"WHEN THERE WAS THUNDER" an historic event in your home town...don't miss it.....

Read the poster below and all of this post to see 4 generations of racing photos.  Be sure to free up the time to attend this historic event being held at the Canadian Lakehead Exhibition Coliseum in your home town, Thunder Bay.

We start off with a couple of original Murillo Speedway photos from 1950.

In these two photos you can see the huge Murillo grandstand packed with people.  The fan base in Fort William, Port Arthur and Murillo Ontario was always very supportive.  Click on each picture to enlarge them for more detail.

#77 was Clyde Ditmars of Kakabeka and #37 was Glen Kettering

The 00 Snitch Special Plymouth was none other than Barry Kettering

 Next came the Canadian Lakehead Exhibition and the Lakehead Stock Car Club in 1952

Then came the Canadian Lakehead Exhibition track in 1952 to the delight of local race fans who did have to or want to travel out to Murillo in the day.  This famous logo became the benchmark iconic sign of The Lakehead Stock Car Club, which appeared on numerous programs and racing jackets in the 1950's and 1960's

The Massaro Brothers Tony 87 and Albert 88..photo circa 1953/4

 The Canadian Lakehead Exhibition half mile race track.  Most of the homes and businesses in the area are still there.  You can still see the Memorial Ave trees, and in this particular picture, the rides at the CLE across the river.

This photo of the track was taken from the May Street side....look close and you can see the old Arch between Fort William and Port Arthur, and this one was also during fair week.  The course of the river was changed over time due to the construction of the new McIntyre flood-way.

In 1967 came a new state of the art track built by the combined efforts of The Northern Ontario Timing Association and E. J. Bernosky

 A 3/8 mile oval which was the pride of our organization...a perfect location.

Here's high flying Merv Dove, former Lakehead Stock Car Club driver and Riverview flagman, flagging Stan Anderson to a Victory.  Merv claims to this day that he can still jump that high.

Yours truly picking up a checkered flag in 1968....the photo on the right is #98 Al Brescia and #17 Lonal Lajoie.  You vintage Sprint car guys have to fill me in as to who the driver below of #2 was...(was it Jerry Richert?...He drove the #2 Super Mod for a few years).                             The last photo of the group is one of the early fall Championship races at Riverview.

Finally, we have Mosquito Speedway who now hosts a fan filled fall classic early each fall.

You can see by the number of cars and fans at Mosquito Speedway that the need for speed has not slowed down at all in our home town of Thunder Bay....so be sure to come out and support this great two day event, meet some of your old friends and meet some of the great guys that started it all back at Murillo and the Canadian Lakehead Exhibition race track.

Finally....please note that Jeff Caldwell will have his final run of hats from Murillo, CLE and Riverview available for sale at the event....don't miss out.

 

Thank You