Following their respective husbands’ racing involvement from Western’s grandstands in the 1970’s prompted 2005 Pioneer award winners Lynne Burrows and Eileen Carlson to seek more active participation themselves with both taking official’s positions as Lap Recorders in the track’s Control Booth.
The girls quickly established a working rapport with each other, becoming highly skilled at their new jobs which included recording time trial lap times along with the very necessary accurate logging of the positions of all cars in each lap of every race. Following the drop of the green flag and with her eyes constantly focused on the start/finish line, Eileen punched each car’s number into a ten-key electric adding machine as it flashed past, the numbers appearing on the adding machine’s paper tape which Lynne then read and transferred to a recording sheet. In addition, the two kept in contact with the Track Announcer, Starter and Pit Boss, quickly providing restart lineups in the event of race stoppages as well as the finishing positions of all participants after the checkered flag had fallen.
During their long tenure as recorders, which included their being invited to lend their expertise to other tracks around the Pacific Northwest, Lynne and Eileen earned the respect of Western’s drivers, pit crews, officials and fans which included track announcer Rocky Horne who, in paying tribute to their skill level, gave them an accuracy rating which was just barely shy of 100%.
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- Recorders Eileen Carlson (at far right) and Lynne Burrows (center) with Track Announcer Rocky Horne in Western’s Control Booth (“Times-Colonist” photo by Darren Stone).).
