BARRY RANKIN 2002 INDUCTEE

Barry began his association with auto racing in 1964 when he and other members of the Checkmates car club made the decision to enter a 1951 Dodge four door sedan in Western’s Jalopy class with Fred Best as driver. The boys ran similar Dodges for the next four seasons which included Barry getting behind the wheel at one point as a possible backup driver.

He started moving away from pit activities in 1966 and began working for Reg Midgley in the Promotional side of the sport which included helping out with Programme production and various duties around the track.

Commencing in 1967, Barry took on more responsibilities for the Speedway’s management and administration such as Programme sales, Concessions, media reports on both radio and in newspapers plus more hands-on involvement with track promotion. He filled the position of Track Recorder for two years and compiled statistics for all classes of cars and drivers and in addition filled the Track Announcer’s post on occasion which he later did on a regular basis for promoter Butch Behn in the mid-1980’s.

Barry was made Assistant Track Manager in 1971 and with it came more duties which included the logistics of organizing out-of-town shows for appearances at the Speedway, obtaining newspaper, radio and TV coverage and managing special events with various local race teams. He was also on the Executive of the Western Auto Racing Promoters Association, a position he held for over ten years.

When the International Drivers Challenge series was created, Barry looked after the statistics for both the Super Stock and Modified/Sprintcar divisions which he did for the duration of the series. He also produced a special programme for VITRA’s 22^nd annual Awards Banquet in 1972 and followed that up with the editorship of the VITRA and Western Speedway 1973 yearbook which was titled, “Oval Trackin’ with VITRA”. Barry served as Track Manager and Track Announcer at Western Speedway from 1981 to 1983.