Lakehead Stock Car Club Tidbits from the Past!!

It's nice, mid winter to go back through the old stock car photos and ponder upon some of the crazy goings on that took place during the Lakehead Stock Car Club days, back at the old Canadian Lakehead Exhibition race track......this one caught my eye, talking about kids, and adults too cheap to spend two bits to come and sit in the grandstand and view the races how they were supposed to be viewed. Click on the clipping and the photos to enlarge them. Lets go back to 1954.

Here is the clipping and here is Jim Manduca in the ditch going into corner three. Now look close at the third picture cut out of the middle one...you can see these kids in the trees(you can hardly make them out) trying to get a glimpse of their favourite driver, and in this case lucky to be alive as Jim almost clobbered the tree and knocked the kids clean out!!! HEY...I think that's me in the middle!!

Here is the picture and the close up just above Barry Kettering's famed #47 of a threesome just waiting to be hit. Another thing spectators did was to park their trucks as close as they could to the board fence of the track and stand on the box or roof. They must have forgotten that some stock car jockeys would actually take out about 100 feet of fence on occasion.

Here is another one showing all the cheap skates on the other side of the fence and on the far right of the first picture, they are actually standing on the roof of the house across Northern Ave. I wouldn't take a chance falling off my house to save a quarter!!! Would you?

This one shows American driver Jerry Richert's car and sure enough, a ton of folks looking through an opening in the fence already created by an out of control stock jock....yet they still stand there.
Next...Stock Car Club in "HOLE"?

Here is a typical write up regarding our city council and the Lakehead Stock Car Club back in 1963 arguing about Sunday racing. Reading these two articles reminds me of some of the stuff in today's newspaper....you know....wasting time about petty stuff instead of getting something important done!! Its a good read and a good laugh.
Next - High Flyers!

The photographers who took these two photos were either incredible or just lucky to have shown flying tires in both photos. The first one is an unknown driver tossing his tire while negotiating the #1 turn, also known as the barn turn at the CLE track. These barns would be located just to the south side of the present day Golf Dome at the CLE. The second photo is of Murray Simmons, just ejecting his tire as well. See how high they travelled....it's a miracle that no one was ever struck by one that I remember. The other notable thing is that if you look close there are big holes in both wheels which tells me that the whole center of the wheel came out on both occasions. Finally take note in the Simmons photo of the Coliseum building that still stands today in relation to the track.
Finally - Puffs :-)

Here is a very cool clipping and group photo of the Powder Puff Racing Girls of the Lakehead Stock Car Club. This was one of the popular race events that took place back in the early 1950's. These photos were taken in 1953. The guys that loaned their cars to these girls were chewing down on their finger nails until the race was over, as they still needed their own cars to compete for the rest of the day. The last photo is how the pictures appeared in the 1953 LSCC program.
Thanks for looking.....hope you enjoyed this one... Dave
Click on all photos to enlarge!

Winter Storms Bring Winter Memories.....

The recent storms in the mid western and eastern USA and Canada conjure up a ton of winter memories as a kid. It was pretty cool(no pun intended) to see winter scenes in 1950's car brochures and on billboards, since Fort William and Port Arthur was covered in that white stuff for at least six months of the year. The ads would show that these cars were also very hardy in the winter months as well as in summer.

Here is a bright red 1956 Buick hardtop and a metallic green 1954 Chrysler cruising along one of our slippery highways possibly in Northwestern Ontario. The first picture also shows some ice sailing and a few skiers. What incredible art work for their day. Also remember how tough it was to keep those white sidewalls clean in the winter.

Here's a 1936 Canadian Prestone ad from Liberty magazine. The art work is always great in these old ads.
Pyroil was a super additive for your oil. I would imagine it was similar to STP. It would decrease the friction from the metal to metal cold winter starts. Pyroil still makes many engine and fuel additives to this day.

Willard still makes batteries to this day as well. I always enjoy the wonderful art work that was on billboards back in the '40's and '50's. This is a US Mobilgas winter urban ad that would have appeared in Life or Post magazine.

Another automobile ad from the 1940's is Pyro anti-freeze. Pyro is another company that survived the test of time to continue to produce many automotive additives to this day including rust inhibitor and brake fluids.
The Firestone studded tires in this ad looked like they could plough through anything. It took from this ad to the present day to perfect studded tires for the street. After a few accidents from studs coming out of the tires and injuring people, they were outlawed for the street for many years, but I believe you can buy studded tires again. Check out the cool old Skidoo in the same ad as well.

Here is a beautiful piece of architectural work. Many service stations were designed to look like homes or mansions to appear friendly and inviting to the customer. Today's gas only and/or convenience store(definitely without service) are boring edifices in our modern day compared to then. The last winter billboard style art piece is of a beautiful 1960 Wide-track Pontiac at a ski resort...what beautiful lines.
Be sure to click on the pictures to enlarge them!