Mitch Calvert
This Saturday night (July 25) will mark the 55th anniversary of the Emo Speedway.
The track has seen its share of ups and downs over the years, but no one knows that better than 90-year-old Raoul Cayer, who took the checkered flag that first race back on July 30, 1954.
“It was a memorable one, first time on the track, and it was a good crowd for the first race [an estimated 2,500],” Cayer recalled fondly.
“We were all pretty green, so there weren’t too many left on the track by the end,” Cayer laughed. “It was a pretty easy win, come to think of it.”
Cayer was one of 13 drivers, including Sid Asselin, Don Marsh, Maurice Frenette (who will be attending Saturday’s anniversary celebrations), Lyle Busch, Bill Beninger, and Tom Hardy, who took to the track for that inaugural race.
Cayer said his strategy was simply focused on staying out of trouble.
“I was at the back of the pack, and I just waited until it thinned out a bit and then I started moving,” Cayer explained.
“A guy by the name of Al Stapleton, I think his name was, told me, ‘You know, if you want to win, just sit back and let them bang themselves up and then it’s just like weeding them out,’” he noted.
“Stapleton had driven elsewhere before that, and the strategy worked,” Cayer added.
“You see the good drivers today who are just waiting patiently. And once things get opened up, then they can maneuver around.”
The track only ran for five years before diminishing crowds forced it to close in 1959, but Cayer said those years still stand out in his memory.
“The flag would drop and we’d take off, and we’d pile them up three deep on the first turn,” he enthused. “Everyone wanted to get in the lead so they were just rolling over the side of the track and banging into each other.
“But it sure was fun, I’ll tell you that.”
Cayer, who still makes his home in Emo with his wife, Dottie, will be turning 91 on Tuesday (July 28) and couldn’t say whether any of the original drivers are still around.
“It’s quite a while ago you know, there’s not too many left,” Cayer said, fighting back tears. “I don’t know of any around.
“Unless there’s some still in the Falls that maybe used to come over.
“The second time it started [in 1964], there’s still quite a few of those guys around, but I don’t know about the originals,” Cayer said.
Despite also closing down from 1977-80, the Emo Speedway has weathered several storms and still stands today looking stronger than ever.
“Since we started, it’s been going right along and I’m surprised,” Cayer admitted. “I go to three or four races a year, the special ones like the [Emo] Fair and that.
“It goes in cycles, but they’ve got this track fixed up so nice now that I think it’s going to go on for a long time, at least I hope, anyway,” he remarked.
Cayer, who owned the Esso station in Emo until he retired, still stays in the area much of the year.
“In wintertime we try to go south, but we just sort of rent some places along the way,” he noted.
“We went to southern Texas for quite a few years and it was a favourite, [but] last winter we just went around and stayed at hotels.”
