Northwest Drag Racing Reunion Coming in 2002

By Rick Gonder

We are looking for Northwest drag racers! Back in the early to mid '60s the Quarter Milers Car Club of Victoria BC ran San Cobble Dragways on an old cement company road in an area north of Victoria called Bamberton. Many northwest drag racers ran on the track including Jerry Ruth. Then in the late '60s up until the mid '70s a private individual built Van Isle Dragways which was a sanctioned NHRA strip located in Cobble Hill, also north of Victoria. The owner went broke and the Island Dragway Promoters took over the track and ran it until about 74 when the property was sold for residential development. Many northwest guys ran at Van Isle and over the years, we featured people like Beck, Ivo, Pedregon, Williams (Syndicate Scuderia) along with a few well-known funny cars, wheel standers, and lots of door slammers. 

Now the fun part. During the weekend of Sept 13-15, 2002, we (leftovers from the Quarter Milers and Island Dragway Promoters) are putting on a drag strip reunion weekend here in Victoria. There will be a three day car show featuring as many of the old drag race cars as we can find (we have already found some significant ones), some current drag race cars and perhaps some street rods. There will be a social evening on Friday night featuring lots of nostalgia stuff like photos, films, trophies etc. On Saturday night there will be a banquet and dance featuring the Time Benders which is one of Canada's best known nostalgia bands. We are also working with the Vancouver Island Auto Racing Hall of Fame and we may induct some drag racers. We are in the early stages of planning this event but it's guaranteed to be exciting. 

We have a lot of people that we need to locate so that we can advise them of this event. We are currently working on a web site and hope to have it up and running within the next couple of months. We know the racing community loves stuff like this. There were probably about a dozen cars from Washington State that regularly ran up here at Van Isle. I have included a list of names in the event that Draglist.com readers may know where they are. 

Here are just a few of the old racers we are trying to locate. They are (or were) from the Pacific Northwest in the late '60s to early '70s. 

	Les Davenport. '51 Prefect C/Altered named "Obsession" from Portland Ore
	Steve McGee. AA/GS 33 Willys from Vancouver Wash
	Bob Gibson. AA/GS 49 Anglia panel from Portland Ore
	Mike Gillis. "Spy Machine" B/Altered from Vancouver
	Bernie Wadekamper. Pro Stocker from Seattle
	Gene McKinney. "Quick Trip" pro stock 69 Camaro from Seattle
	Dave Fertello. "Warlock" A/Altered Fiat from Portland
	Terry Kniss. "King Rat" AA/FD from Seattle
	Kenny Martin. AA/FC 70 Corvette from Vancouver Wash
	Kenney Goodell. "Action Man" AA/FC 70 Challenger from Tigard Ore
	Dick Tutino. Pro Stock Camaro from Seattle
	Bill Ireland. 70 Maverick Pro Stock from Portland
	Hugh Wadekind. "Little Anni Fanni" altered roadster
	Dale Hunt. C/Altered Willys pick up.