KEITH CAHILL 2003 INDUCTEE

With it’s beginnings in the total destruction Crash Elimination contests which were held at Western from time to time in the 1950’s and ’60’s, the Demo class, which featured the “Hit to Pass” feature with cars running on the oval, began with a few races during the 1977 season with the class becoming a regular attraction the following year. It soon grew in fan and participant popularity and was run with various types of vehicles right up until Western’s final season. One of the standout drivers in this division was Keith Cahill who was known to his many fans as the “Masked Banana”.

Keith first slid behind the wheel of a Demo car at the age of sixteen in 1979 and in his very first race placed second in the main event and also was awarded Best Looking Car. The following year, he won the Total Destruction Championship and followed that up in 1981 with the Demo Car division Championship, also thrilling fans with successfully-completed triple decker crash dives.

Keith branched out to compete in the Hobby Stock class the following year in a Hoagie Hut – sponsored car and also drove a Late Model Stockcar. In 1982, he and two other Demo drivers competed for the first time at the annual PNE Demo competition in Vancouver which they won, a feat they repeated in 1985. Not resting on their laurels, they went back the following year and made it three championships with Keith also competing in the Rollover Contest in a full-sized Ford station wagon.

In 1987, Keith’s Demo team placed second overall at the PNE and the following year Keith won the Most Aggressive Driver award at the event and also was first in the Filomi Days Demo event which was held in Port Hardy. South of the border on the July 4^th weekend in 1989, Keith claimed two victories in winning the Spanaway Speedway $1,000.00 Total Destruction event and a similar event at Monroe Washington. In 1991 he was Demo Car Season Champion in the Hit-to-Pass division at Western and the following year was instrumental in bringing the Can/Am Demo Challenge event to the Speedway.

In 1995 he won the Mini Demo Championship for that season and in 2000 was a recipient of the Loghouse Pub-sponsored Driver of the Week award. Keith also raised $!500 for charity that year by having his head shaved, received a Fan Favourite Award in “Geared for Racing” magazine and capped the year off winning the Demo Truck class’s Season Championship having been one of the first four drivers in the class back in 1986. Continuing in the Truck division the following year, he won five main events which included scoring two clean sweeps.

In Keith’s twenty-two seasons as a driver he collected a total of over three hundred trophies, won the Popular Driver award three times plus Sportsman of the Year twice and was named LITRA Member of the Year twice. Other highlights include holding for a time the Demo track record at 18.791, being one of the original four cars in the revival of the Figure 8 class and serving as a Starter at Western for two years.

In September of 2024, Keith was inducted into the  Demolition Derby category of the “Greater Vancouver Motorsport Pioneers Society”.