Sunday, January 31, 2010

Jack Nicholson in The Wild Ride, 1960


Jack Nicholson in a sprint car? Apparently so. At least as a movie sprint car driver.

The Wild Ride is bad, really bad. And it is available all over the internet. The sprint car sequence is pretty short.

Interesting that the entire movie is colourized and stuck into the middle of a contemporary video called Velocity. It's bad, really bad. And available on DVD for a couple bucks in better bargain bins.

Saturday, January 30, 2010

another hardtop racer from that era


I believe I had this photo emailed to me by Ralph Monhay. It's Jim Malloy in his hardtop modified from 1962. The car ended up in Boise, ID, driven by Morrie Fuller. And it is being restored by Morrie's son Stan.

Here's a couple links to the Morrie Fuller days with the modified.

The car then, and now.

Friday, January 29, 2010

the 1964 car in 1965 and later


So "Wild" Bill Dagg bought the number 33 Monhay/Marchant modified and did well with it up in Prince George.

It moved around a bit after Bill Dagg sold it but Ralph tracked it down, and with the help of various enthusiasts got it rebuilt.


Here's a link to some of the restoration work: http://www.vintagesupermods.com/-33_Ralph_Monhay.php

Thursday, January 28, 2010

1964 modified, some more


More stuff from the Prince George Citizen. At the end of the 1964 season the number 33 of Jim Marchant and Ralph Monhay was sold to Prince George racer Bill Dagg. Also included in the photo montage is the Moe Vaillant number 8 car that was sold shortly after this race to Len Jalouse, also of Prince George. Moe stopped racing for a number of years before coming back to help his sons in mini-sprints.

Nice letter of thanks by Ralph and Jim to those who helped them race up in PG. Ralph kept coming back to PGARA to race and promote races. He must have liked it up there.

Wednesday, January 27, 2010

1964 modified


Ralph Monhay finished having his old 1964 modified restored a few years ago. Here's a few bits about Ralph and the car from back in the day. Clippings from the online Prince George Citizen motherlode.

Tuesday, January 26, 2010

some more old midget stuff

Another page of Pacific Northwest midgets from the 1930s and 1940s reprinted in Racing Wheels back in the early 1970s.

Monday, January 25, 2010

some old midget stuff

Pre- and post-Second World War midgets from the Pacific northwest. From the Dick Downes collection. Photos reprinted on the pages of Racing Wheels in the early 1970s.

Sunday, January 24, 2010

Sunday cartoon

Sad to learn of the passing of Gumby creator, Art Clokey. Information here.

Another Gumby race game cartoon.

Saturday, January 23, 2010

another collection of unused stuff


At least I hope they're unused. Eldon Rasmussen along with some west coast names. Billy Foster, in person, at the 1965 CAMRA race.

Friday, January 22, 2010

and even more leftovers


Continuing with the cleaning of a file. Two items from old issues of a 1959 California newspaper called MotoRacing. Features a few names that raced at the opening of Westwood.

Thursday, January 21, 2010

yet more leftovers


More of this stuff that needs to be used up. This time Bill Stephens and his Lister.

Wednesday, January 20, 2010

some more leftovers


More unused clippings that were scanned over the past year that need to be used up. A photo from the mid-1970s at a Golden Wheels banquet. From left to right are Gerry McLees, Len Sutton, Pat Vidan, Jack Turner and Allen Heath. Gerry, Len and Allen all, for sure, raced up in the Vancouver area at one point or another. Not sure about flagman Pat Vidan. He ended up flagging at Indianapolis while both Len Sutton and Jack Turner both raced there.

Tuesday, January 19, 2010

Billboard covered auto racing!


Well at least it did for a couple years. All part of the "fairgrounds" portion of their showbiz publication.

So Digney Speedway made it in there once that I've found back in 1948. The furor over the announcement that the hot rods (track roadsters) were scheduled to race there (at the track that the midget guys had worked so hard to get opened!) seems to have been real. Down in Seattle at Aurora Speedway the same trouble was brewing. Things eventually got smoothed over and midget racers like Shorty Templeman and Bob Gregg raced both midgets and hot rods and even moved over to the hard tops. They raced for the money, that was their allegiance.

Monday, January 18, 2010

I don't know much about Billy Foster's sports car attempts


Came across this in my Google searches. It's from the Montreal Gazette from late 1966. Interesting stuff. Another couple months and Foster would be gone.

Of the two drivers killed, Dick Atkins raced midgets at Victoria's Western Speedway once or twice. He was an up and comer while Don Branson had been around for a number of years.

Sunday, January 17, 2010

bikini beach


Trash, pure trash. And I love (well, like a lot) trash. Bikini Beach starring Frankie and Annette and Don Rickles and some top fuel cars and a go-kart.

Story? We don't got no story. We don't need no stinkin' story.

Saturday, January 16, 2010

PGARA, part two


Some more clippings of PGARA Speedway stuff from the online Prince George Citizen archives.

Friday, January 15, 2010

some more magazine covers






I liked doing that so much here's some more.



Thursday, January 14, 2010

magazine covers






Some covers from the net.



Wednesday, January 13, 2010

cars and girls


Car shows attract car show models. Enough said.

A link to some 1968 car show models.

Tuesday, January 12, 2010

snowmobiles


There isn't much snowmobile racing in the "wet coast" area. Some further inland, lots further east.

So, a stretch. Gilles Villeneuve got going on the power sleds before making a name for himself in Formula Atlantic and then F1.


And a link to some Formula Atlantic photos from Gimli. Cool stuff.

Monday, January 11, 2010

PGARA, part one



I've been going to UBC to look at the Prince George Citizen and get info on racing from up there. And now I find the newspaper is online. So what do I do? Redo all the work I've already done. (Mimics hitting his head on the keyboard.)

Sunday, January 10, 2010

on any Sunday



Great movie. At least, I think so. All about motorcycling at the end of the 1960s going into the 1970s.

Found some photos from the net:

And it seems like the whole movie can be seen on YouTube. Here's the trailer:



And a Sports Illustrated cover story on Steve McQueen, featured in On Any Sunday, from 1971.

Saturday, January 9, 2010

skin to win

Okay, hopefully that grabbed your attention. It's not what you think. It's 1963. It's John Hall. He won a lot. Even on hot days. Good to seem him up and moving at the Westwood50 celebrations last summer.

Friday, January 8, 2010

another Langley Speedway clipping


I thought I'd put this up already, but apparently not. So here is something from 1981.

Thursday, January 7, 2010

a report on the 1968 Shell 4000


Over on the upper right is a link to lots of Shell 4000 information. This is an explanation by co-driver Randy Black on what happened at one point to them during the rally. The team finished 48th. Oh well, there's always next year.

Wednesday, January 6, 2010

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.

Tuesday, January 5, 2010

Harrison Lake, 1956


Power boat racing at Harrison Lake goes back to the 1930s. Here's a bit of promotional copy for the upcoming 1956 race.

Monday, January 4, 2010

Abbotsford Airport, 1956


Here's an ad for an ambitious looking race at Abbotsford Airport. Not sure how well it all came together. Weather is always an issue.

Sunday, January 3, 2010

quadruple bill


Some good old exploitation films for a Sunday. Or at least as many trailers for the films as I could find:







Can't find the right "Road Racers" trailer. Sorry 'bout that.

Saturday, January 2, 2010

1956 was all about....


Two seemingly unrelated items. And, really, they are, but they come from the 1956 Chilliwack Progress. An ad for the BCCCA Motorama in Vancouver and a report on scandalous behaviour during a showing of Rock Around the Clock.


Hot rods and rock and roll. Hmmm, pretty related in my way of thinkin'.