Reg Royle first appeared at Digney Speedway in 1951 after a youthful introduction to midget car racing at Con Jones Park as World War Two began. Digney Speedway began running the jalopies which eventually became known as stock cars. Reg didn’t race under his own name. Being a truck driver, he decided it might be wiser if his employer didn’t know about his non-work activities, so he raced under the name “Bill Anderson”.

Reg was pretty successful at Digney Speedway and quite popular. He got his photograph into the newspapers with May Queens and newspaper delivery boys. And while he wasn’t a champion at the track, he did win a few races, and Andy Digney would occasionally slip him an extra few dollars for entertaining the crowd. It must have been tough to keep his off-time activities quiet from his boss.

One story from that era, told by Reg, was that when he qualified for one of the trophy dashes the cars would line up in front of the grandstand to be introduced. When Reg rolled into place he’d often as not bang into the car beside, him

REG ROYLE - Inducted 2001

Pioneer - Oval Racing

by Brian Pratt, 2004

Reg Royle  (Brian Pratt collection)

Reg Royle

prompting the announcer to comment that there might be trouble in this race. Fans, especially kids, loved that sort of showmanship.

As the stock cars became more modified Reg stepped away from racing only to come back in the early 1960s with a new class of car: the early-late stock cars. Basically, they were what they sound like-stripped down stock cars from a few years earlier, something affordable for anyone to get started in. Reg built a few and formed the Early -Late Racing Association (ELRA). They raced at False Creek Speedway with drivers like Ralph Widdess and a young

Gordy Hemrich. When False Creek closed, they went to Haney Fairgrounds

The early-lates even raced at Westwood. In 1964 they ran two heats at the 1.8 mile road course, and Reg won both heats. It predated the appearance of NASCAR stock cars at the circuit by a number of years.

When racing finally ended at Haney Fairgrounds, the early-lates and the new super stock class of the same association moved south to Langley Speedway. Reg had stopped driving but was at the track as president of ELRA. Drivers like John Rothwell and Hemrich came into their own during the mid to late 1960s at Langley.

The club changed its name to the Canadian Oval Racing Association (CORA) in 1969, again with Reg at the helm. The focus at that point was mainly the popular super stock class.

Obviously, his enthusiasm and organizing abilities caught the attention of others, and in 1970 Reg was made track manager at Langley Speedway by owner Craig Frazer.

Reg Royle put in close to thirty years, racing, building organizing and officiating at all the local oval tracks that have existed in greater Vancouver.