Les Americains au Canada The Northeastern U

Les Americains au Canada
The Northeastern U.S. Drivers Who Ran Canada in
the Early Days of Stock Car Racing

Driving primarily for Floyd Geary, of Canton, NY., Sterling "Buck" Holliday, of Waddington, NY carved an unforgettable path through Canadian stock car competition in the late 1950's and the early 1960's. Geary's distinctive white coupes with zebra stripes across the roof, performed flawlessly at tracks such as Lansdowne Speedway, Ottawa, Ont.; Bouvrette Speedway, St. Jerome, QC; Riverside Speedway [or Autodrome Laval] in Durverney, QC; Noel Raceway; and others.

By the time many of the drivers on this page were getting out of high school, Jackie Peterson, a South Burlington, Vermont native, had already been driving open wheel 3/4 sprint cars for a few years. Jackie got a head start on developing his racing career because, being essentially deaf, he could not serve in either WWII or Korea. After the open wheelers, Peterson drove stock cars, all over the Northeast, for years - ending with a stint with Jay, NY car owner Shirley Wallace, in the mid 1960's. Peterson joined a number of other, mostly New York open wheel drivers at Montreal's Richelieu Park horse track for a season of racing around 1950. Once in the stock cars, he was once so good at LaPrairie's Kempton Park Speedway, that the track featured him in match races with the local hero.

THE 1960's WERE A TIME WHEN NASCAR HAD SEVERAL WEEKLY TRACKS
IN QUEBEC AND SOME U.S. DRIVERS WERE REGULARS AT THEM

Little is known about this particular track. Pascal Cote's website, Stock Car Quebec, is the most comprehensive
site on old Quebec tracks; and he doesn't have the track even listed. This page shows several New Yorkers
who were not only regulars at the Autodrome, but also at Kempton Park and other tracks.

Dick Nephew was perfectly comfortable in Quebec. The name Nephew was anglicized from "Neveu" and Dick spoke French Canadian as easily
as did English. Living in the Clinton County New York border town of Cannons Corners, he was almost in Canada when he was home. Nephew performed in Quebec both in the earlier years [with George Palmetier's 6 and 7/8] and also later - in the 1960's - when he used NASCAR - sanctioned Quebec tracks like Riverside Speedway to gather needed national sportsman points. Nephew, who was still driving an Olsen Eagle modified in 1985, likely logged more laps in Canada than the others.

The Provost brothers, from Cadyville, NY were legendary at Airborne Park Speedway. The brother with the most stories and lore about him
was Harry [The Head], a massive man who could be quite threatening to be around. He was so big he had trouble finding a comfortable way in and out of his coupes. The other brother was Frank. I have no info that Frank ever went to Canada much.

In the late 1950's, the two - car stable of Ellenburgh Depot Ford dealer Gaylord Rowe was the terror of northern New York and some of Canada. After Bill Wimble, a future national champion, moved on from the Rowe T-88, the car with which he won an Airborne title, the car was taken over by Dick Goodelle, another of those effective drivers from Mooers Forks, NY [which was very near to Ellenburgh Depot]. Goodelle would run the big old '41 Ford, whose body was riddled with holes to lighten it, for at least two years.

I don't know much about Dick Manning, other than he drove a #711 and was from Chateaugay, NY. He apparently ran extensively in Canada - at least in 1962 - becuse he finished seventh in the limited sportsman points against some pretty stiff Quebec and American competition.

When the older veteran drivers were establishing a foothold at Airborne Park Speedway and other northern venues, a youngster named Joe Thomas, from Plattsburgh, NY, was brought onto the scene by Jimmy Guynup. Joe would run in Canada, one division down from his fellow New York invaders and would do very well. Eventually, he would drive a modified for Guynup and, lastly, some late models.

Like at Airborne Park Speedway years before, it became the thing to do at Devil's Bowl to go up to Canada and run regularly for a number of years. One runner for whom I had more than one photo in Camada was Vince "The Flying Frenchman" Quenneville. He ran often with Austin Dickerman's 357, but he also ran some of his equipment and some Quebec cars up at Granby, as well. I think VInce ran Drummondville and other venues too.

Courtesy of Gerard Major
This shows New Hampshire's Ronnie Marvin [13] at Riverside Speedway. Marvin and Car owner
Andy Cote ran an amazing campaign in 1965 with a flathead car to finish in the top
ten in the NASCAR national sportsman oints race.

Courtesy of Craig Revelle Charlie Wilbur, Duxbury,VT Frogtown Speedway *1980's*	Courtesy of Christian Ti-Gaz Genest Randy Corey, So. Burlington,VT *Sanair* Speedway *1970's*	Courtesy of Craig Revelle Joe Johnson, Schenectady, NY Autodrome St.-Gregoire 1970's	Courtesy of Craig Revelle Tom Remington, Warrensburgh, NY Autodrome St-Gregoire 1970's	Courtesy of Craig Revelle Chuck Kress, Schenectady, NY Autodrome St-Gregoire 1970's	Courtesy of Craig Revelle Vince Quenneville, Sr., Middlebury, VT Autodrome Granby 1970's
Courtesy of Craig Revelle Butch Jelley, Pownal, VT Autodrome St-Gregoire 1970's	Courtesy of Craig Revelle Nick Ronca, Clifton Park, NY Autodrome St-Gregoire 1970's	Courtesy of Craig Revelle Jackie Peterson, So.Burlington, VT Bouvrette Speedway 1950's	Courtesy of Craig Revelle Buck Holliday, Waddington, NY Bouvrette Speedway 1950's	Source Unknown Vince Quenneville, Sr., Middlebury, VT Autodrome Granby 1970's	Source Unknown Dutch Reed., Glens Falls, NY Autodrome Granby 1960's
		Lebanon Valley Classics Pete Corey, Jr., Cresscent, NY Autodrome Granby 1970's	Courtesy of Andre Chausse This grainy shot shows the Henry Caputo 111, with Kenny Shoemaker aboard, out of Hudson Falls, NY. Riverside Speedway 1959

Courtesy of Richard Chartrand via Neal Davis
A pileup at Riverside, Laval shows Shelburne, VT driver Jack "Black Jack" Dubrul [7] involved.