27 replies to this topic

[Victoria Watcher]

“We’re trying to put some kind of motorsports park together,” says VISSA president Steve Copp.

“We know the big history of Western Speedway and Westshore … that’s been here long before any of us.”

The society’s current plans for a new facility include a short oval track, an integrated road course, drag strip and a family RV park. It’s a vision that the City of Langford is open to.

“We’re working with anybody that’s got ideas or tracks of land that would work for a speedway,” says Langford Mayor Stew Young.


https://www.cheknews...-island-927617/

Edited by Victoria Watcher, 16 December 2021 - 05:50 AM.

[Victoria Watcher]

A group trying to find a new home for Western Speedway says it has four potential sites, all within 30 minutes of the current site on Millstream Road.

Steve Copp, who is heading the non-profit Vancouver Island Safe Speed Association, said the four sites range from 50 to 110 acres, but the society isn’t releasing the locations, as it’s in talks with local municipalities.

“It will be an uphill battle,” he said. “If it were easy, anyone could have done it by now.”

The Langford race track, which starts its last season on Saturday, has to vacate the land it’s been sitting on for 60 years by the end of October.


https://www.timescol...e-track-5455021

Edited by Victoria Watcher, 08 June 2022 - 01:49 AM.

[Victoria Watcher]

It was a bittersweet day for drivers and fans of Westshore Motorsports Park, as dozens of race cars enveloped the streets of Langford for the final Race Car Parade.

“We’re all going to miss it and it’s going to be very bittersweet,” said racer Spencer Carlson in an interview with CHEK News.

Formerly known as Western Speedway, the track on Millstream Road is shutting down after nearly 70 years.

In conjunction with its 44th annual Canada 200 race, a police-led parade beginning at the oval made its way to the Goldstream fountain, drawing in hundreds of fans on Saturday.

https://www.cheknews...parade-1085623/

Edited by Victoria Watcher, 04 September 2022 - 05:29 AM.

[Sparky]

Bitter for the racers and fans… sweet for the neighbours.

[dasmo]

Pretty much. It’s loud! My oldest can’t really do loud very well so I never took him. I used to enjoy hit to pass. It’s bitter sweet for sure.

[AllseeingEye]

IMO in spite of the long history of auto racing in the area its never really appealed to a broad mass of folks; I don't think there is any question that those who are into the sport, and especially those who remember the well known drivers from back in the day including Roy Smith, Roy Haslam, Billy Foster etc., are equally as passionate about their interest in motor racing locally and otherwise as fans of any other sport, including those sports which have a much, much broader mass appeal.

 

But in my experience growing up in Victoria it seemed far more niche-y: my teenage cohort went to Western Speedway perhaps a dozen times altogether; they were in fact the only times in my life I ever went, the last of those being in about 1974. The experience remains memorable to me mainly because sitting in those stands watching a Saturday Night 75-Lap Main Event, sometime in about 1973-4, was the first time I ever smoked a joint. Beyond that - and lets honest here - the main reason *most* casual fans went to the old track was to see the pile-ups. 

 

Those experiences aside none of my friends were motor head racing fanatics, even the ones who liked to tinker under the hood of their (usually) crappy first cars; nor did their friends. Nor did my parents or any of their friends identify particularly with auto-racing, either on TV or locally at WS. 

 

Aside from the promise of a spectacular wipe-out no one in my junior HS ever talked about it; nor when I was in HS at Mt Doug, nor later in my UVic years. It was usually viewed - fairly or not, probably not - as a "Langford" thing that primarily attracted people from what we now call the West Shore. We called it something else less polite back then . Remember though 40-50 years ago that entire region looked nothing like today, being far more rural and even farming oriented with little to no built up developed 'core', therefore at the time it was also an ideal location for a motor speedway because it was a long, long way from any really populated neighborhood.

 

It'll be interesting given the broad growth 'everywhere' in the CRD where they ultimately find a piece of real estate large enough to meet their needs without also putting them within earshot of, and possible conflict with, 'suburbia'.

[Victoria Watcher]

In the 80’s at least the “hit to pass” events were definitely most popular. Then the often season-ending “total destruction” where they just rammed each other on the front straightaway until the last one moving was declared the winner.

The key to that last event was to try and disable the other cars, often by backing into them, to protect your own engine.

Edited by Victoria Watcher, 04 September 2022 - 08:37 AM.

[Victoria Watcher]

As a measure of timeline, ­Western Speedway’s reign over Island auto racing was just two years shorter than that of Queen Elizabeth’s over the U.K. and Commonwealth.

 

Tonight represents the end of an era and will be the last of more than 1,600 racing nights over 68 years. The venerable 4/10ths-mile Langford oval, known as Westshore Motorsports Park the past two years due to business and legal issues, was established in 1954 and is the oldest auto-race track in ­Western Canada.

 

The list of drivers who have competed on the track includes NASCAR legend Bobby ­Allison, two-time Indianapolis 500 champion Roger Ward and Janet Guthrie, the first female to race the Indy 500. U.S. Pacific Northwest legends who raced at Western Speedway before advancing to the Indianapolis 500 have included Tom Sneva, Art Pollard and Jim Malloy. Island icons to come out of the track have included the late Billy Foster, the first Canadian to race the Indianapolis 500, and the late Roy Smith, a three-time driver in NASCAR’s Daytona 500.

 

“Drivers who have raced here have done it all,” said track general manager Daryl Crocker.

 

“This was known as the place to come to prove yourself.”

 

 

https://www.timescol...peedway-5834587