Arleigh Pilkey

When the first race in British Columbia was held at Abbotsford in 1950, Arleigh Pilkey was among the seven competitors. Not a young man then, Arleigh was to continue racing for many years, long after most of his younger competitors in that early race had retired. Born in 1897, he started racing in 1918(!) with a mechanic-riding open-wheeled car on oval dirt tracks, soon retiring from competitive racing  (but continuing on in country-fair “thrill shows”) only to take up sports car racing some 30 years later in an MGTC. After the TC Arleigh raced with great success in a series of three hand-built specials before turning to the Lotus 11 which he made famous as the yellow #5 car. Arleigh was competitive in the highly competitive uner-1600cc division throughout all the Pacific Northwest racing circuits despite being 30 years older than many of his fellow racers. He won the last of his three SCCBC club championships in the Lotus in 1961, thus making him permanent holder of the trophy that went with that championship. He finally retired from racing at age 67 in 1964, and passed away several years later.