Three tracks West of Brantford Ontario

May 2013

Three tracks West of my hometown at the time Brantford, and as far as I know, these were the last time races were held at these places.

Tilbury

I’m quite sure it was 1959 and at the time I was driving truck. At this particular time I was doing runs to Windsor hauling Rye for Whiskey. It was late in the fall, and as I came to Tilbury it was late and starting to get dark. I could see the lights from the track, here was my chance to see another track. I was empty but it was still a pain moving the truck around the narrow streets, as I remember it, the track was in town. I liked the little oval as soon as I saw it, this track had a lot of history and the layout was great. That being said, on this cold evening it seemed that not many fans or drivers cared that much for the place as there were only 13 cut downs and very few fans in the stands, 200 tops.

The surface was one of the smoothest dirt tracks I had ever seen. I did not see any other class of cars and when your entire second division doesn’t show up, that’s not good but they may not have had a decent sized group in the first place. It was cold so nobody sat down, everyone was standing and moving around trying to stay warm. Then the owner/Promoter came on the PA and thanked us all for coming and gave us the option to watch the show with 13 cars or they would give us our money back and we could all go home. It was unanimous, everyone was here to either race or spectate so they put on a show for what were real race fans. If memory serves me right there were two heats, a pursuit and the main. I can only remember one of the drivers and car, he was from Detroit….They called him Jungle Jim Nelson and he had the competition covered.

I was talking with some of the folks near me and they said that the promoter had told them earlier that if there wasno crowd or no cars that that would be the end. Joey Atkinson would know more about this and I’m sure they would have been there. I went back years later and could find nothing of the track, someone said he tore down the stands and built a house with the wood….

Sunny Glen Raceway

Here’s one I bet a lot of you never even heard of, it’s kind of a sneaker as it wasn’t a stock car oval, yet they did race stock cars on it, (well, sort of) they were called Sedans. Sunny Glen Raceway was a one mile off road track with ups and downs, lefts and rights and at one point you had the option of taking a high speed jump or taking the slow shorter route through some water. We only went there once, there was a convoy of us that met in Blenheim Ontario in the Southwest part of the Province where we met up with the Promoter Doug Sutton and followed him to the track west of town in an old gravel pit. At the time I was racing 4 cylindars better known as Mini Stocks along with Doug Sutton and many others.

When Doug and Grace  put on an Off Road event I always went along and helped out wherever I could. This particular time, I was doing the announcing and my wife was scoring. So, early on the Sunday morning we loaded up the three kids and a trunk full of stuff for a day at the races. Our car was a ’73 Valiant two door with the slant 6 engine. In the weeks prior to this particular Sunday I had put a roll bar in the car, not a cage, just a bar with two braces into the trunk. As we were leaving Brantford I had to make a stop to pick up an old buddy Herbie Gashgarian, he didn’t say much on the way down.

So, now we are at the track and everybody has their little jobs to do. The kids were roaming around, my wife and I were in the tower and Herbie was with the car. The Dune Buggy’s and Sedans had their warm up sessions and then the races started. Everything was great until “The Sedans” came out with numbers on the roof and doors and, yes, Herbie in the drivers seat. I was not the most popular person there, even the kids were a bit ticked off as they loved that car [ before the race]. Well, the story had a good ending as it didn’t crash, blow up or burn but it was sure dirty. Herbie finished last in class and by the time we were half way home it turned into a funny experience. The Valiant ran in two more Off Road events, one at Sunset Speedway and once at K.I.R. at the old Hide A Way Speedway near Stratford and at both of these events we finished a consistant last.

Strathroy Fairgrounds

I don’t know if they raced cars at the Strathroy Fairgrounds prior to this, but I know we went there to race our Mini’s as an added event. I had been running with a bunch of Mini Stock drivers out of Ohio, also with the 4 cylindar club at Nilestown. Two of the Nilestown drivers were from Strathroy, one was Pete Kenny. One nightat the races he asked us if we would like to run at the fair. We said yes and so it was arranged and about 20 of us showed up but none of them had ever dealt with running on a dirt track on a hot fall day. The heats were not too bad but when we ran the main you couldn’t see two car lengths ahead. I’m crazy but not stupid, I ran low and slow and stayed out of trouble at the back of the pack.

Next year was a lot better, as there was a water truck. Now, this race was one wweek after getting back from a big Mini Stock race at Pocono where over 160 cars were entered…..it was fun and during time trials, I had the honor of fast time…. then they sent out the second car, (no, I didn’t make the field) but my old buddy Herb was there with his car and there were some more Canadians that did get into the show such as Don Roberts, Vern Houghton and Randy Slack. We’ll make this short as it is not Ontario but it includes Ontario Drivers. You had to be tubed and this was my first OHC engine, I didn’t know how to time it and put the cam back proper. Herb did, but he was off a bit and the car ran bad…

Now, back to Stratroy the following Sunday, the track is good and I had fixed the cam problem. In the main at the fair, Herb is leading and I am on his tail, I kept trying to get under him so he kept low. On the last lap he gained a few car lengths coming out of turn 2, this is what I wanted as I was able to keep my foot in it, stayed outside and beat him by about 3 feet. I did feel a bit mean about winning as we all got the same money, but for me to win at a fairground was special (I never got to race at the Ancaster Fairgrounds). We never got to go back to the Strathroy track as they took out the 1/2 mile and just used the front straight for showing animals….. but, I did win the last car race there….

Courtesy of Jim Dunham