Rarely do we find an old piece of never seen before film from the original Canadian Lakehead Exhibition 1/2 mile track, and before I show it to you, I have to thank a few people for it's find and excellent film transfer to present day digital.
Firstly, I believe the photographer back in 1953 was Y. W. Nelson of Port Arthur as noted on the 8mm film pack. It was given to me by Louis Shaw for my exclusive use. The film transfer was done by Mark Lucchese of "Once In A Lifetime Productions" who did an incredible job keeping as much colour and clarity as possible. To get the best transfer is having the original film to do it.
Many of the names and numbers you will see don't match the ones later in the 1950's. The Lakehead Stock Car Club was in its infancy here and drivers were just starting out, many changed cars and numbers as time went on, but what you see and read here is taken from archives.
I will show the silent film first, then I will do a rundown on who all the drivers were back in 1953/54. You can enlarge the film to full screen by passing your mouse and clicking on the little box on the bottom right hand corner of the film clip then click on Esc (escape) on your computer to bring it back to here.
The play by play starts and continues as each car number appears in the film:
Parked in the pits in the front is the #2 black and white car driven by Tom Dow, and parked next to him in red and white is #3 driven by Eddie Cusson. The #89 black with white lettering is Pat Allen. Next to him in pale yellow is #88, Albert Massaro.
Cruising by is #57 driven by Brent Hard. #97 in red and white is John Cole. The tri-coloured car is #37 driven by Glen Kettering.
Following that is an overhead pit shot. They lined up the cars in the pits in numerical order for the judges.
Lined up next are the red #73, Jim Manduca, then #57 Brent Hard, followed by #88, Albert Massaro showing its checkered top. #3 is Eddie Cusson, #97 is John Cole. These cars commence a race.
With the photographer actually standing on the top or the old original grandstand you can clearly see all the elevators on the waterfront and pretty much nothing at all in the intercity area.
Massaro and Cusson battle for 1st place, and if you look closely you can see #7 driven by Louis Tocheri in Maroon and Yellow. Passing Louis is #11 driven by John Zatti (The Potter and Kerr car). Coming in neck and neck is #11 John Zatti and #90 Dickie Tonkin.
Parked in front of the grandstand is the famous silver #47, One of Barry Kettering's first car (the roller skate car).
Lining up is #83, a studebaker driven by John Panvica, then #89 driven by Pat Allen. Pulling out of the pits is #49, a Dominion Motors sponsored Pontiac driven by Conrad Trombelli.
The #95 7up car driven by Bob Cameron with a nice lead, but coming our of turn 2 hit the rub rail and rolled it. Then can't quite see who took the win.
Next you see #99, another car driven by Johnny Panvica (different class) Classes were slow car and fast car determined by time trials and modifications. Then you see #37 the Glen Kettering car, then the extra nice orange '49 Ford #15 driven by Sam Myronuk.
The next scene shows single file, first the checkered top car #77 driven my Clyde Ditmars from Kakabeka Falls, then #2 Tom Dow, then the blue #99 Johnny Panvica. Another car you can see here is #98 driven by Ross "Pappy" Fowler.
The film ends with #37 Glen Kettering and #15 Sam Myronuk in a dead heat at the finish.
I hope you enjoyed this treasure. It is the best coloured and oldest film I have seen from The Lakehead Stock Car Club. 1953
The Centerfold from the 1953 program below shows all the names and numbers.
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