1920s, Dutch Snider, Gresham kids

Great shot from Gresham, OR.

Art Hines, 1920s/30s

A photo of Art Hines. From the Scovell collection.

Gresham (OR) Speedway, 1920s

Nice action shot.

Lynden, WA, 1920

A couple ads from the Lynden Tribune in 1920. One for a race, one for a "Ford Bug" that you could probably have raced if not there, somewhere.

another photo

Yakima, Washington 1926.

comics

A couple oldies.

a couple more old photos

Two more photos. Group shots from what might be Vancouver, WA. Bagley Field. In the 1920s/30s?

a little bit more

A picture of a line-up of 1925 racers at Hastings Park. I've never seen this one before. It was reprinted in a 1954 Vancouver Sun.

when in doubt, link (yet again)

Another from the Modern Mechanix blog, "New Racing Cars do Four Miles a Minute." Author of the story, Ray Kuns was famous back in the day for his informative publications on racing. Here's another link concerning Kuns. And a couple photos from that link:

road trip for races down south

Ad for the Tacoma AAA (American Automobile Association) races on the board track. This came from another 1920s Victoria newspaper. Big names racing close to home. A ferry ride, then a train ride and you're there watching the races.

going to the movies

Here's an ad from a 1922 Victoria newspaper:



Looks like a tale along the lines of the Cannonball Race.

Mario Bianchi by Pike Green

One of my favourite people that I came to know early on while doing this racing history stuff was Pike Green. Pike grew up in Victoria, BC, Canada, was a "pit kid" at Langford Speedway during the 1930s, raced midgets, sprint cars, stock cars and what have you during the 1940s and 1950s, boats in the 1960s, and then, (deep breath), started writing about the people he knew and things he had seen in the racing world in the 1970s for the now lamentably defunct publication Racing Wheels.

And if that wasn't enough in the mid-1970s Pike started (with a little help from friends) Golden Wheels, a vintage car club which still exists today. In its early days Pike would give honorary memberships in Golden Wheels to those who had helped build the sport in the Pacific Northwest.

I can't find my mid-70s Golden Wheels membership roster right at the moment (figures!) but if Mario didn't join he should have. And, of course, Pike knew that Mario Bianchi's story was worthy as he had definitely been a pioneer of the sport.

I believe the story reproduced here comes from July 11, 1973. It's a photocopy of some yellowed pages that Dick Downes, a friend of Don Radbruch, had clipped out and saved and then shipped to me because he thought I should have them as I was interested. Racers have to be the most generous people in the world. So for Dick, Don, Pike and all the rest here is just a small sampling of what racing was like way back when.