Jim Marchant’s interest in racing was sparked by a neighbour, Wilf Kingston, who lived down the street from his family home and who raced at Burnaby’s Digney Speedway, and another man, Len Johnson, who also raced there and worked at Clarke Simpkins with Jim. For his first year behind the wheel of his own car, Jim was pretty much with the B group. On championship race day in 1955 he won the 50-lap B main. The next year, he was running with the A cars. Jim also raced his track car at the drags at Abbotsford in 1957.

By 1958, dissatisfied with the direction the Digney sanctioning stock car association was taking, Jim, along with others, formed the British Columbia Track Racing Association (BCTRA). Races that year happened at an impromptu track scratched out in Richmond near the Oak Street Bridge as well as at the Cloverdale fairgrounds.

In 1959, with Jim as president of the club, the BCTRA spent three months helping to get the newly paved False Creek Speedway at Venables and Raymer into shape. They provided the cars and drivers for the weekly action.

JIM MARCHANT - Inducted 2004

Pioneer - Oval Racing

by Brian Pratt, 2004

Marchant and his rear engined supermodified  (Brian Pratt collection)

Jim Marchant

Racing also began at the new Haney Speedway dirt track and, again, the BCTRA was there, now racing twice a week, up from a handful of times the previous year. Up to the end of 1959, Jim was still driving his number 16 Ford.

Family responsibilities helped Jim decide to stop driving, but in 1960 Jim was asked by Ralph Monhay to help with Ralph’s racing efforts. The com-bination won many main events at Haney as they built newer and faster modifieds. And, of course, Jim was back as busy as ever with the racing.

The move by the BCTRA to Langley Speedway in 1965, along with the beginning of the Canadian American Modified Racing Association

(CAMRA) in 1963, still had Jim and Ralph enjoying success. By 1967, Ralph wanted to run with CAMRA more frequently and moved south.

Jim turned the supermodified over to Larry Sproule to drive at Langley, Victoria and Nanaimo. The team won the A modified points title at Langley and was second in the Inter-city circuit. In 1968, Dennis Goldstraw replaced Sproule and drove the Marchant super-modified to the Langley title.

In 1970 and 1971, Marchant experimented with rear-engined cars. He used an American Motors Rambler engine in both, sometimes referring to it as a Nash. Handling problems caused the racing team to take longer to find success.

Marchant worked for many years at Clarke Simpkins. He also taught at BCIT where he has recently retired. Even though not as active in racing as he was from the 1950s through the 1970s, his name showed up as engine builder for a Roy Blumenhagen sprint car that raced at Skagit Speedway in the 1990s.