Jim Steen

Gentleman Jim Steen

Jim Steen is my Grandfather and my Hero. Jim was born in the city of Victoria, in 1937. He started his racing career at the age of sixteen, along with his cousin, Billy Foster.

One of the most memorable events occurred early in Jim's driving career. In 1954 he was doing practice laps at Western Speedway in his first race car, a 1934 Ford and had a mishap. It occurred in turn one of the oval race track. The car rolled over and the seat belt broke. Jim ended up on the racetrack with the car landing on top of him. At the time, he was not expected to live more than an hour after the crash. He had broken a hip, his pelvis, ribs and his back. His parents were rushed from up Island with a police escort because of the severity of his injuries. But after a six month stay in hospital, “Gentleman Jim” proved everyone wrong as he still competes at races into the millennium.

For most of his racing career Jim was a one-man crew acting as driver, pit-crew and owner. For the majority of his years in racing, he competed on a shoe-string budget but was always there and always a part of the show for the Victoria racing fans.

In 1964, Jim moved out of the ever-popular Stockers class and up into the B-Modified class. In following years, Jim drove a variety of cars, primarily stock cars. Jim‘s favorite car so far through his racing career was a car he named “the snail”. It was a 1963 Ford Comet.

1972 saw Jim driving a brand new stock car. At the first race of the season Jim was involved in an accident which saw his car flipping and rolling nine times down the backstretch at Western Speedway. Being the true racer that he is Jim worked on his car all week and was back out entertaining the fans with his car the following weekend. During the 1973 racing season at Western Speedway Jim was honored with a big celebration of his twenty years of continuous racing. There were numerous gifts presented to Jim at the racetrack in front of a grandstand full of cheering fans.

In 1976 Jim started the year with a two car team. His son Kerry would be the driver of the second car. This two car team continued racing together for a number of years.

Jim is still competing in the very competitive Stock Car class and will continue to race into the year 2009 and beyond.

My Hero holds the record of the longest and continuous competitor at Western Speedway, a record that will probably never be broken, except maybe by me. My Grandfather “Gentleman Jim” has taught me about racing and I share in his passion for the sport. He reminds me to stay in school, don’t smoke or drink too much and to always stick to the things I enjoy. My Grandfather is my Hero.