Photograph of unknown modified race car with spoiler at the Langley Speedway.

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salishan Place by the River currently maintains a collection of over 9000 photographs, 2000 archival documents, 9000 objects, 500 works of art, and 300 oral history recordings. This collection, spanning hundreds of years, is a wonderful window on the past and present life of our community.

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Object Description

Object Name

Print, Photographic

Object ID

2015.039.486

Title

Photograph of unknown modified race car with spoiler at the Langley Speedway.

Date

1968.

Description

Photograph of unknown modified race car with spoiler parked in the gravel lot at the centre of the Langley Speedway in 1969. The vehicle has modified the wheel wells in order to fit the large and wide tires. The front of the vehicle has the headlights removed including the original grill and bumper which has been replaced with a custom steel bumper. It appears that the trunk of the vehicle has been removed in order to provide space for the metal supports that hold up the large spoiler at the rear of the vehicle. The vehicle is painted a solid blue color with orange paint used for the racing number 94 and "used cars" on the side of the vehicle. There is an assortment of stickers on the side of the vehicle behind the rear wheel and above the front wheel well. The speedway track and the spectators on the hill above the speedway can be seen in the background.

People/Subject

Langley Speedway

Langley Speedway opened on June 13th, 1965, under original owner Craig Frazer. In 1969 the Vancouver-Fraser Park District (now the Greater Vancouver Regional District) bought the track and surrounding area with the intent to create a park. Frazer obtained a 10-year lease and continued to run the track until Gordon Hemrich took over in 1977. After the 10-year lease expired in 1979 the track came under increasing pressure from local governments. The lease periods became shorter and shorter with each renewal and there were more restrictions on numbers of dates, hours of operation, etc. The Lower Mainland Oval Racing Association took over operation of the track in 1980 and changed the name to Action Raceway. Finally, at the end of the 1984 season (September 15th), the racers were refused a new lease and the track closed.

A wide variety of cars ran at Langley over the years. In the 1960's there were Early Late Models, "A" Modifeds, "B" Modifieds and "C" Modifieds. During the 1970's there were Limited Super Stocks, Claimers, Open Competition and Modified Sportsman. In the final years there were Late Models, Super Stocks, Street Stocks and Bombers.

Numerous touring series also stopped at Langley. The NASCAR Winston West Series appeared a number of times. Hershel McGriff won the 150 lap races in 1971 and 1972, Ron Eaton won the 100 lapper in 1978 and there was another race on July 18, 1981. The NASCAR Late Model Sportsman series appeared regularly in the mid-1970's. There were also Canadian American Modified Racing Association (CAMRA) events and the International Drivers' Challenge (IDC),

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