Willows Speedway
Where cars sped "faster
than man was really made to go on earth."

Willows Speedway



In 1906, the year Oak Bay incorporated, there were less than a dozen automobiles in Victoria. But sales soon soared as the fledgling automobile industry promoted car clubs, rallies and sporting events. Willows Speedway, on the old Willows Fairground, started around 1912.
The Victoria Automobile Dealers Association hosted an event in 1919 billed as "the greatest automobile meet ever to be held in the Pacific Northwest." It attracted 2500 spectators. The 1920 event attracted 4000.
A Colonist article in 1920 stated that drivers coming to Oak Bay for this race were under the care a "nerve specialist"
for a rigorous course of nerve treatment, which is to steel them for the soul-murdering trials they will have to undergo.
Each driver is on the edge all the time and the least little thing alarms him and sets him off in a rage.
This is a result of the nervous strain that each man is under when he enters racing, where he has to cope with speeds upwards of two miles a minute, which scientists say is faster than man was really made to go on earth.
Auto racing continued at the Willows Speedway until the late 1940s.



PHOTOGRAPHS

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ARTIFACTS


courtesy Dick Kirk
Auto Races Program
1935

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RECOLLECTIONS

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