Before Western Speedway....
-by Lois Pollard-Grant

Auto racing first started in 1921, in Victoria at the Old willows race trace. For a few years fans were treated as they got to watch auto racing one weekend and thoroughbred racing the next.

During the next few years there was no auto racing again until 1937 when Jack Taylor and the British Columbia Automobile Sports Association (BCASA) began construction of Langford Speedway, located on the site of which is now Ruth King Elementary School on Goldstream Avenue. It was very much a community project to build the new dirt track, with help from the drivers, mechanics, and local residents who donated their time and labor.

In 1946, Jack Taylor wanted to get out of the speedway so he then sold his property to Bruce Passmore and the speedway became known as "Bruce Passmore's Langford Speedway". Passmore also raced cars himself and owned a "stable" of race cars to help get auto racing underway.

Passmore was responsible for some big changes at Langford Speedway including having the track paved in the spring of 1947 and also held the record of owning the only paved track in Canada. Passmore also promoted the speedway by encouraging out of town drivers throughout the Pacific Northwest and California to come to Victoria and race against local drivers, which up until today has put Victoria on the map as far as auto racing was concerned.

In 1950, Passmore's property was expropriated to make way for the school. This situation left local racers with no where to race. So they made the haul over the Malahat to Shearing Speedway in Cobble Hill. Many occasions saw the drivers using their race cars to haul their street cars over the "Hat" because the weight of the race car was too much for the average car to handle at the time. As time went on Shearing Speedway closed its doors and once again local racers were without a place to race......

The Beginning Of Western Speedway....
-by Lois Pollard-Grant

After the closing of the Langford and Shearing Speedways, Andre Cottyn decided he needed to look for some land where he could build a race track to provide for local auto racing enthusiasts.

His interest in racing came in the late 30's when he attended races at Langford Speedway and had a job there as a lap recorder. It was then he decided that auto racing was a good sport.

In the fall of 1952, the entrepreneur set out to look for land and bought a 62 acre site on Millstream road for $12,000. With no money, he sold his logging equipment, got a loan from the bank and a loan from his brother George to help start his dream. With this in mind he sunk every penny he had into the track and he and his son George cleared 30 acres of land for the future site of the speedway.

Even though the times were financially tough for Cottyn, he worked in the bush through the winter months to pay the bills, put food on the table, and pay the taxes.

He recalls when people used to come around asking him what it was he was doing here. He simply told them he was building a race track. This was before the days when there were any regional district, municipality or building regulations.

Cottyn wasn't quite sure how to go about building a speedway, so he began touring other speedways in the United States to see if he could bring home some good ideas - which he did. The original speedway was dirt and measured a large three-eighths of a mile.

Construction of the original grandstands began in January of 1954, which had a seating capacity of 3500. Cottyn then began working on the concessions, making the tracks retaining walls and parking area. Paving the track was for now out of the question because of his limited budget.

Looking back on the name of the speedway which was originally going to be called the Cottyn Bowl, he decided because of all the dust the dirt track would create, people would end up calling it Cottyn's Dust Bowl. He then settled for Western Speedway which turned out to be quite fitting for the area.

The big day came on May 22, 1954, when Western Speedway opened its doors for the first time. It was a Big Car race (sprinters), with almost 3000 cheering fans looking on. Cottyn recalls on opening night "being a panic". While he was installing the last set of lights, Bob Simpson, a top sprint car racer at that time, went whirling by him on the track during time trials.

Top drivers from Victoria and the United States were on hand for that first race including, Simpson, Del Fanning, Jack Spaulding, Dave Cooper, Al Coutte, Ron Douglas, Ray Pottinger, Digger Caldwell and Bill Heller.

The track record was set at 23:30 by Bob Simpson, who finished second in the main event behind winner Del Fanning.

Cooper became the first stock car champion at seasons end, an honor he was to capture four of the first five years of the speedways' operation. Competing in the stock car class this year was Billy Foster, Digger O'Dell, Gerry Sylvester and Dick Willoughby to name a few.

The type of cars that raced in the early days of the speedway were quite different from what is seen on the track today. The speedway had both sprint cars, which were Indy-type racing cars that were constructed from the ground up and stock cars such as 1932, 1933 and 1935 Ford coupes with the fenders chopped off and racing on street tires.

In comparison to todays' standard of race car, some of the early cars were quite primitive in their design and lack of roll bars and safety equipment. Even so the cars were raced at nearly 80 miles an hour and remarkably, drivers were able to walk away from a crash without serious injury.

Novelty races of women drivers competing in powder puff derbys were occasionally held although it would be years before women would be allowed to race in regular competition at Western Speedway.

Some of the local drivers who got their start at Western Speedway in the early 50's were Jim Steen, who still races today in the thunder car class and Bill (Bullit) Smith, who started at the age of 16 and to this day is still involved in racing.

Billy Foster began his racing career at Western Speedway winning many of the big races in the late 1950's and early 1960's, before going on to Indy fame.

In 1957, Cottyn had the track paved, constructing a flat oval with the size reduced to 4/10 of a mile as it is today.

Although Cottyn never raced cars, he had the chance to run a novelty race once with track announcer, Bing Foster, in borrowed cars. He admits that he was so far ahead of Foster that he slowed up and waited for him. "Foster ended up beating me."

Western Speedway was successful and well respected for the twelve year duration that Cottyn owned it and in 1961, the Daffodil Cup was instituted and brought the destinction that Western Speedway was as a top notch race track.

In 1964, a complete change was seen in the type of cars that raced at Western Speedway. The open wheeled, chopped-down stock cars were replaced with cars that resembled street cars. This brought on more participation, drivers, cars, and more spectators.

Vancouver Island Track Racing Association (VITRA) was the sole sanctioning body for Western Speedway from 1954 to 1991 except for a period during the sixties. In 1966 a rift flared up between VITRA and the speedway management and when their differences couldn't be resolved, VITRA chose to run their shows at Grandview Bowl in Nanaimo that year.

As a result a new 70 member association was formed to race at Western Speedway. It was called the Victoria Auto Racing Association (VARA), and by mid season, 54 cars were registered. By fall of 1966, VITRA, weary of making the long trek over the Malahat to race at Nanaimo, had returned to run at Western Speedway. Subsequently, VARA and VITRA became co-sanctioning bodies until 1970 when both clubs merged as VITRA.

In August of 1966, Cottyn decided to sell the speedway, due to the pressure of the many duties and problems of owning and managing the speedway. He developed an ulcer and had to make the difficult decision of letting the speedway go.

He sold the speedway to a group of local businessmen and racing enthusiasts and it then became known as Western Speedway 1966.

President of the new company was Geoff Vantreight, vice president, Reg Midgley, secretary: Ron Mayell, members of the board of directors: Grant King, Tony Mortel, Frank Willie, Bob Vantreight, Jim Johnstone, Peter Mortel and Cliff Horwood and VITRA.

Cottyn retained shares in Western Speedway and was continually on the board of directors since 1966 until a few years ago.

* * * * * *

Andy Cottyn moved from Manitoba to Langford as a young man in 1938 and remembers "which seems like yesterday" when the streets were dirt and there were no stop signs. When asked if he would do it all over again he said "Oh hell yes. I wouldn't do it any different and I wouldn't change my life. I have experiences that money just can't buy."

Sitting across from Andy and his wife Grace in the warmth of their Langford home, I felt a lump in my throat and thought that this man is entirely responsible for the idea and the building of the track which for years has given so many the opportunity to race.

Western Speedway owes its entire existence to Andy Cottyn, as it was him alone that had the vision and desire of making Western Speedway a dream come true...

- Lois Pollard-Grant