THUNDER BAY - There is a rich history of racing in the region and those who remember it best and those who want to see the sport continue, held a special reunion to remember the past, and plan for the future.
This weekend, race car drivers and car enthusiasts remembered a time when there was thunder during the Thunder Bay Racing Reunion. A year in the making, the weekend included a gathering to swap stories and memories on Friday night and was the first reunion to be held in the last 32 years.
“There’s over 100 years of racing here locally,” said Thunder Bay Racing Reunion committee member, Dave Cano. “It started at the CLE and sometimes at Murillo as well. But the most important part of the racing was from 1952 to 1966 and was held at the Canadian Lake Exhibition grounds.”
There have been many changes to racing in the Thunder Bay area, with drivers racing at Riverview Raceways, and then moving to Mosquito Raceways. But Cano said he hopes a new track, which is currently in development on Highway 130, will get people interested in the thrills of flying down the track again.
“We are hoping with this new track, there is a new track up and coming, that we get the younger generation to race on a regular basis again,” he said. “There’s a lot of us old timers still around and we raced and we know the history, but the younger people is who we want to get involved.”
Cano added that the racing community in the region has not gone away and he doesn’t expect it will. There’s still a lot of interest in racing and cars, demonstrated by the strong turnout during the reunion of more than 350 people.
“For the amount of racing done in Thunder Bay now, the race community is quite large,” he said. “They travel south and are all over the place still racing. The interest is there and that’s why we need a new track here.”
The weekend also included a tour of local car collector, Russ Wanzuk’s collection in Murillo and the collection on display at the Duke Hunt Museum in Rosslyn Village, which included a fully restored 1924 King’s Special, one of the oldest racecars in Canada that was driven by Frank Colosimo, and donated to the museum by Al and Sandra Cronk.
“I just love to collect the stuff and being able to show it off,” Wanzuk said. “I collect everything. From little wee cars, right up to the full size cars. If it has wheels on it or any kind of local racing history, I like to collect it.”
Wanzuk said he has been collecting and restoring cars since he was 12-years-old. At 73 now, he said he doesn’t show any signs of slowing down.
But one of the best things about his collection is being able to share it with others, especially those with such a fondness and interest in the history of racing in the region.
“It gives you an indication of how many people are interested in racing history,” he said. “It started more than 100 years ago. It started with that little white speedster, the Kings Special, and generation after generation of people have raced in Thunder Bay and they know the names and they recognize the names and some of them are legendary.”
And while looking back and sharing memories and stories of flying down the race track is a good way to keep the sport alive, like an engine revved up, it needs someplace to go.
“It was so important when people were growing up, they don’t want it to be forgotten,” Wanzuk said. “They want it to be continued.”
