For Kansas City’s R. Britton “Britt” Brown, returning to Lake Garnett is far more than another opportunity to drive a sports car. It is a return to the place where a lifetime of road racing began—and where his family’s story became woven into the history of one of America’s most celebrated public-road races.

This year, Brown returns to the wheel of his carefully prepared 2020 Mazda MX-5 Miata in the 100-mph group during the Lake Garnett Grand Prix Revival. While many participants appreciate the history of the event, few have lived that history from its very beginning. Brown’s father, Ted Brown, was one of the Midwest’s pioneering SCCA racers, competing from 1955 through 1960 in Austin-Healeys, MGs and Alfa Romeos. During those formative years of
American sports car racing, Ted worked alongside Garnett resident Kenneth Crippin and other early supporters who envisioned transforming the roads surrounding Lake Garnett into one of the nation’s premier public-road racing circuits.

As a young boy, Britt accompanied his father when Ted traveled to Garnett to meet with Kenneth Crippin and evaluate the proposed course. Together they drove the roads surrounding the lake, discussing whether the winding public roads possessed the character and challenge necessary to host a major sports car race. Those early conversations helped lay the foundation for what would become the legendary Lake Garnett Grand Prix.

“At the time, I didn’t realize I was watching history being made,” Brown recalls. “I was simply a kid following my dad around. Looking back, I now realize how fortunate I was to witness the birth of something that would become so special to so many people.”

Brown’s own racing career began in an Austin Mini Cooper S. After earning his SCCA competition license in 1967, he first competed at Lake Garnett in 1969. During the next four decades he raced an MG Midget, Honda CRX, Nissan GT-Lite and other production-based race cars, earning numerous victories, qualifying for multiple SCCA National Championship Runoffs, and eventually concluding his SCCA racing career following the 2008 Runoffs.

One of Brown’s favorite memories from the Mini Cooper years became a small piece of automotive history. He helped Justine Hindson install the very first checkered roof on Bob Hindson’s Austin Cooper S. The idea was entirely Justine’s, and the distinctive design soon became one of the most recognizable styling features ever associated with the classic Mini.

Although Brown competed at many of America’s finest race circuits, Lake Garnett has always occupied a special place in his heart. It represents where his family’s racing story began, where lifelong friendships were forged, and where his own passion for sports car racing first took root. Today, at eighty years of age, Brown has returned to the driver’s seat in a carefully prepared 2020 Mazda MX-5 Miata. His goal is no longer trophies or championships, but simply the joy of
driving and sharing the camaraderie that has always defined amateur sports car racing. This year’s appearance carries special significance. Brown returns not only as a former competitor, but as one of the very few remaining individuals who personally witnessed the birth of the original Lake Garnett Grand Prix and later became part of its history on the track. Nearly seventy years after standing beside his father as Lake Garnett was first being imagined, Britt Brown will once again drive those same roads—not as the wide-eyed little boy watching history unfold, but as one of the last living links to the people whose vision brought the event to life.

For Brown, every lap is more than another trip around the course. It is a tribute to his father, Ted Brown; to Kenneth Crippin and the founders of the Grand Prix; to lifelong friends made through the SCCA; and to a sport that has enriched his life for more than seven decades. “Coming back to Lake Garnett isn’t just coming back to a race…it’s coming home.”