DENNY RAND 2001 INDUCTEE

Denny began his career in auto racing in 1961 when he teamed up with Alex Smith and Rob Duncan on a 1934 Ford Stockcar. Getting behind the wheel only once, Denny had the misfortune to roll the car over which ended a possible driving career. Rob then took over the driving duties.

After taking a break to start his family, Denny returned to racing in 1964 as a crew member on a 1951 Dodge Jalopy driven by Fred Best. The boys campaigned Dodges in the Jalopy and Stockcar divisions for the next four years and were awarded Best Looking Crew in 1964 and 1966.

In 1968 they moved up to the Super Modified class, purchasing a roadster-style car from Ray Pottinger and competing on the Inter-City and also some CAMRA circuit races for the next two seasons. Denny then joined Roy Haslam in 1970 and stayed with him until 1981. In 1970 he was awarded the Dick Willoughby Sportsmanship trophy and the following year he helped install the weigh scales at Western which were used for many seasons.

Denny served as the Vancouver Island Track Racing Association’s Vice-President in 1973. Some of the highlights during his time with Roy Haslam included their racing at the Las Vegas track in 1975 and finishing third in the feature race out of one hundred and forty-eight qualifiers. In 1978 they travelled to Chicago to pick up a new race car which eventually gave them an overall victory in the International Drivers Challenge. In 1980 they competed at the Minnesota State Fair track and also the Marty Robbins Open in Nashville and in Denny’s final season with Roy they won the 1981 Speedweeks Northwest Championship as well as Western’s Canada 200.

Denny then took several years off from active competition to devote more time to his growing family and to build “Rand Automotive” a successful automotive repair business which is still in operation to this day. He was an avid NASCAR fan and as such travelled to tracks at Daytona, Charlotte, Las Vegas, Sears Point, Fontana, Martinsville, Texas and North Wilksboro just to name a few.

In 1996, he became very interested in Trevor Montgomery’s NSSRA Sprintcar and joined the crew which included Trevor’s Dad Neil and Russ Lejeune. The team won that year’s Daffodil Cup and the NSSRA Championship. For 1997 Denny was on the Promotions Committee for NSSRA and helped bring a field of cars to both Saratoga and Western Speedways, receiving a Promotions trophy at the year-end NSSRA banquet. He continued as a crew member as well as being a Director for NSSRA until his untimely passing in June of 1999.