Vancouver Sun ‘carnut’ among award recipients
The end of the summer car show season means it’s time for the annual Greater Vancouver Motorsport Pioneers Society induction ceremony, taking place Saturday at the Cloverdale Fairgrounds.
This year marks the 18th year of the ceremony by the society, a group of enthusiasts from the B.C. motorsport community whose goal is to recognize and record the contributions of those who were pioneers of motorsport in the region.
Pioneers to be honoured are considered to have significantly
contributed to the sport and have begun their contribution and to have had a strong connection to Vancouver and its surrounding communities.
As always, there’s a stellar and well-deserving honour roll of builders, racers and supporters from the motorsport community.
For Sun readers, there’s even a familiar face picking up some hardware as our own car nut, Cam Hutchins, is being honoured with the Sandy Lovelace Memorial Award in recognition of the “person or persons who have made an outstanding contribution to the preservation of this history of motorsport in British Columbia.”
Hutchins has certainly done that with his Show ’n’ Shine column, which runs weekly in The Sun from spring to fall and highlights upcoming car shows, swap meets and race events. He can be found at many of these events, camera in hand documenting a hobby near and dear to his heart. His signature sign-off — “and don’t forget to take a kid with you” — underscores his passion for the hobby to carry on to future generations. The late Sandy Lovelace was a drag racer and a regular competitor at British Columbia tracks, in particular those on Vancouver Island.
Other honourees, in no particular order, include Andy Pearson (sports car and road racing), Arnie Elchuk (hot roads and custom cars), Barry Prescott (drag racing ), Carle Jaklin (hot rods and custom cars), Chris Fox (demolition derby and drag racing), Dennis Mark (motorcycles), Franta and Frankie Juhan (motorcycles), Jerry Barber (sports cars and road racing), Ken Bayko (demolition derby and oval racing ), Mike Stidwill (motorcycles), Rocky Weinstein (off-road and motorcycles), Tom (The Tire Guy) Erickson (hot rods, custom cars and “everything else”) and Lorne Ken and Peter Findlay (car collection and restoration).
The club recognition award will go to the Pacific International Street Rod Association.