Bob Sayle

Among the (outwardly) proper British gentlemen who raced with the Sports Car Club of British Columbia was Bob Sayle, humorously depicted in a club drawing wearing all-tweed outfits and puffing on a pipe. Sayle was born in Shanghai in 1914 and had the kind of upper class multi-national education that was shared by many young Englishmen in those days, being all the more British for it. His World War Two experience in the RAF saw him serve time as a POW and leave him with a limp that did not affect his driving ability. Bob’s RAF experience had exposed him to Western Canada and he returned there after the war and eventually worked for Standard Triumph in Vancouver. Bob raced numerous “stiff-upper-lip” specials – rather unimaginatively named Special #1 through Special #4 respectively -- with some success, but is better remembered and deserving of the honor of this book’s recognition for his role in building the SCCBC during its formative years. His photo scrapbook(s) also proved invaluable in putting together Long Straights and Hairpin Turns and are a wonderful record of amateur racing in the 1950s.