Victoria caddies win prestigious scholarships
Tonight’s Victoria Golf Club annual general meeting will have a little extra special feeling to it.
Two of the club’s young caddies will be honoured as the latest winners of the Evans Scholarship Program.
River Bristow of Oak Bay High School and Tim Peacock of Reynolds Secondary will receive four years of tuition and housing to go toward their studies at the University of Washington this fall. Bristow and Peacock have caddied at Victoria Golf Club for several years, as well as maintaining exceptional grades and volunteering in the community.
The Chick Evens Scholarship Program began in Chicago in 1930 and the Victoria Golf Club was the first in Canada to undertake the program 10 years ago.
Claremont hosts Scrum Fest
Some of the top high school rugby players will invade the Claremont Secondary fields this week for the annual Spartan Scrum Fest tournament.
Thirty-two teams from senior boys 15s to junior boys 15s to Grades 9-12 girls sevens begin play today and continue through Saturday.
On the senior boys side, Claremont is joined by Shawnigan Lake School, Oak Bay, Calgary’s Bishop Carroll High School, Edward Milne, R.E. Mountain, Glenlyon Norfolk, Abbotsford, South Delta, D.W. Poppy, Mulgrave, Elgin Park and Surrey’s Queen Elizabeth.
The tournament also includes skill clinics for middle school students put on by UVic and Rugby Canada players.
Game action begins today at 11:50 a.m. with Claremont taking on Edmonton I.A. on the girls side. The Claremont senior boys open play Friday at 2 p.m. against Elgin Park.
Auto Hall of Fame welcomes new class
The Victoria Auto Racing Hall of Fame will have four new faces on its walls this weekend as it inducts its Class of 2017.
Johnny Sutton, Jim McKay, Darren Yates and Scott Aumen will be inducted at the annual ceremony on Saturday at Western Speedway.
Sutton, a Langford product, started out racing go-kart racing and helped form Capital City Kart Club which would lead to racing against the likes of the late Greg Moore, who he formed a friendship with. Sutton was a 12-time Capital City points champion, seven-time Gary Kershaw Trophy winner and four-time Pacific Northwest Gold Cup champion which led to Sutton being inducted into the International Kart Federation Hall of Fame in 2010.
McKay got his start in Demo car racing at Western Speedway and toured all over the Pacific northwest racing his Datsuns McKay is a six-time Mini Stock champion and won the Wilroc Sprints Kershaw Cup in 2005 when he was also named the Wilroc Sprints most improved driver.
Yates raced both Demo cars and trucks in his early days, winning his first truck championship in 1995. From 2008 to 2010, Yates won the Saratoga championship and Ross Surgennor Trophy and in 2011 he was won the last Wilroc Sprint Car Championship.
Aumen started out at Cassidy Speedway and became nearly unbeatable on dirt and asphalt. At Western Speedway, Aumen the Strawberry Cup in 2006, 2007 and 2011 and added Daffodil Cup titles in 2007, 2008, 2010, 2011, 2013 and 2014.
Also entering the Hall on Saturday, as pioneers, are Wally Lum and Ken Osman.
Admission to Saturday’s ceremony is $10 and doors open at noon with the ceremony at 2 p.m.
HarbourCats add veteran broadcaster
The Victoria HarbourCats are adding a familiar face to their broadcast team.
Former CFAX 1070 radio host Steve Duffy will join the HarbourCats’ play-by-play man Jonathan Hodgson for Victoria’s Shaw TV Game of the Week.
Duffy spent 44 years covering the Victoria sports landscape. He began in Victoria as a sports reporter on 1220 CKDA in the 1970s. In 1995, the station became 100.3 The Q, where Duffy remained until 2003. He spent the last 14 years at CFAX 1070 where he most notably co-hosted the morning show with Al Ferraby.
This will be Hodgson’s second season as voice of the HarbourCats. In addition to leading the team’s broadcasts, Hodgson is the HarbourCats communications director.
Okell closing in nationals berth
Bill Okell is back in the driver’s seat when it comes to earning a trip to the Sport Car Club of America national championships this September at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
Okell headed south last weekend to Thunderhill Raceway Park near Sacramento for Race 5 and 6 of the Western Conference circuit and he drove his Huffaker Engineering Austin Healey to a pair of second-place finishes.
Next up for Okell is Buttonwillow Raceway near Bakersfield, California, April 29-30.