Vancouver Island drivers always did well at Langley

Top three positions were from the Island. Terry Forsyth was recently inducted into the Victoria Auto Racing Hall of Fame.

1974 Mission preview stuff

Terry McHardy getting ready for a race at Mission in 1974. Terry is a Greater Vancouver Motorsport Pioneer.

Sunday funnies, Westwood style, part four

More cartoons from A. Lavoine from various Westwood programs.

Mission points and records meet

Seems like I remember being at this race. Joined the NHRA then.

more big time racing at Langley Speedway

Preview of the Western Grand National NASCAR race of 1972 at Langley.

Langley Speedway, Sunday, June 25, 1967

A regular ELRA/LARA Sunday show.

early-late dash:
1 -- Rocky Willson

modified stock dash:
1 -- Lloyd Bellamy

super stock dash:
1 -- Gordie Hemrich (1950 Pontiac)

1st early late heat:
1 -- Lloyd Green

2nd early late heat:
1 -- Wayne Nesbitt

3rd early late heat:
1 -- Chris Palm

modified stock heat:
1 -- Doug Firth

1st super stock heat:
1 -- Mac Morrison

2nd super stock heat:
1 -- John Rothwell

early late consolation (13 started, 8 finished):
1 -- Dave Hemphill
(Wayne Nesbitt, #3, and Wayne Trotter, #34, rolled)

early late main:
1 -- Bill Stoneman

modified stock main:
1 -- Lloyd Bellamy

super stock main:
1 -- Gordie Hemrich

Westwood Wednesday, 1972

Better keep hopping on this series.

Sunday funnies, Westwood style part three

A couple cartoons from A. Lavoine from some early Westwood programmes:

a lap at Westwood with Sir Stirling Moss

what's old is still racing today

Went to Western Speedway last June 13th for the Strawberry Cup. Was surprised to see a 1969 Tipke roadster racing.

Here's a link to the WILROC site and more info on the car and team.

And a long 1989 article on Jim Tipke and one of his drivers, Norm Ellefson, when they were inducted into the Inner Empire Motor Sports Hall of Fame in 1989 along with Bob Johnson.

Langley Speedway, Saturday, June 24, 1967

BCTRA Inter-City racing under the lights.

A modified dash:
1 -- Ray Pottinger

B modified dash:
1 -- Harold Sjostrom

super stock dash:
1 -- Jim McMillan

early late dash:
1 -- Ken Horner

1st early late heat:
1 -- Garry Greenaway

2nd early late heat:
1 -- Don Fletcher

super stock heat:
1 -- Jim McMillan

B modified heat:
1 -- Reinhart Unruh
(John Phillipson crashed)

1st A modified heat:
1 -- John Wassell

2nd A modified heat:
1 -- Garry Destobel

3rd A modified heat:
1 -- Ray Pottinger

early late main:
1 -- Don Fletcher

super stock main:
1 -- John Rothwell

B modified main:
1 -- Harold Sjostrom

A modified main:
1 -- Ray Pottinger
(Len Jones crashed and totalled his 301 Chev)

The clippings show the influence, both good and bad, the speedway was having on Langley.

Westwood Wednesday, 1971

Sunday funnies: Westwood style, part two

Another calender entry from A. Lavoine. July 1962:

Westwood Wednesday, 1970, bonus

Motorcycles continued to be part of the racing scene at Westwood right up until the end.

Langley Speedway, June 18, 1967

The Early Late Racing Association and the Langley Auto Racing Association took over Sunday afternoons when the BCTRA took Saturday night racing. Like the fact that the names of trophy queens are listed. (You'll have to read the story for those names!)

early-late dash:
1 -- Merv Meyers (#61)

modified stock dash:
1 -- Larry Gibbons

super stock dash:
1 -- Gordie Hemrich

1st early-late heat:
1 -- Ric Peters
2 -- Wayne Nesbitt
3 -- Charles Christianson

2nd early-late heat:
1 -- Gordie Plastow
2 -- Jim Whitehead
3 -- Lyn Briggs

3rd early-late heat:
1 -- Dennis Corfe
2 -- Chris Palm

super stock heat:
1 -- Gordie Hemrich
2 -- Harry Ashbrook
3 -- Tom Felling

modified stock heat:
1 -- Jack Graham (#11)
2 -- Larry Gibbons (#13)
3 -- Lloyd Bellamy (#4)

early-late consolation main (3 of 7 finished):
1 -- Charles Christianson
2 -- Ric Peters
3 -- Ken Sande
(also ran -- Doug Brown, Lucky Hay, Ken Marwood, Wayne Nesbitt)

early-late main, 15 laps (8 of 16 finished):
1 -- Chris Palm
2 -- Gordie Plastow
3 -- Don Fletcher

modified stock main:
1 -- Larry Gibbons
2 -- Doug Rutherford
3 -- Doug Firth

super stock main:
1 -- John Rothwell
2 -- Ken Sayers
3 -- Don Robertson

Westwood Wednesday, 1970

Eppie repeats his 1969 win in 1970.

working the internet

I've been using the Google news archive to find whatever it is I can find. Turns out what you can find is a lot, with a lot being more difficult (i.e., costly) to get a hold of. Typing in a few names or locations can bring a lot or nothing at all.

And I'd prefer just to methodically go from day to day, from week to week and month to month to build up a body of knowledge.

But this is fun too.

Here's a couple clippings.

Sunday funnies: Westwood style, part one

I'm taking a break from the Scrambola series.

The Westwood reunion is coming up so here is the first of a few cartoons by A. Lavoine. The June 1962 calender page:

that Hemingway quote

The quote goes something like:

"There are only three sports: mountain climbing, bull fighting and car racing. The rest are merely games."

Sounds good. But where the heck does it come from? An article? An interview? Or did he ever say it?

Others have looked for the source and come up empty so far.

Recently I picked up a collection of Hemingway newspaper articles which includes some 1920s stories about bull fighting which he did for the Toronto Daily Star. Bull fighting for Hemingway wasn't a sport, but a tragedy. Obviously for the bull. That got me wondering, again, about the quote.

On the internet a couple attempts to chase the quote down haven't sorted anything out yet.

http://www.theknese.com/pages/Hemingway.php#update

From Timeless Hemingway the following is found:

What is Hemingway's "there are only three sports" quote?

"There are only three sports: bullfighting, motor racing, and mountaineering; all the rest are merely games."

This is one in a long list of quotations mysteriously attributed to Ernest Hemingway. While the general public seem to agree that this is in fact a Hemingway quotation, scholars have some reservations and for good reason. The early Hemingway did not believe that bullfighting was a sport. For him it was a tragedy. See his October 20, 1923 article titled "Bullfighting A Tragedy" reprinted in By-Line: Ernest Hemingway Selected Articles and Dispatches of Four Decades edited by William White. Hemingway reiterates his beliefs regarding the tragedy of bullfighting in his 1932 book, Death in the Afternoon.

In July of 2006, Gerald Roush, a visitor to Timeless Hemingway, provided a possible source for the "three sports" quotation. He cited a story titled "Blood Sport" by Ken Purdy, which originally appeared in the July 27, 1957 edition of the Saturday Evening Post. The story is reprinted in Ken Purdy's Book of Automobiles (1972). Gerald provided a scan of where the quotation appeared and it reads as follows: " 'There are three sports,' she remembered Helmut Ovden saying. 'Bullfighting, motor racing, mountain climbing. All the rest are recreations.' " Gerald noted that the character of Helmut Ovden is modelled after Ernest Hemingway. This could explain why the quote has been so widely attributed to Hemingway over the years.

In May of 2007, Rocky Entriken wrote to Timeless Hemingway with another possible author of the "three sports" quotation:

"As I am told, the quote belongs to Barnaby Conrad, a writer of the same era as Hemingway and a San Francisco raconteur of some note. Mostly he did magazine articles but his books include The Death of Manolete. My source is Dan Gerber, yet another writer of the era."

So maybe Barnaby Conrad wrote it. My local university has a couple of his books: La Brava Fiesta: The Art of Bull Fighting (Houghton Mifflin, 1950, 1953) and How To Fight a Bull (Doubleday, 1968). A quick look through for anything remotely resembling the quote in question couldn't be found.

Conrad repeats Hemingway's thought that bull fighting is not a sport but a tragedy. From La Brava Fiesta:


And two pieces from How to Fight a Bull:


which continues on the next page:


That leaves us with Ken Purdy's short story, "Blood Sport", first published in the Saturday Evening Post back in 1957 and collected in his book Ken Purdy's Book of Automobiles (Playboy, 1972).


I don't know if anyone asked Purdy about the quote. Apparently he took his own life in 1972. Apparently, as with Hemingway, it was a self-inflicted gunshot.

Nothing being satisfactorily resolved here.

old midget racers

Russ Congdon. Used to race in the Pacific northwest. Finished in the WMRA top ten points a few times during the 1950s.

Not sure if the No. 27 that he is identified as driving in the Speed Age sequence was owned by Canadian Fred Cooney. Cooney did have the No. 27 in 1954, but not in 1955. "Chaput" is listed as the owner for that year.

More research, but a Canadian connection.

Langley Speedway, June 17, 1967

First night under the lights. The BCTRA held the first Billy Foster Memorial race for A modifieds. Also on tap was the Ken Koester Memorial race for B modifieds.

5000 in attendance.

early-late dash:
1 -- Brian Thompson

super stock dash:
1 -- Larry Sproule

B modified dash:
1 -- Fred Hewitt (Nanaimo)

A modified dash:
1 -- Cal Arnold

early-late heat:
1 -- Jim McMillan
2 -- Gordon Gough
3 -- Marc Moore

combined super stock and early-late heat:
1 -- Larry Sproule
2 -- Ken Horner

1st B modified heat:
1 -- Jack Cross
2 -- Frank McCabe
3 -- Ron Lamont

2nd B modified heat:
1 -- Harold Sjostrom
2 -- John Wassell
3 -- Fred Hewitt
(all Vancouver Island cars)

1st A modified heat:
1 -- Glen Parson
2 -- Gary Destobel
3 -- Dennis Wooden

2nd A modified heat:
1 -- Ray Pottinger
2 -- Len Jones
3 -- Larry Sproule

combined early-late and super stock main (21 cars started):
1 -- Jack Meslow
2 -- Bob Keam
3 -- Brian Thompson

A modified main, Billy Foster Memorial, 50 laps:
1 -- Ray Pottinger (Nanaimo)

B modified main, Ken Koester Memorial:
1 -- Fred Hewitt

Westwood Wednesday, 1969

Eppie Wietzes wins the Pepsi Pro Invitational for Forumula cars in 1969

John Randall wins the Knox Mountain hill climb. I was at the most recent one. Photos to come (whenever I manage to download them onto my computer).

Power boats at Alouette Lake.