Andy Digney and the thieves

A story that was published a few years back in a Vancouver Island racing publication:

Andy Digney and the thieves.


“Thieving promoters.” Well, that’s one opinion. The range of reactions to A.C. “Andy” Digney wasn’t quite that extreme over his eleven year ownership of the self-named Burnaby, B.C. speedway. And, as we will find, thieves are all over the place, especially if they think there is money to be had.

Andy Digney was born in London, England in 1886. A biography in an early programme noted he had been interested in ju-jitsu. Remember that, it’s important. After coming to Canada Digney worked presenting films and ultimately built a movie house in Burnaby during the height of the great depression. By 1948 he was 62 years old, about the right age to retire having sold the theatre but he undertook the building of a quarter-mile paved oval for the then popular midget race cars.

Digney tried to make a go of the track with the midgets, track roadsters, motorcycles and hardtops. But it was the jalopies, quickly becoming better known as stock cars, that made the track a success in 1952.

The crowds were huge and the take at the gate might have been considered huge for 1952 standards. It was that gate that attracted a pair of less than savoury characters. Both were masked and had .38s accosting Andy, his wife, his sister and his brother-in-law as the group of four arrived home after a Saturday night working at the speedway.

Digney tried to explain to one gunman that there was no money. The approximately $3000 had already been turned over to the police for safe keeping. Whatever payout to the drivers had already been done at the track. The gunman in Digney’s face didn’t believe Digney and wanted to see what was in the trunk of the car. He threatened Digney that if he was lying he would kill him. Meanwhile his brother-in-law had been clipped on the head by the second weapon toting thug.

The gunman doing all the talking took a swipe at the track owner and that was when Andy Digney saw an opening and, using the skill he had learned from Yuki Otani years before in England, grabbed the gunman’s hand, flipped him over his hip and held onto the gun. Meanwhile his sister had grabbed a crutch from Digney’s arthritic wife and was clubbing the second wouldbe thief over the head. The two bad guys started running for their car. Digney fired three rounds in the general direction of the fleeing car before the gun jammed. Luckily for the thieves he was a poor shot and missed.

The old saying is you can’t tell who the players are without a programme. That was especially true with Andy Digney.