JACK SPALDING 2009 INDUCTEE

The sight of a gentleman with a lit cigar today is most certainly not as common as it once was a good many years ago. And while the large stogies were usually enjoyed by those who favoured them following a good meal, an evening stroll or in a social setting with friends while playing cards or parlour games, there was one local auto racing driver who didn’t stop puffing on one just because he was in the heat of competition. Langford Speedway’s “Big Car” fans could quickly pick him out during a race by watching for the brightly-glowing end of his cigar as he circled the track which quickly got him the title of “ The Little Man with the Big Cigar”. His name was Jack Spalding.

As a resident of Seattle Washington, Jack was one of a number of US drivers, along with Swede Lindskog, Woody Woodford, Bert Bloomgren, Chick Barbo, Lew McMurty, Claude Walling, Wes Moore and Wally Schock, who regularly made the trip north on weekends beginning in 1938 to compete on Langford Speedway’s oval. Jack enjoyed some successes that first year including setting fast time twice (one of which was a track record) along with wins in two Helmet Dashes and two Main Events.

Moving to Vancouver BC in the early 1940’s, Jack added to his win record at Langford with two fast times, a helmet dash and a main in 1940 followed by two dashes and two mains the following season. When racing resumed following the Second World War, so did Jack’s list of Langford victories as he scored five main events in 1947 and two fast times, three dashes and six main events in 1948, all of which contributed to his being awarded the Bert Sutton Memorial Trophy as that year’s Season Points Champion. He repeated as Champion the following year with two fast times, five dashes and four main events. Langford’s final season of 1950 saw him take home three dashes and two mains as well as his having won the most main events in the track’s history with a total of twenty-two, the highest amongst a total of thirty-two listed feature winners.

With Lower Island racing moving to Shearing Speedway in 1952, Jack recorded three dashes, six heat races and two main events in 1953 which included setting a Big Car new track record of 15:28 on August 15^th. Western Speedway’s opening the following year saw Jack taking one dash, two heats and a main which was followed by a single heat win in 1955 after which he hung up his helmet and entered into racing retirement. But the “Little Man with the Big Cigar” had one more on-track appearance to put into the history books when he came out to compete with some of his fellow retired drivers at an “Old Timer’s Nite” at the Speedway in August of 1976 where he placed second in one of two heat races.