Recently recovered photos from the Canadian Lakehead Exhibition Racing Days in our home towns of Fort William and Port Arthur, Ontario....

     With much thanks to Paula Orr and the owner of these photos, Gary Becotte and with permission we are able to add an all new HR&J post after many months.  Some of these photos are very rare to me as not many have been taken of these cars, particularly Tom Dow's car and his hauler.  A few other photos were taken from what was called the mezzanine.  The CLE added extra uncovered bleachers on the north side of the covered grandstand a few years after racing started at the CLE in the early 1950's.

The first photo here is of Tom Dow's race car hauler painted to match his car back in 1954.  The picture was taken in the lane-way behind what was the original Dow's Auto Electric which was located at 112 N. May St. later to become Chris' Billiard Hall.  The building still exists today in the same location.  

The building in the background here is the rear of the original St. Stanislaus (Stan's) school which also still exists today....the front of it faces Miles St.  

Tom and his brother built and tuned Tom's #2 car in that building on 112 N. May.  This is also where Tom met Barry Kettering who worked a few years before then for Thorne's Sargent Automotive which was located on the large parking lot on Violet St., before a spectacular fire had destroyed it.

The next photo here is the rear of the old St. Stan's school which can be seen behind the above photo and behind the following photo as well.

Here's is how Tom Dow's car looked in 1953/54.  It was a 1932 Ford 3-window coupe.  The holy grail of the Hot Rod world today.

The building below is the rear of 112 N. May St. as it looks today.  You can see where the centre of the garage area was once opened to a large door where the Dow brothers worked on #2.

The picture on the right is of a very young Tom Dow in racing whites.... well I guess they were white before the races started.

It's interesting to read the newspaper article below from July 29, 1954 to see what was happening at the old CLE 1/2 mile racetrack.  Tom did go on to win the 1954 Championship and carry the trophy home.

 Next:

The following scrap yard photo is the first race car that Walter (Wally) (Walt) Prokosh raced at the CLE grounds in the same era that Tom Dow raced.  The car was sponsored by D & J Stitt Menswear, and Mid City Machinery.  It stood the test of time in 1953 but succumbed to it's injuries and by the end of the year, Wally had a brand new Jalopy to race.

 

Here's Wally's next car...a very nice '37 Ford coupe with the same sponsors and number 55.  Wally did pretty well with this car but destiny would change his future as you will see in the next photo.

Wally was offered a driver's seat in the bright yellow #54 car owned and built by the Abitibi Power and Paper Company of Port Arthur.  This winning car gave Wally a big name in the racing community here in the early 1950's.  It was a 1933 Ford 3-window coupe.  The use here of the wide 5 wheels from Ford's 1936 vehicles helped hold them to the hub at a 10 1/2 bolt circle.  There were less wheel loss from a larger circle and the racing community continued to use the 10 1/2's for decades to come particularly on sprint cars.

Here's a great picture of Wally Prokosh, cig in hand and goggled helmet being very cool with his new jalopy to drive.  This car also had a Ford overhead valve engine which basically put most of the flathead engines back in the pack.

Next:

Smack dab in the middle of these great photos is this very early, circa 1953 photo of Don Marsh's #60 car which I believe was Don's very first stock car, sporting a Ford flathead engine and a yellow and black paint scheme.  Don also did very well in his early years of racing.

 

From the Mezzanine this photo was taken of #77 Clyde Ditmars from Kakabeka Falls leading an unknown driver here coming out of turn 4.  There was consistant great racing at the CLE track in the 1950's and as a kid I dreamed about someday racing a jalopy, but it had to wait until I was older and until Riverview Raceway was built, and by then they weren't called jalopies.

 

Here's another of Wally Prokosh coming out of turn 4 as well with what looks like someone on their lid halfway through the corner.  Not clear but who cares....these are great photos.

 

Here's another of Wally in #54 with #36 further down the track. 

Finally we have Albert Massaro in his Rea's Esso #88 car going the wrong way 👈😂 ....and I have no idea who's driving the blurred car. 

Lastly here is the actual Lakehead Stock Car Club logo which was put to use on literally hundreds of racing jackets from the good old Canadian Lakehead Exhibition days.

All the above photos were copied and edited to make them as clear as we could to bring out the detail. Thanks again to Gary Becotte for the photos and Paula Orr for bringing them to our attention at the Hotrods and Jalopies blog pages.  A couple of my archive photos and a news clip were also added.

......thanks for visiting us again at HR&J, with more new racing posts to come.

Canadian Lakehead Exhibition 1953 fresh and new Stock Car film with written play by play from our home towns of Fort William and Port Arthur, Ont.

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.

 

The Battle with the Fence at the Canadian Lakehead Exhibition Race Track in the 1950's in our home towns of Fort William and Port Arthur, Ontario...

 This is one of my favourites that I decided to re-post.  This is my first and only re-post which was originally shown about 3 years ago...enjoy again!

The photos here may have been the best of the best when it came to keeping the Canadian Lakehead Exhibition carpenters in gainful employment during the 1950's.  The wooden fence was to keep non paying cheapskate fans from viewing the unprecedented dirt racing excitement for free.  The fence was built without even an eye width crack in between the boards and I had heard that even knot holes were covered with an additional piece of wood.

However, this didn't stop the jalopy jockeys from helping the non paying customers to a free show by continually cleaning out yards and yards of fence.  Initially there was just a wooden fence beside the track.  Along Northern Ave., and just outside the wooden part was a wire fence with a barbed wire top.....The fair folks weren't fooling around when it came to discouraging free viewing.

Obviously that didn't deter the stock car pilots from tearing up most of the fence, so the fairgrounds opted for wooden beams all round the track, just inside the stockade.   Some people thought they were only railroad ties, but closely scrutinizing some of these photos, the wooden "rub rail" as we called it was more like 12" X 12" beams....well, maybe some of it was RR ties.

As you can see in this first photo, Bill Kruse driving the #41 Bolduc Tire car very systematically  took out about 20 feet of wooden fence, around turn #2 along Northern Ave.  Here it doesn't look like there was much of a rub rail, but you will see in some of the following 28 photos that there was a very heavy duty rub rail installed as early as 1953.

Here is a 1953 newspaper clipping on the problem.  The problematic fence destruction at the CLE track never actually ended until the very last race was held here in 1966.  Be sure to click on all the photos once or twice to get a full screen size rendition of all the photos.

In the picture to the right Louis Tocheri #19 did his share of fence destruction while the fans outside the barricade jumped for joy, as there was a huge gap in the fence where they could watch the whole nights events in full colour for FREE.

 On the left you can really see how high the rub rail became early in the 1954 racing season, but it didn't deter #88 Albert Massaro from tearing out a few yards of the track's enclosure.
On a side note here, Rea's Esso Service was located in the exact spot as the large parking lot for the Spence Clinic building (Arthur Square).  That's on the corner of Arthur and Mark's St.


Here, Mike Guzzi's #4 is sitting on top of some very large beams of wood....I can't imagine what it would be like to jump up on those rub rails.  Hitting a tire on the infield of Riverview Raceway was a hard enough hit in the day.

 Here Glen Kettering #37 and Fred Danis #22 mix it up on top of the rub rail as Tony Massaro #87 goes speeding by.  You can also vividly see the Canadian Lakehead Exhibition Coliseum building in the background to put this photo in perspective.









In this photo we have Jerry Whittaker #75 and a very rare photo of Tom Dow's black and white #2 car mixing it up coming out of turn 4 and heading towards the grandstand stretch.....again the beams here are quite large, but sort of protected some of the fence on the west side of the track.

 Tony Massaro had wrecked quite a few vintage cars of the day and this one is no exception....when this car drove out onto the track, it still had its original hubcaps in place and the license plate as you can see here is still intact.....and....oh yes, 40 or 50 feet of fence was gone in this incident.



Barry Kettering is sitting on the side bar of his #47 "Bud's Thing" race car with a member of his pit crew bent over being sure that Barry was OK after removing over 70 feet of fence and sitting on top of the rub rail.  The rest of the boys are wondering how to get it off the high wooden rub rail.  On the back of Barry's car it reads "Bass Ackwards"....do you remember that saying? .....and on the top above the back window it says "Royal Triton Motor Oil".

Jim Manduca #73 had his share of fence removal as well.  Read this post right to the end to see the best story yet with Jim involved.  As you can see there is quite a bit of fence gone here and also the barbed wire didn't stop anyone from standing on top of the wire fence in the background, and the guys on their truck roof now have a direct view of the whole race track.

In this photo the #21 driver is unknown, the #12 car was the Deluxe Flower Shop deuce coupe driven by Cye Kehoe, and just about to rip through the fence and into what was known as the cattle barns on turn 1 on our half mile CLE track is non other than Ed Cusson's #13 car.  The barns nicely curved along turn 1 and were a target for may jalopy in the day.

This is a great photo of John Stad's #6 car just inches away from being a river rat.  The angle of the track was such that if you left the track between turn 3 and 4, this is where you would end up.  Many jalopies met their demise on this corner.  Interestingly in the background you can see the old CLE walking bridge that would lead to the parking lot and the midway during fair week.  Below is Barry Ketterings cute little '32 Ford 5W coupe "Bud's Thing" with its nose into the river at a night time race meet at about the same spot as John Stad's car above......but Barry had some help from a higher source and had it proudly displayed on the back bumper of his little coupe....It stated "In God We Trust".... It must have helped because his little #47 never did go all the way in....they were able to get it out of the river and into the next race.

Here is #88 Albert Massaro eyeing up the front of his car wondering if they will ever be able to recover it from the outside of the wooden stockade.  This was actually an earlier photo when there was little or no rub rail to keep you inside the track.  It was truly amazing how many people watched from truck boxes and standing atop the barbed wire...If everyone was inside in the grandstand, they could probably have topped the 6000 fan mark.

Another picture showing the CLE Coliseum in the background.  This is #35 car driven by Don Deacon sitting high and dry atop the famed rub rail we talked about so much on this post.  Check out the size of that front bumper protecting the fragile radiator.

Yet another 50 feet of fence down.....truly I would have hated to be the carpenter or even one of a crew of carpenters to have to repair this fence every single week.  This is the #60 car driven by Don Marsh......and as we know, so many of these wonderful little pieces of hot rod material were destroyed.  The '32 Ford coupe was and still is today the most quintessential piece of hot rod material ever made by any manufacturer.  Click twice to enlarge all photos.

Read the story above and then click here on the two photos mentioned above...click on either once or twice to enlarge them for a screen size view.

Now look at this unidentified jalopy literally hopping over the rub rail and wiping out another 50 feet of fence.... "How did I do that?" he said, and "Geez, I parked my vehicle right there before the races too.....Oh Nooo."

Here again and below is Jim Manduca in his #73  Ford coupe after about a 200 foot new gap in the CLE fence.....The ecstatic fans on the other side of the fence can watch the race for free now and they won't even have to stand on the bus turnaround shelter.  The scenery in the background is of course the bus terminal between Fort William and Port Arthur  on Fort William Road....remember transferring buses between the twin cities there?  The fair board is sure missing a ton of revenue here again.

 #79 was Murray Simmons, and the next two photos of Murray's cars were basically taken at the same time but one from track side and one from the other side.  You can see how dangerous the wooden posts would be splintering like this.  One of the most serious accidents that happened at the CLE track was to Wes Inkster in about 1957.  He lost an eye due to wood fragments and had many health issues later due to his accident.

Malcolm Galbraith is seen here on the right in his little #35  '32 Ford 3W coupe.  It almost looks like the little jalopy had a mind of its own and just wanted to jump the rub rail and tear down a long length of fence.  This again is along Northern Ave and a new home is being built there....obviously no complaints about the dirt and noise had yet been heard.

Here is the best photo of the post in my opinion.  It is Jim Manduca again in the ditch as he just entered the #3 turn, and guess what.....yes you did, another 30 feet of fence is down....but scroll down and LOOK at the next photo for the detail to see what or who is in the tree that was narrowly missed by Jim.

Click on the clip to read it better.... Hope you enjoyed this post...and hope you're all having a great summer.  Dave.

More of the 1950's at the Canadian Lakehead Exhibition Race Track in our home towns of Fort William and Port Arthur

It's difficult to believe that fully organized racing began here in our Lakehead cities as far back as the 1920s, but the Hotrods and Jalopies Generation in my mind started in 1952 with a race held in Murillo in August and the first race of the Lakehead Stock Car Racing assoc. started at the Canadian Lakehead Exhibition in the late fall of 1952.
So as we start a brand new blog post months overdue, we have donated photos from Glen Kettering's album, Cindy Patton's album (Wally Prokosh's daughter) and Glenn McKinnon's photos.  Thanks to all those who have taken the time to donate photos for our use.  This fall and into winter we have numerous more photos and news clippings that I will share with you, both on early racing and Fort William and Port Arthur history.
To start off, the first photos are mementos of the very first Lakehead Stock Car Racing Association's program and race day which took place on October 6, 1952.

The first LSCRA program with thanks to Glen and Miriam Kettering

 This next piece is the 1952 Roster.  Do you recognize any of your friends or relatives that raced that first race?  Be sure to click on all the photos and brochures to view screen size.


























The next two are Times Journal clippings of the historic event.  You can vividly see the old animal barns that were at the south end of the track in turn 1 & 2.

 

Here is an interesting photo of the #34 Kam Motors car driven by Onorio(Canary) Trevisan and Bill Chepil.  This then and now photo was taken from the original Kam Motors used car lot on Leith st facing towards the garage.  It is now a taxi business.

With much thanks to Glenn McKinnon we have this full color slide to share with you.  This is a circa 1956 photo taken from the Grandstand towards the judges stand and I believe during fair week.  The old wooden fence circling the track is visual as well as a few elevators along the waterfront.  The track would encircle what was also once the golf dome with is now gone as well.  Wouldn't it be great to build the track in its original place again.....not likely.

As I drove by Current River and Current River park the other day, I was remembering The Casino Dine and Dance which was just adjacent (south of) the Current River dam which eventually burned to the ground.  It was a favorite of my parents to have a nice dinner together and spend a night on the dance floor.  Oddly enough it was never a real Casino.  As you can see they even sponsored a stock car in about 1953.

I always like to show the close proximity of the track to where the Coliseum Building is today, and this one is no exception.  With thanks to Wally Prokosh's daughter Cindy Patton we have a number of new clippings and photos which will be brought out over the coming months.  In front and possibly in the last lap is #49 Conrad Trombelli just ahead of #87 Tony Massaro as they pass the gate and the Coliseum building.

The next photo is of Conrad Trombelli taking the checkered flag in front of a packed grandstand and off to the right, the mezzanine area which was the uncovered portion of the grandstand to the north.  Yours truly is somewhere in the crowd selling cokes to get into the races for free.

This is a a very interesting photo of my hero Barry Kettering with a seriously damaged #47 car circa 1953.  Barry's #47 cars were sponsored by Bud Heidrick.  One day when Bud was at the shop and Barry wasn't around, roller skates were welded to the top of his car.  Bud had told Barry that he would have to leave the roller skates on his car until he stopped rolling over.  Obviously Barry did, lost the roller skates and went on to much bigger and better things until his very sad and untimely death years later.  The red rectangle shows the roller skate on his car.

 Here's a typical photo clipping from our newspapers in the day.  We always had great racing coverage which made for record crowds on race days.

 Another clipping from Cindy Patton to enjoy.

In 1957 Barry and Glen Kettering had built a brand new car and was dubbed #57 for the year of change.  Here is Glen and Barry with their horseshoed 34 Ford coupe named Poopsie.  This car went on to numerous wins for the Kettering brothers.

 The last clip on this post is from Cindy as well.  It was a 1958 notification that Wally Prokosh, her dad was back in the lineup with a vengeance and would also see many successful race days at the Canadian Lakehead Exhibition race track.

 Hope you enjoyed this post.  I've been busy working on my new hot rod project and recovering from some health issues, so if you liked this, let me know and I will get back on track on the blog and slow down somewhat on my Facebook page.  Thanks, Dave