pole day

Noted that it was Pole Day at Indianapolis today. Not sure who got the pole, the rules are a bit different than from 20, or 50 years ago.

Victoria's Ed Kostenuk (actually spelled "Kostenuick") tried to qualify for Indianapolis in 1962 and 1963. He didn't make it.

He had raced big cars at Langford Speedway, Shearing Speedway and Western Speedway on Vancouver Island as well as further south into Washington and Oregon.

John Dalby said that once, when Ed was driving John's big car down at a dirt track in the US, Ed disappeared into the cloud of dust at turn one on the green at the back of the pack only to come out on the back stretch in the lead. When asked what happened Ed said something to the effect that he couldn't see anything and needed to get out of there quick.

He had also raced midgets at Burnaby's Digney Speedway in 1950 getting the BC Midget Auto Racing Association points title. As can be seen from the initial scrapbook clipping he made some headlines in the Vancouver area.

Some of his exploits can be found at his inductee posting at the Victoria Auto Racing Hall of Fame site.

One thing that happened to Ed Kostenuk back in 1962 was that he got hit in the face with a bird and came back to Victoria shaken and wondering about his future in racing. The article from the Victoria Colonist is by sports writing legend Jim Taylor. The bird didn't end his career.

In 1963 he tried again to qualify but couldn't get up to speed. A rookie by the name of Johnny Rutherford did make the field with the car, at that point named the City of Victoria but changed for Johnny's sponsors. Ed carried on having six starts in champ car racing.

I've also seen a clipping where he had a wreck in a USAC stock car race that hurt Johnny Rutherford a bit.

I wonder if Johnny remembers much about Ed Kostenuk.