Aaron Conn and Shane Murphy are on a treasure hunt. They know the loot is out there, but locating it is the trick.
The two local men are members of the board of directors of the Prince George Auto Racing Association, which is celebrating its 60th anniversary season. In this milestone year, Conn and Murphy have made it their mission to locate pieces of PGARA memorabilia. Their project has gotten off to a good start and they're looking for more items they can display at the race track on Aug. 11-12, the club's annual Invitational weekend.
Looking long term, they'd like to group the pieces of history into a permanent collection.
"We'd like to collect the memorabilia and we'll find a place to store it so that it's protected and we know where it is," Conn said.
Several items of historical significance and a pile of photos from the 1950s through to present day have already been turned over to Conn and Murphy and were available for viewing during the June 16 race at PGARA. Two of the gems collected so far are an original PGARA jacket, donated by local racing pioneer Ralph Gardner, and the association's first-ever season trophy. Called 'The Moose Trophy,' it was given to the fledgling stock car club in 1954 by Lodge No. 928. The beautifully-crafted piece of hardware had been sitting in the basement of Colin Kinsley, the former Prince George mayor who was also a stock car driver in his earlier years. The trophy's first winner was Bob Cameron and it was last presented in 1974 to Doug Larson, Cliff Hucul, Art Boulianne, Ed Crombie and Brian Green.
When Murphy attended the Father's Day Show n' Shine on June 17, he brought many of the PGARA artifacts and photos with him and they created quite a buzz among the spectators.
"That was a really neat experience," said Murphy, who drives in PGARA's street stock class. "Somebody would come up and if they were a little older I'd flip to some of the older stuff and if they were a newer fan that had never been to the track I'd flip to some of the newer stuff and everyone was really receptive. People that had no history with PGARA were interested to see our city's history reflected in the stock car track."
It was during the Show n' Shine that Murphy started hearing stories about other pieces of PGARA's history that are still floating around town, including a vintage race car from the 1950s. Conn and Murphy would like to gather as many of the mementos as possible and give them a home.
"The most important message in all of this is that we want people to feel comfortable to lend or donate their memorabilia to the track, knowing that it's going to stay with the club and be used to promote the club," Murphy said.
Ideally, Conn and Murphy would like to have a clubhouse built at the track, one that will be safe and secure for the storage of items.
Conn can be contacted at 250-617-0345 and Murphy can be reached at 250-613-0772. Their e-mail addresses are, respectively, [email protected] and [email protected].
