Duncan International Raceway/San Cobble Raceways/Van Isle Dragways (Mill Bay, Vancouver Island)

In 1966 Mike Stogrin and some investors bought 130 acres in a former gravel pit bounded by Telegraph Road and Meredith Road in Mill Bay, and Stogrin set out to raise $100,000 to build a strip. One visitor during construction recalled that the land was far from ideal and took countless truckloads of fill to level. That cost Stogrin heavily, even in 1967-68 dollars, and it’s why Dickie Realty ended up with the property and let Van Isle Dragway Promoters keep running it until land sales paid more than racing. Stogrin also had to fight residents who tried to stop the strip. It was finished in spring 1967 and opened on April 9 under NHRA sanction as Duncan International Raceways. By June it was San Cobble Raceways, with Herb McNutt as track manager and the Quarter Milers car club helping run the races. In September 1967 it became Van Isle Dragways, and on September 23-24 it held its first two-day event, the Van Isle Drag Championships, before 2,000 spectators. Stogrin had dug too deep a financial hole, and in 1968 Van Isle Dragway Promoters took over, with Ty Miller as president and Russ Hepworth as manager. From 1969 they booked out-of-state racers and exhibition cars, where before the field had been mostly local. Wheelstanders and match-racing gassers were popular. The strip sat in a wooded setting cut into the slopes of Mill Bay Arm, and a 30 percent upgrade past the finish helped slow the cars. The last race was on September 24, 1972, and the land was then sold and subdivided.