EARL POLLARD 1995 INDUCTEE

Earl Pollard’s long association with auto racing began in the small town of Vermilion, Alberta in 1944. His first racecar was made from a 1932 Ford which was basically just it’s chassis and drive train with no body. His first Stockcar was a ’36 Ford coupe which he campaigned until 1954. At that time, Earl and his fellow competitors ran a four hundred and sixty mile race circuit every two weeks, travelling to Edmonton and Lloydminster in Alberta and also to Battleford and Saskatoon in Saskatchewan. Earl was the most consistent competitor with second and third place finishes all year in his #77 car. As a charter member of the Vermillion Auto Racing Association, he was instrumental in getting a track built in Vermilion and later on in having it paved.

The Pollard family moved west to Victoria, BC in 1965 where Earl became a member of the newly-formed Victoria Auto Racing Association (VARA) and built a 1951 Ford to run in Western Speedway’s Jalopy class. At the 1966 May 7^th season-opener in front of 2200 fans, Earl won the Main Event against eighteen other cars and went on to win the 1966 VARA Jalopy Season Championship. Accepting the position of VARA’s Vice-President and looking to try his luck with a General Motors car in 1967, he built up a 1955 Pontiac Stockcar but switched back to a ’49 Ford the following year, building one for himself and also supervising his fourteen year old son Larry who put together a second car for himself. The family duo appeared in some novelty races only that year as Larry had to be sixteen in order to compete.

With Larry reaching legal driving age in 1970, Earl and Larry ran as a team in identical white 1956 Fords with Earl ending the season in second spot and Larry one point behind him in third. Earl also set the Stockcar track record for that season, a feat which he repeated the following year as well as finishing third in points, winning the July Cup and being awarded both the Dick Willoughby Sportsmanship and Driver of the Year trophies.

Earl stepped away from driving for 1972 in order to concentrate on building a new ’57 Chevy Super Stock for Larry with Earl acting as Crew Chief. Larry did well in it, finishing in eighth spot in the season end points. Earl and Larry continued to run in Western’s Super Stock class until 1975 when they made the move up to Open Competition where Larry won the Billy Foster 100 in 1975 and 1976.

When Larry moved to North Carolina in 1982 to work for NASCAR car owner Richard Childress and then for Richard Petty, Earl followed his son and remained there until 1987 when he returned to Victoria and built a Datsun 510 Mini Stock for his daughter Lois for the 1988 season which was quickly followed by a second Datsun Mini Stock for himself. Earl continued to compete in the Mini Stock division into the 1990’s and was still winning races at the age of seventy-one in 1994.

Earl passed in 1997.