All
Press Releases by Lois Pollard-Grant
June 25, 2002
She’s
Back; Pollard-Grant Returns to Stock Car Action
The smile on her face as Lois Pollard-Grant peeled off her
helmet and climbed out of her 1969 Chevrolet Nova race car
spoke louder than words last Thursday at a Western Speedway
practice session.
“Lois is back in a race car - and loving it,” the
grin on the Sooke woman’s face seemed to say.
The birth of her second son, Garret, a brother to eight-year-old
Laura-Ashleigh, and a home building project kept Pollard-Grant
out of racing full time for about two years. Though she raced
a few mini stock events last year, pitted for stock car driver
Ron Eberle and wrote for a variety of publications, Saturday
night will be her first time back in her own stock car since
2000. She will be running with the Glen Lake Inn Stock Car
Series, which is on the slate along with CASCAR’s 31st
annual Canada 200. On Sunday demo cars, demo trucks mini-figure
8s, claimers and three car trains will run at the speedway.
And Pollard-Grant can’t wait to get back on the track
competitively.
“It’s my life,” she said. “I grew up
with it. It was a dinner topic at our supper table every night.
We went to the race track every Saturday night. Now it’s
30 years later and I’m still doing it.”
Pollard-Grant is the daughter of Laura and the late Earl
Pollard. Her father raced for decades and was inducted into
the Victoria Auto Racing Hall of Fame in 1995. He drove in
a variety of classes and was still racing and winning in his
70s. He passed away in 1997, but Pollard-Grant always remembers
the racing advice he gave her - find your own way around the
track.
“I know he’s with me in the car every lap I do,”
she said.
Her brother Larry is a former NASCAR racer who married the
daughter of former Winston Cup star Harry Gant. He now lives
in North Carolina and builds parts for race cars.
After years of watching the races, Pollard-Grant decided
to climb in herself in 1987 at the age of 21. She finished
second in her first and only race that year.
She has continued on having a mostly successful - and history
making - career behind the wheel. Lois and Earl were the first
father and daughter race team at Western Speedway when they
campaigned mini stocks in 1988. She also was the first woman
in Western Speedway’s then 36 year history to win a main
event, which she did as a claimers driver in 1989.
Over the years, Pollard-Grant has driven in a variety of
classes, sometimes during the same season. In 1988, she was
the rookie of the year in the mini stock class and a year
later placed second in the class’ points battle. She
would repeat the honour in 1998 in the same class. In 1992,
Pollard-Grant finished third in the Thundercar points race.
Over the years she has met a number of people through racing
- including her husband George. The pair used to pit beside
each other.
George now serves as his wife’s chief mechanic and crew
chief. Her mother, Laura, has the important job of keeping
track of all the team’s racing data, while Bob Carlson,
Harold Corbett and Tony Burrows all help out in the pits.
Also locally the Sooke Chevron station helps out Pollard-Grant.
While Pollard-Grant is happy to behind the wheel again, she
won’t be satisfied just to be racing again.
“My goal is to be a front-runner,” she said. “I
want to be a contender. I have been in the past and I want
to do it again.”
She’s definitely back.
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