1956 Chilliwack, racing stunt gone wrong

Not sure how this all turned out. One can only hope rider Ross McMillan recovered. Better race report in the next installment.

(Oh yeah, Happy New Year!)

odds and ends and leftovers

Getting stuff scanned over the past year or so in before this year ends: Milton Blewitt, Bunny Jeboult, Loch Madill and Ray Ordano winning races at Hatzic Lake and Gary Beck winning a race at Mission Raceway over local Pete Reimer.

some more leftovers

Two profiles of Langley Speedway drivers when they travelled to Grandview Bowl in 1966: Len Jones and Ron Lamont.

when in doubt, link

Here's a couple photo albums from Photobucket that contain some Canadian, if not B.C., content.

Drag racing and custom cars from Alberta with some out of province cars like Jack Williams' Syndicate Scuderia. And a foray to the south (California, it appears), all during the 1962-1967 era.

The Black Album,

and,

The Blue Album.

Discovered them in a link from a UK hot rod website, http://www.martsrods.com/

End of Empire video

So it's Boxing Day. A string of videos uploaded to YouTube on the End of Empire display at the Trev Deeley Exhibition. They're short but there's about nine of them. I'll embed the first three.

Seasonal Greasings

Yes, Yes, Merry Christmas. Enjoy it. From the Golden Wheels midget CD of photos. Ernie Spalding was a Canadian by birth. Lived and raced out of the U.S. Came to Canada to race midgets on the lower mainland and big cars in Victoria before and after the Second World War.

Just to prove that here's a Victoria clipping from 1949. Oh yeah, his son was Cliff Spalding who won a few USAC midget races over the years. And Ernie's brother was Jack Spalding who raced midgets in Vancouver and big cars in Victoria.

chilliwack 1955, part four

There was a report of an air race, a relay race, at Chilliwack airport in 1954. Here's an ad for another race in 1955.

(Santa probably used a relay team of reindeer this evening. My way of saying "seasonal greasings".)

chilliwack 1955, part three

Chilliwack report three for 1955. Power boat racing. Some interesting names in Jim Hutchison as he is in the BC Sports Hall of Fame and a Greater Vancouver Motorsport Pioneer. Bob Henry must be the same Bob Henry that raced midgets at Digney Speedway and further south into Seattle. And, if he is the same person, the guy who started Van-Kam Trucks.

chilliwack 1955, part two

The results of the 1955 BC Motorcycle Championships at the Chilliwack fairgrounds. Big action. Big report.

chilliwack 1955, part one

Continuing with some more Chilliwack stuff from the 1950s. AMA motorcycle races being promoted at the fairgrounds for Dominion Day.

Sunday cartoon

Okay, going deep into the memory banks for this one. Uh, Gumby (dammit!).

1954 Chilliwack, part four

And now for something completely different: air races. A relay race held at the Chilliwack airport by a local flying club as part of a show. Probably not the first race like this held in B.C. but they were never well advertised, or part of another show as this one was.

1954 Chilliwack, part three

The second motorcycle race at the Chilliwack fairgrounds on Labour Day of 1954. All the big names from the U.S. and Canada, including Trev Deeley and Eugene Thiessen.

1954 Chilliwack, part two

Hydroplanes being built in the Chilliwack area. With Cultus, Harrison, Hatzic and other bodies of water nearby it was a natural for the locals.

1954 Chilliwack, part one

Moving onto 1954 in Chilliwack, the first of two known motorcycle races held on the fairgrounds' half mile horse track. This one from the July 1st Cherry Festival event.

1953 Chilliwack, part two

Another interesting find from Chilliwack in 1953. I hadn't heard of this guy's name before: Charlie Kobus. A quick look at the web finds a little more.

Found at this site is the following:

Art Maynard, Long Beach, Calif., won the Limited Class hydroplane race yesterday afernoon while he was unconscious from the waters of Lake Washington by another racing driver who sacrificed his own chances of winning to make the rescue. Eddie Meyer, Hollywood,Calif. driver of the Avenger IV, was the hero who rescued Maynard. Maynard was not seriously hurt, but was taken by ambulance to a hospital for a checkup. He was thrown into the lake when his speeding boat, the Dollar Bill, event out of control and flipped over. Meyer held him up until a Coast Guard patrol boat pulled him out Maynard torn to shreds in the crash. Maynard won the Seattle Seafair Trophy on the basis of his victory in the first of the two heats. He had tied with Charles Kobus, Vancouver, B. C., at 400 points for a heat victory apiece, but his speed of 83 miles an hour bettered Kobus' second heat-winning time of about 75 miles per hour for the 7 miles. Maynard was going at high speed near the front of the field, when his craft's prow apparently lifted too high off the water and wavered to disaster. The Dollar Bill was wrecked.

John D. Beverly of Spokane Seed third in his Lettuce Go with 320 points.

Although Boat Exploded Maynard Won Seafair Race

Despite an explosion which destroyed his speedboat, Art Maynard of Hollywood, Calif., won the Seafair Trophy limited- class race yesterday on the Gold Cup course. Maynard' s 266-cubic-inch speedboat $ Bill won the first heat of the limited-class free-for-all and earned 400 points. In the first turn of the second heat, $ Bill exploded, tossing Maynard into the water. Charles Kobus piloted his Mercury VII to victory in that second heat, also earning 400 points. Maynard was awarded the $4,000 Trophy, originally offered for Gold Cup class boats, by virtue of his faster time. Maynard's time for the first heat was 5 minutes 27.19 seconds. Kobus did 6:03.21 in the second heat. Results (boat, cubic-inch class, driver, time): FIRST HEAT 1. $ Bill, 266, Art Maynard, 5:27.19 2. Vivo, 225. Floyd Sather, 5:55.11 3. Rooster Tail, 225, Ralph Mars, 6:05.89 4. Cyrano, 266, H. D. Gill, 6:07.58 5. Candy Too, 225, Marry Ammon, 6:25.77 6. Lettuce Go, 266, John D. Beverly, 6:28.54; 7. Restless III, 225, Tom McLaughlin, 6:34.71; 8. Kay Gee, 225, Bob Bagdon, 6:42.08 9. Baby Trimmer, 225. Bud Wheelock, 7:13.38, 10. Avenger IV, 135. Eddie _Beyer, 7:18.31 11. Nonchalant II, 136, Allen Ford. 8:04.47 SECOND HEAT 1. Mercury VII, 266, Charles Kobus, 6:03.21 2. Flying Saucer, 225, Mich Hallett, 6:28.67 3. Lettuce Go, 266, John D. Beverly. 6:29.11 4. Cherokee, 266. Harold Ceelho, 6:38.46 5. Candy Too, 225, Barry Ammon, 6:54.64 6. Restless III 225, Tom McLaughlin, 6:58.95 7. III Ball, 225, Port Alameda, 8:05.21 SUMMARY 1. $ Bill 2. Mercury VII 3. Lettuce Go

1953 Chilliwack, part one

While looking for something else I found a few things that happened in Chilliwack I didn't know happened. That's usually the way with my research. This one a thrill show, always a crowd drawing event.

Arlington, Herb McNutt youtube tribute

Something put up recently after Herb McNutt's passing. Many photos of the old Arlington drag strip as well as a nostalgia rail he worked on. Some cackling. Looks like plenty of smiles and laughs with friends like Jack Williams and others.

Arlington, Herb McNutt

Here's a link to some footage of Herb McNutt being interviewed up in Sechelt, BC.

Link is here.

Also Herb's obituary is here.

Arlington, 1967 Travelons Fuel and Gas Championships

Here's a couple things from 1967. An ad from the Vancouver Sun and a report from Motorsport in B.C.

Arlington stuff, some more two

Another ad from the Everett Herald. Probably a Rich Carlson photo.

Arlington stuff, some more

Here's the result as reported in the Everett Herald back in 1964 for the previously posted ad and pre-race hoopla.

Big California racers came up like Weekly-Rivera-Fox-Holding, aka the "Frantic Four". Here's a link to their historic website: Frantic 4 Racing History.

Of course it's good to see that Jerry "the King" Ruth won the event to hold up the honour of the Pacific northwest.

Arlington stuff

Herb McNutt, track manager at the Arlington (WA) drag strip, recently passed away. It was the track in the northwest for a while. At least, the one that B.C. guys (and girls) would head to if they couldn't get further south.

I'll spend a couple days getting some Arlington stuff up here.

Sunday funnies

Some real oldies. After all, if the first race happened after the second car was built, how far after that would there be the first comic strip on cars? Not that I'm saying this was the first, but....

some Langley Speedway footage

I can see Brian Thompson with his Hudson no. 4 early-late moving around the track. One hot car back then in the late 1960s. Also George Cook's no. 12 super stock.

got an email from Harry Roberts

Harry Roberts emailed a couple notes to me yesterday. They can be found in the comments here. Points out a spelling mistake the newspapers of the day made and I continued to make.

So I'm trying to make corrections and apologies here. Working with what I've got to the best of my ability. (Of course, that might only make me dead last in the consi.)

So changes made here and here to correct the name. And a couple photos of Harry and his early-late from 1967 from the BCTRA yearbook. I know I've seen photos the modified he drove a few years later at the Langley Speedway Historical Society displays but can't seem to find a photo of it in my files.

Langley stuff from the 1980s, four

And even more coverage of Langley from the Columbian in the 1980s.

Langley stuff from the 1980s, three

Thanks a lot to the old Columbian newspaper. It definitely covered motorsports when other newspapers covered tiddlywinks.

A profile of Bob Fox for a special open competition race held at Langley.

Langley stuff from the 1980s, two

More Langley stuff from the 1980s.

Langley stuff from the 1980s, one

Stuff I scanned for some presentation material but haven't put up here yet. And if I wait for the chronological look at Langley (which I haven't forgot about) for these things to get plugged in, well we're in for a long wait!