Harvey Chipper’s racing career began as a crew member on Jim Haslam’s cars which were driven in 1961 and 1962 by Billy Foster.
In 1964, he teamed up with Fred Isacson and they ran a 1953 Ford in Western’s “Jalopy” class with Fred guiding the car to a 5th place finish in the year-end points standings. Again with Fred for the following season, Harvey built a ’49 Ford and they finished 4th in points.
In 1967, he fielded a 1955 Chev Stock Car, and together with driver Roy Haslam and a crew which included newcomer David Smith, they won the “Roy White Memorial” race, the “Corby Cup” (most main event wins) the inaugural “Billy Foster Stockcar 100” and the Stockcar Season Championship. The following year, the Stockcar’s winning 6 cylinder engine was sold to Gary Kershaw (who won the 1968 championship with it), and with Roy again behind the wheel they moved up to the newly-formed “Super Stock” division, winning the “July Cup” and finishing 3rd in season points.
In 1969, Gary Kershaw joined the team and they combined to win the local Super Stock championship. Harvey then built a car to challenge the “NASCAR” tracks throughout the Pacific Northwest and they did very well wherever they ran. Harvey was the car’s Crew Chief for their first visit to the “Permatex 200” race in Riverside, California. The following season of 1971 saw Harvey again take on the Crew Chief role at the Permatex race where this time Gary was 1st to take the checkered flag, the first Canadian driver to do so.
Harvey built two cars in 1972. Gary drove one to many wins locally, while the other was built for Hershel McGriff out of Portland, Oregon. In it’s first outing at Portland, Hershel and the “Olympia Express” won very handily.
Harvey built a new car for Gary in 1973 and again in 1974. In the second year, the team had a banner year winning virtually everything which included the “Sponsor’s Trophy”, the “Billy Foster Stockcar 100”, the “July Cup”, “Corby Cup” (a record of 21 main events) and, of course, the season championship.
Harvey was named “Mechanic of the Year” in 1975. George Stewart drove Harvey’s car in 1977 and won 7 out of the 11 races they entered. He joined forces with Roy Smith in 1978, where they won Western’s “Canada 200” race and in addition had the NASCAR “Winston West” series-winning car, a feat which they repeated in 1980.
In 1981, Harvey received the “NASCAR Mechanic of the Year” award, the 1st time a Canadian had received this honour.
Following his later retirement from active racing, Harvey was present at an Old Timer’s get-together to mark the Canadian release of author Bob Kehoe’s book on Billy Foster in June of 2019.
-
- 1962 – #98 “Modified Sportsman” driven by Billy Foster with (standing left to right) Jim Brooks, Roy Haslam, Jim Haslam and Harvey Chipper (Ted Mackenzie photo).
-
- 1964 – “Jalopy” trophy dash with Harvey’s #98 driven by Fred Isacson at lower right (Barrie Goodwin photo).
-
- 1965 – #5 1949 Ford Jalopy with Harvey (on the left) and driver Fred Isacson (Barrie Goodwin photo).
-
- 1967 – Harvey’s #22 1955 Chev Stockcar driven by Roy Haslam (Barrie Goodwin photo).
-
- 1968 – #22 ’55 Chevy “Super Stock” with (l to r) Harvey Chipper, David Smith, Bob Dorval and driver Roy Haslam (Barrie Goodwin photo).
-
- 1969 – #22 ’55 Chev Super Stock with (l to r standing at left) Harvey Chipper and Bob Dorval and (below is) David Smith and (l to r standing at right) unknown and John Woods and (below l to r) Rich Graham and driver Gary Kershaw (Barrie Goodwin photo).
-
- 1971 at Riverside, California – Harvey (at lower right on the left) with Gary and crew following their winning of the “Permatex 200” (photographer unknown).
-
- 1972 – Gary in the Chipper/Smith #22 “Open Competition” Chevelle (Ted Mackenzie photo).
-
- 1973 – Gary in the Chipper/Smith Open Competition 1965 Chevelle (Ted Mackenzie photo).
-
- 1975 – Gary in the #21 Chipper/Smith Open Comp. Chevelle followed by #65 Ashland, Oregon’s Don Harper (Barrie Goodwin photo).
-
- 1977 – George Stuart following an Open Competition main event win (Barrie Goodwin photo).
-
- 1975 VITRA Awards Banquet – Harvey (on the left) receives the “Mechanic of the Year” award from VITRA President Fred Best (Barrie Goodwin photo).
-
- 1993 induction ceremony – “Hall of Fame” executive member Norm Wilcox with Harvey (Barrie Goodwin photo).
-
- 1993 Inductee Harvey Chipper – artist’s portrait
-
- 2019 – Harvey (to the right of the book cover poster and in the center of the 2nd row) and fellow retired racers at the Canadian release of Bob Kehoe’s book on Billy Foster (John Chase photo).
