Women in racing, while still somewhat of a novelty, aren’t as rare as they were fifty years ago. Kaija Kalevala’s father, in her home country of Finland, decided women shouldn’t drive. It’s not clear if Kaija had expressed a desire to drive or had already driven, but he put her in music school. While she loved her father and can point out her inquisitive nature coming from his own approach to the world, Kaija also loved cars. She fought all her life, she says, against those who tried to hold her back. “What’s it matter if I’m a woman if I’m doing the job?” she still asks.

During the Second World War, Finland was at war with the Soviet Union. Like women throughout the world at this time, Kaija took on jobs men traditionally did. She drove a truck and even showed an interest in getting into a tank. After the conflict, she work-ed in the film industry, but not in the typical role one might expect for a woman who was as blonde as Kaija. With a film shortage, her job was to rush various reels of film from cinema to cinema to satisfy the filmgoers’ need for no breaks in the show. Timing was tight and it meant racing through the streets of Helsinki.

KAIJA KALEVALA - Inducted 2002

Pioneer - Oval Racing

Kaija Kalevala 1953 at Digney Speedway  (Brian Pratt collection)

By Brian Pratt, 2004

Kaija Kalevala, 1952

Street vehicles were also used when she began racing both on dirt and ice. She won many trophies and set track records before deciding to leave for Canada. Vancouver was where Kaija ended up because she was told there was a speedway there. Andy Digney, his self-named speedway, had been running for four years. Andy let her have a try in the stock cars without needing to read the written recommendation from the Finnish Auto Club. Kaija did well enough and

eventually was called the “Sweetheart of the Track.”

Her first stock car in 1952 was top heavy, but with her past experience in Finland of preserving cars so she could drive home, she didn’t roll it. The sec-ond stock car built for the 1953 season was “a good fast car.” She eventually rolled this car. But, as the news caption read, Kaija came up smiling.

The end of the 1953 season had Kaija winning a special race at Cobble Hill’s Shearing Speedway on Vancouver Island. Unfortunately, the popularity she had gained played again-st her regular job of driving a delivery truck. Her boss, possibly not seeing the potential favourable press, made her choose between racing and the job. With her mother having recently arrived from Finland, Kaija chose the job over racing.

While she had been accepted at Digney and Shearing she found out in the US., the attitudes were different. A trip to Indiana with the hopes of driving a midget race was quashed when she was told women weren’t allowed in the pits. It might be a bit easier to get start-ed for a woman driver these days (or maybe not), but ultimately several have proven they have the same talent and desire.