Leaton Motors. He showed his mechanical engineering talent early building a custom sports car, the RM Spyder, with a Straight 6 Holden Grey motor, which he later sold to finance his trip to the USA.

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