"Gentleman" Jim Steen - Old Time Driver Interview

by Lois Pollard-Grant

Jim Steen started racing in 1954, the same year Western Speedway opened. Jim recalls when he and his cousin, Billy Foster, as kids would go out to the old Langford Speedway to watch Dave Cooper race. It was then that he caught the racing bug.

"Gentleman" Jim Steen has driven jalopies, stock cars, B modifieds, super stocks and even figure-eights.

Today Jim drives in the thunder car class and on this 45th anniversary of Western Speedway he is the longest running consecutive driver to compete in the history of the speedway.

Jim, now 60, says he races because "it is just plain old fun" and that's what keeps him coming back year after year.

The most memorable moment of his racing career came the night that Western Speedway awarded him with recognition for his twenty years in racing. Seated atop a flat deck truck in a comfortable rocking chair that was one of his gifts from the speedway, Jim was treated to a parade lap around the track while the fans cheered.

Jim and his son, Kerry, a racer in his own right, own and operate Western Region Rentals in Langford and over the last many years they have sponsored numerous cars in almost every class of racing.

In 1991, Jim was inducted into the Victoria Auto Racing Hall of Fame.

"Our hats off to "Gentleman Jim Steen".