Discuss your memories of Tillicum Raceway.

Tillicum Raceway is for sale, has been for a long time but I cannot find the listing or how much they want for it.

I think it would make a great park, like Langley Speedway is now. Put a soccer pitch or tow in the infield, fix the hole in turn 3-4 and have a nice bicycle/rollerblade path.

Spring time I plan on taking my 1958 Norton up there for a photo shoot as Brooklands is a little too far away!

Turn east onto 48th avenue from either Hyway 97 OR 27th street. Keep going east on 48th avenue and it will turn into Silver Star Road at Pleasant Valley Road and you will be 5.8 km from the track. Stay on this road. You will pass BX Elemetary School then go up the hill. Keep going up the hill! You will pass Phoenix Drive on the left and Bates Road on the right. Keep going you are almost at the turn off. Tillicum Road is your next right. There will signs at the turn off for Cedar Falls Campground and BX Falls park. Turn right here and you will be 1.7 km from the track.. The road will start going into a little valley and it wil twist and turn. You will come to a hairpin turn passing BX Falls park/trails. Keep following TIllicum Road. You will come to a fork in the road and you can go straight or turn left. Turn left, this is Dixon Dam Road. Almost there! There is a turn off to a little group of houses called TIllistar Villiage. This is the old parking area and grandstan area of rhte track. Keep going and you will come to a sharp right hand turn. If you look to your right in the turn you will see the banking for turns 3 and 4. Just as the road straightens out, there will be the track entrance on your right. 

Yes it is for sale I saw the realistate sign up there yesterday. I will give more feedback later on who is selling it and so. Also my cousin would like to know if it would be possible to bring his race buds up there next year on a friday night before the races saturday because they all race late model challenge series at sunvalley speedway and his buds would love to see the neat old track and all that jazz. Hopefully some some day they could get that track up and running again.

P.S. Do you know why the track got closed down I heard there was a big crash someone died?

YEs somebody did get killed there but that was no tthe reason the track close down.

I am told that the owner was bringing in higher and higher end racers and had to increase the prices accordingly. In the end, the track could not afford to operate. Its last season was 1975. In the late 70's/early 80's a plan was hatched to redevelope the track as housing and to be part of the adjacent TIllicum Ski Hill. If you walk throught hte brush in turns 1 & 2you will find some foundations which were to be a tennis club and clubhouse (as far as I can remember)! Also, the chalet style houses you see were not there when the track was in operation. As a young kid, in the early 80's, I can remember my Dad driving us arpund the track as it was not blocked off! At this time, the catch fences were still up and the starter stand was too. I always remeber the big hole that has been dug through turns 3&4. This was an accese road for construction crews. Work stopped sometime in 1981 or so around the same time TIllicum SKi Hill wnet into recievership.

In later years the track property was owned by Clearly Canadian Beverages and was in fact the site of the well that provided the water for their soft drinks! If people only knew.

Hot Springs were across the road. Later used by Clearly Canadian.

In the infield between turns 3 and 4 there is a tiny claering and there used to be some car remains in there, although I haven't looked for a long time. If you do look hard enough you will find the odd car part, tool, oil can (metal oil can, remember those?) etc. I have an air cleaner of a 390 FOrd and a plastic tool pouch that I found there backin the 90's. There was even a complete grill off a late 60's Chevelle in the brush just off the track but the day I went to go and get it, it was gone! It had only been sitting out for 20 odd years before that. Used to be a couple of old engine blocks too off the track in turns 1 and 2.

Im going to have to really take a good look now! I also saw a area where there was a shack and a little open area where there was big logs sitting in a row with a metal box near by with little rails around it near the straight away

Using it for private sessions might be OK but I doubt you'd ever be able to get it going again as a full race track. 1) ther are too many houses there now as they are built on the old parking lot and grandstand area so you'd probably have to buy them out 2) too much competiton from Sun Valley Speedway.

A private club to buy the speedway would be great. Whether you wanted to preserve the track and make a park (Like Lanlgey Speedway) or do something else. It would a nice venue for hosting car shows, etc.  It is too nice of a location to be ruined by "developers".

So is this the start of the "TIllicum Raceway Society"?

I think it would be great to have another heritage track here in BC. We continue to do what we can with Langley Speedway and encourage you folks to do the same with Tillicum.

We will be hosting the 2nd annual Langley Speedway Reunion on Sept. 7th. Come have a look. See the possibilities for Tillicum.

Murray Jones

President,

Langley Speedway Historical Society

In he case of Tillicum, if it is privately owned, you must either purchase it, get someone sympathetic to your cause to purchase it, or approach the current owner with your ideas and get them to agree to go along with it.

If you can work that out, get some like minded individuals together, (5 or more) and come up with a name for your group. Do a name search through the BC business registry to be sure you can use the name. If so, fill out the documents to create a non profit organization and send them off. If one of the folks in your group is the land owner, even better.

Approach the local politicians with your ideas and find someone there that will champion your cause.

If you can have the site recognized as one of heritage value, which it is, then you can begin attracting interest in it from many sources. Start cleaning it up and having events there. List it as a destination in the community for tourism.

Hope this helps.

Murray Jones

langleyspeedway@shaw.ca

Do you think it would even be a possiblity? Would there be enough local interest?

With the track being closed since 1975 season, how many people in town NOW would even remember it or have been here to see racing there? Hell I wasn't even BORN until the next year! I simply remember the track being mostly intact and as a curiousity that sat next to Tillicum Ski Hill/Bobslides.

That being said, I think it would be worth a shot to do something with the site. It has only been sitting empty for the last 33 years. Even a nice park in the center would be a good start. Possibly the best way to pitch the idead would be to pitch it as a park that incorporated the remaining track surface.

Like Langley Speedway.