Maple, Ontario
The Original Pinecrest/Speedway Park
1948 and 1949
Charlie Greenley owned several acres east of Jane Street on the south side of Highway Seven. Greenley’s plan was to build a summer recreation facility on his property and call it ‘Pinecrest Park‘. The property already had a half mile dirt oval Charlie had carved out to run his trotters.
It was early 1948 when the new Toronto Racing Drivers Club joined together with Greenley to create a half mile oval suitable for the Big Cars, (otherwise known as Half Milers – these were the predecessor to todays Sprint Cars). The track needed to be widened, it needed banking and new guard rails had to be constructed. The one major problem was that by using the original half mile track Greenley had for his trotters, there was no room for the grandstands as the track was built close to the property line.
Charlie went to his neighbour, Harley Morden, and asked for his permission to put the grandstands on Harley’s property. Harley agreed and their first race was July 10th, 1948 at the original Pinecrest Speedway. There were 3500 spectators on hand for this inaugural event. Pinecrest held a few well attended events in 1948 making the first year a great success.
Canadian Big Car drivers such as Jim Chandler, Ron Knott,Lloyd Shaw, Charlie Fowler, Jimmy Rowe, Jack Judges, Ron Huntington, George Childs, Leroy Teich, Al Turner, Bill Frost, Lou Cohen, Gil Armour, Al Heaton, Charles Caproff and Roger Carron as well as American drivers such as Hugh Darragh, Red Ryder and Jim Schumacker all raced at the original Pinecrest Speedway in 1948.
It was also 1948 that the ‘Stock Cars‘ were introduced at Pinecrest. A few early drivers in this new Hot Rod division were Len Hurley, Norm Mackereth and Phil Muccio. Due to the limited amount of cars in this division, an article was placed in the Globe and Mail of September 17th, 1948. This article read as follows “A Special Feature will be three open Stock Car Races. Anyone wishing to enter the stock car races should contact Harley Morden”. This meant that anyone with a car in the parking lot and a helmet was able to race. This is how Wallie Branston and several other stock car racers of the day got their start.
Charlie appointed Harley Morden Operations Manager of Pinecrest for the 1949 season, (this proved to be a bad decision as it was the beginning of the end). Much to the dismay of Charlie Greenley, Harley immediately changed the name to Speedway Park. The 1949 racing season at Speedway Park consisted mainly of stock cars with special shows for the half milers, midgets and other special events. Many new cars and drivers appeared at the track for the ’49 season. The stock car division gained the most new entries including a young man by the name of Dave Boon in the #17 car.
As the operations manager of the track, Harley Morden was now able to see first hand just how profitable this sport could be. Harley, now with first hand knowledge of what was needed to build and run a race track, started carving out a half mile dirt oval on his own property in preparation for the 1950 season.
Harley Morden started a new organization called the ‘Canadian Automobile Racing Society’ in 1949, (C.A.R.S.). During the off season (winter months) it was announced that Harley and his newly formed C.A.R.S. would be hosting auto races at the ‘new’ Speedway Park, leaving Pinecrest abandoned for the 1950 racing season. Although many people did not appreciate how this ‘track transfer’ came about, there was not a lot to be done about it. At this time, race tracks were few and far between, if you wanted to race, you raced at Speedway Park.
This article is from: “Remember When” The Early Years of Stock Car Racing in Southern Ontario
Pinecrest Speedway Racing Divisions 1948
