CLE Championship Racing 1958 - New and never seen before racing photos from our home towns of Fort William and Port Arthur.....

I'm always on the hunt for new photos that have never been posted here, and as time goes on, there are fewer and fewer.  This past August I was given a little album of photos by old friend Bernard (Bernie) Malanych.  They were taken by him on September 12th and 13th of 1958 at the International Dirt Track Stock Car Championships here in Fort William at the Lakehead Exhibition Race Track.  The photos that were taken by Bernie will still have the white border and were about 3 1/2 inches square taken by his typical Brownie Camera in the day.  The rest of the photos and programs are from my own archive of CLE racing photos.
So, we start off here by showing you the title page of the program and the center page with the roster of drivers many of which you will surely remember if you were a kid in 1958.

This is what the outside of the little album of photos looks like and again if you were around at that time you will remember.

There are some smudges on the photos, but that kind of adds to their authenticity from the day.  This one of the cars coming down the main stretch in front of the old Grandstand, with the judges stand across all in white.  I added a little cutout from the photo below it.

Here's a picture of Jerry MacDonald's car in front of the grandstand.  You can read Jerry's data from the clipping below the picture.  Those little cameras took great photos in the day.  We were restricted to 8 or usually 12 photos on the film, not like unlimited digital is today, and you never knew if your photos turned out until you had them developed and returned in about a week.

Next we have three photos of the little cut down car...the beginning of what was to come in racing around the country and into the mid west USA, driven by Fred Coleman from Winnipeg, Man., with a little write up below the photos

This is a photo from my own archives

So much could be said about our own Barry Kettering.  There are many pages, write-ups and photos of Barry on the Hotrods and Jalopies generation blog pages....I will add a link to more stuff on Barry.  Incidentally Barry had already became the 1958 track Champion as seen on the newspaper clipping advertising this event. 

Here's a link to a plethora of Barry Kettering photos etc. that are on this site...wait 'til you've read this complete post then come back to this link, click on it scroll down as far as you want.
https://hotrodsandjalopies.blogspot.com/search?q=Barry+Kettering



Here's a guy that frequented the CLE racetrack and Riverview Raceway throughout the years, Bud (Buddy) Mayala from Clear Lake Wisconsin...a nice little write-up follows this photo as well.

Another all time favorite and racing legend #519 Russ Laursen also frequented the local Canadian Lakehead Exhibition racetrack until his untimely death in a racing accident back in 1970.  These guys came here to add to the action and were never disappointing......how I miss those days.

Russ Laursen holding the trophy from this 1958 event....this is a great photo thanks again to Bernie.

Dean Harrington...Mister U2 and WJMC Radio sponsored was another fan favorite that came up to Fort William many times in the day, and spent over 60 years involved in racing, particularly in the Rice Lake, Wisconsin area.

I am posting Bernie's last photo, just because it was the last photo in the little album, but I'm not too sure who's car it was....look close....are you in this photo.
Thanks again to Bernie Malanych for the donation of your photo album to the Hotrods and Jalopies generation blog pages.  Much appreciated.
PS...A big apology Bernie, I spelled your last name incorrectly on the photo water marks, and can't change it now....😇 Sorry.

1950's Jalopies, Demolition Derbies and Local History at Fort William and Port Arthur, Ontario...

This first "Jalopy" picture is none other than the Rice Lake, Wisconsin's own Dean Harrington #U2.  This picture was taken in front of 297 North Cumberland St., in Port Arthur Ontario(now Thunder Bay).  There were plenty of businesses at this address during the 1950's and later years such as:  Stan's Auto Electric in 1957/58, McEwen Station #2 in 1959/60, Kallio's Husky Service in at least 1961/62, and North Cumberland Service in the 1970's.  It is presently called Mike's Main Service today as shown in the photo below.  Many local businesses sponsored the American Cars when they came here to race in those years.

 Here you can see the similarity of the building top in the 1957 photo and the 2011 photo.

Dean Harrington raced his 1934 Ford 3 window and 5 window coupes from 1955 until 1962 during the "Glory Days" with sponsors such as "Stinn Motor Company", "WJMC AM-FM Radio", and Rice Lake Auto Salvage.  Dean still runs to this day.  In recent years, Jim Hinsperger of Thunder Bay did a complete restoration of one of Dean's older Super Modified cars, which I will do a separate post in coming months.
Click on all photos for enlargements!

 Here is a great team shot of Al Cruikshank's car(Al is top left) driven by none other than a very young Albert Massaro(crouching with his number #36 jacket on).  Above Albert is Arny Untinen, and sitting on the running board is Al Cruikshank's son, Tom.  This is of course before Al Massaro drove his famed #88 for many years back then.

 Driving here is Fran "Junior" Speer.  Junior is driving the Wes Inkster car after Wes had received serious injuries in this same car back in the 1950's.  The car is about a 1934 Plymouth coupe.  Check out the masses of people in the old grandstand building. 
FOOTNOTE:  For those of you that can't remember, the grandstand in these photos is located in approximately the same spot as the Silver City Movie Theatre, and the track was located in the same spot as the present day Golf Dome!

     

Click on either of these two photos and you may see me in the midst of all the kids watching this demolition derby, held just in front of the grandstand at the CLE track.  I vividly remember being there and where I was standing.  Too bad they are wrecking a very nice 1947 Chevrolet Sedan Delivery and a similar year Plymouth.....but they were just old used cars and we all loved it then!!

This final photo taken at the CLE track is an old I believe 1950 Ford sedan driven all the way from Proctor Minnesota to advertise their races on Wednesday and Sunday nights.  Proctor Speedway still runs their races to this very day.....Lots to say for smaller communities that support what is historically important from the 1950's well into the next millennium.
You can still see the present day Dorothy Dove building on the left, the old Mahon's Memorial Store sign on the right and that old elevator in the background that still stands to this day behind the Mahon's sign.  I really enjoy seeing the hand lettering done in those days and the wonderful fonts they used.....and as usual, I hope you enjoyed these photos.