Circuit Overview


Westwood Motorsport Park holds a special place in the annals of Canadian motor racing history, as it was the country's first permanent, purpose-built road racing facility.

For 32 seasons it was one of the favourite tracks among drivers in North America, playing host to at least one F1 World Champion (Keke Rosberg), two Indianapolis 500 winners (Bobby Rahal and Danny Sullivan), a number of drivers who went on to drive in F1 and CART, and, of course, the late great Gilles Villeneuve. It was also the course where a young Greg Moore caught the bug for racing.

As with many of the classic road courses of the 1950s and '60s, the pressures of an ever-creeping urban sprawl could not be contained and Westwood was sold off for development in the 1990s and is now a housing estate.


Circuit History


Westwood was the brainchild of the Sports Car Club of British Columbia. Founded as a non-profit society in 1951, members first raced at Abbotsford Airport and other facilities such as Cassidy Airport, Bellingham Airport and Grey Field from 1952 to 1958. But with all of these offering only a temporary home, something more permanent – and challenging – was soon required.

By 1957 the club had decided it would have to raise the funds to build a permanent circuit and located a potential site at Coquitlam. Debentures at $50 each were sold in 1958, enabling Westwood to be built on Crown land leased from the Provincial Government. Many of the debenture holders eventually forgave the debt but the Sports Car Club of BC paid the rest off.

Short but challenging

So, in 1959 Canada had its first ever purpose-built motor racing circuit – and what a gem it turned out to be! Swooping through the forests and hillsides, the 1.8-mile circuit featured challenging turns, banked corners and tight hairpins; in short, a little of everything.

From the start line, the circuit curved left through a fast bend that somehow never acquired a name, passing under the wooden bridge that allowed spectator access to the infield. Although not a corner as such, any drivers getting it badly wrong would find a swamp-like pond awaiting them to the right...

Turn 1, also known as the Carousel, was a banked (15 degrees) corner which could be treacherous in the wet (not uncommon at Westwood) and fairly easy to overcook in the dry. It also served as a launching ramp for a few unfortunate souls who landed in the trees some considerable distance from the track.

The course then fell away slightly down to the Clubhouse Corner at Turn 2, and then arrived at the Turn 3A/3B complex, known as Valley Corner Curve.

"In my motor sport career, I drove for 12 years and ran a racing team for nearly 30 years, in all doing about 400 races at dozens of tracks across North America," remembers Tom Johnston.

"I must say that I never did find another corner quite like (Turn) 3. It was scary as hell, downhill, and felt slightly off camber, although I don't think it actually was, it only felt that way because of the downward slope.

"It was the critical corner to achieving good lap times as it was followed by a long straight."

That 'long straight' was not quite the breather for the drivers that might first be imagined. Roughly half way along, the track rose to a slight kink on a crest known as Deer's Leap - aptly named, for cars could often fly off the circuit and land in the gully that ran alongside.

Assuming you made it over Deer's Leap unscathed, the track then fell towards the sharp 180-degree Marshall's Hairpin, which would test brakes to the limit, before embarking on the steep climb through The Esses (Turn 5) and back to the start/finish.

Primitive but functional amenities

Westwood's pit facilities were fairly basic, although the track did boast a Le Mans-style starting grid opposite, which was famously one of the last in regular use anywhere in North America (until 1975). Many classic Formula Atlantic races held in the '70s and '80s used a rolling start, but earlier pro races for sports cars kept the traditional grid-based standing start.

At the lower section of the pits, beside the technical shack, was a large sheet of plywood which was used for posting whatever messages needed to be seen by the drivers. Gilles Villeneuve famously signed the board with a big swooping signature, but sadly that priceless autograph is now gone forever, as is he.

Originally known as Westwood Racing Circuit or Westwood Circuit, it took on the more familiar Westwood Motorsport Park around 1980. The marketing term 'Westwood Mountain High Racing' came into use about 1975, which made for an interesting bumper sticker but little else.

Whatever the name, Westwood gained recognition throughout North America and was popular among spectators and racers alike. Attendance at the circuit seems to have peaked on opening day July 26, 1959 at 20,000, although no one knows for sure what the figure may have been. Later pro-Atlantic races drew big crowds (often more than 10,000 spectators), as did Trans-Am and NASCAR on their occasional appearances.

Sadly it couldn't last and the pressures of the Vancouver suburban housing sprawl edging closer and closer proved too much. In 1990 Westwood closed for good when the lease for the land fell to developers who bulldozed the facility to make way for the Westwood Plateau housing development.

Today, the Sports Car Club of BC still runs races at its new facility at Mission Raceway Park. But somehow, it just isn't quite the same.

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Circuit info


This is a historic circuit which is no longer in operation.

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Location Information


Westmead Motorsport Park was located at Coquitlam, a short distance from Vancouver, British Columbia.  Nothing now remains of the circuit, with the vast majority ploughed under and developed for housing. However, the faint outline of the stretch from Turn 3 to Deer's Leap still remains tantalisingly through the trees, and there are a few reminders in the names of some of the streets on the housing development: Deer's Leap Place, Carousel Crescent, Paddock Drive, and Firestone Place, as well as Goodyear Park.

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