BILL HALL

Pioneer - Oval Racing - Inducted 2008

By Brian Pratt, 2008

Bill Hall got involved with midget racing at age 16, back in 1950, when midget racing was still a big deal in Vancouver area, especially at Burnaby's Digney Speedway. The British Columbia Midget Auto Racing Association (BCMARA) was going strong along with car owners like Gordon Reelie and Fred Cooney, who would represent the association with wins locally and further south.

A stint in the air force for Bill had him come back to a diminished midget racing class. They rarely raced in the Vancouver area: False Creek Speedway a few times, Haney Speedway on occasion and at Langley often with the promotional efforts of Bill himself.

From the late 1950s until the late 1970s Bill owned and raced a midget with the Washington Midget Racing Association (WMRA). The WMRA records are in disarray but what is there has Bill in the top ten in either car or driver points in 1963, 1968, 1969, 1971, and 1973. And no doubt more often if the records were complete.

One of his titles included Canadian midget champion. Of course there weren't many other Canadians racing midgets back in the mid-1960s so he might be called the Canadian Midget Champion by default. For the 1966 WMRA race at Langley Bill had "retired" putting Gordy Hemrich behind the wheel.

He states in one news item from 1972 that he had only missed a half dozen races "in this area" in the previous ten years. That would mean some long tows to Washington, Oregon and even to Edmonton.

His long time sponsor was Gordon Reelie's Weldco. And Reelie didn't suffer fools or fakes at all, so Bill Hall was the real deal. Maybe a low bucks racer, but with talent and persistence.