From the Windsor Star May 4, 1948:
Dayus Stadium – Windsor’s New Sports Centre – Now Open
HARD BALL-SOFT BALL – WRESTLING – BOXING – MIDGET AUTOThe idea of a new floodlighted Stadium to provide a much needed centre for Windsor sports activities was born just six weeks ago. On Dominion Day, Dayus Stadium opened.
Original plans called for opening on June 15, but construction delays caused a postponement. The Stadium management wishes to apologize for this delay to those who have so eagerly awaited this milestone in Windsor sports development
Dayus Stadium is completely modern in every respect. It provides seating accommodation for 1200 spectators. It will be equipped with ample dressing and locker room space. A large free parking lot accommodates 450 automobiles.
Six lighting standards, with thirty-six 1500 watt bulbs, Will be installed to provide daylight illumination for night sports events.
Dayus Stadium, located on Howard Avenue south of the C. P. R. tracks, is conveniently located, being easily accessible by car or Howard Avenue bus.
Wrestling, boxing, and midget auto racing will be presented for Windsor sports fans, one night a week being reserved for each of these activities. Dayus Stadium will play host to hard ball and soft ball on the remaining days and nights each week.
By making use of latest developments in drainage systems, the Stadium will be able to hold any sports event within two hours following a rain.
The Stadium will be equipped for football and outdoor lacrosse in season, and during the winter, sufficient rinks will be flooded to meet demand for skating and hockey facilities.
Juvenile and Junior teams will be afforded free use of Stadium facilities every weekday afternoon from Monday to Friday.The management of Dayus Stadium wishes to extend its thanks to Mayor Reaume of Windsor and the Reeve and Council of Sandwich West for their assistance in making possible construction of this much-needed centre for sports events.
Sports organizations are invited to make full use of Dayus Stadium facilities.
For further information, phone Lloyd Dayus at 4-7571
Designed by Windsor architect G.A. McElroy, the stadium was home to Windsor’s team in the Intercounty Baseball League. The franchise was lost around 1951, and Frank Dayus offered to put a track in his baseball stadium. The track was paved in 1954, and operated as a racetrack from 1951 to 1958.
Photo above from Canadian Racer
The area remains today, as an overgrown field behind factories and a strip mall. If you look closely, you can see remnants of the track in the aerial view.
There are some current photos of the track on John’s flickr page.
very cool andrew! i seen these before on johns flickr site……and windsor dragway. i don’t understand why things like these have no lifespan in this city. pretty neat that it’s just been sitting dormant since 58 though. once roaring with life, now it’s a ghost. i know i would be at the track each and every weekend. not to mention a nice all around sports complex is something this city needs more of. nothing needs to be “stadium” type billion dollar complex’s. just nice local spots, like this. the city is so worried about people drag racing on the streets, well, give them a place to go!
the old saying hold true……build it, and they will come.
What great remnants from the past!
I used to go to the defunct track as a kid. It used to be a complete track and the interior was quite overgrown even then. But there were a lot of BMX trails on the interior and it was a lot of fun to pretend to race on the asphalt oval.
Seems kind of sad to know that most of the track is now gone.
Thanks for stirring up some great memories for me.
I agree. We should bring the racetrack. Maybe convert the Ford Test Track Park back into a racetrack or Malden Park.. I think it’s complete stupidness on the city to have closed it down so we have none in this city.. Just check out the Michigan International Speedway this weekend, where they’re expecting over 100,000 people in attendance. There’s also the drag racing Nationals in Milan, Michigan this weekend. They’re spending $35 million to convert Belle Isle into a racetrack for the Grand Prix in August. There’s a huge demand for a raceway in this area, especially being an auto capital in Canada. How could we not have our own racetrack??
Thanks for the history, I did not know we had an intercounty baseball team, the intercounty league was formed in 1919 and still thrives in the area between London and Toronto many of its players have made it to the majors over the years. As for the track I believe I may have visited it back in the late sixties early seventies when it was being used for GO Karts.
See that threw me off when I heard Dayus Stadium as I remembered it as Bluebird Raceway. My cousins Marilyn and Carla used to live in Remington Park and would cross Howard Avenue and watch the racing. Here is also a link showing some other pics. 2nd article down.
http://www.motorsportscentral.com/on.asp
As for the Windsor Dragway, I passed by there two months ago and if you go down Baseline Road, just east of 12th concession (and before you hit Manning Road) you can see the track and the remnants of the starters tower from the southside of Baseline.
There was a guy in Windsor who has (had?) an extensive website on local stock car race tracks with hundreds of photos and newspaper clips. Can’t seem to find it now?
http://oldtimeracetrackinwindsor.piczo.com
Turns out it was in my bookmarks. Duh.
Warning: Turn off your speakers before you click. 😉
There is also the site for the long gone Checkerflag Raceway.
http://www.checkerflagraceway.piczo.com/?cr=1
i think the ford test track would be sweet, put the banks back in the turns and that’s all you have to do. malden would make an incredibly cool circuit track, with all kinds of elevation changes. something that just might interest professional racing. the best thing is the park stays completly intact aside from a new “road” running around/thru it….add some bleachers. hell….we could even resurect the dragway! strip the blacktop, level it, repave it, cut the grass, done. wait wait wait………are we way out of the box on this one?
In the mid-1960’s, the letters patent for Dayus Stadium Ltd. were amended to Turek International Limited, a camera shop now at 337 Ouellette Ave. My late wife operated the shop for a few decades. The shop is closing the end of this month.
(By the way, I’m the son of the John Wilfrid Loaring (medallist in Olympic, British Empire, & Pan-American Games) who is credited with constructing St. Barnabus Church in the next web page. I sold rights to the “Loaring Construction” name in 2004.)
I used to go to dayus a kid with my father. After the track closed they built a small dirt oval in the center and we would race quarter midgets there on sunday and would even draw some american racers.
Dayus Stadium was owned and operated by my grandfather and father, It is great to read stories of Dayus Stadiun, I recently found a 1953 program and will be posting it completely on the Dayus Roofing website.www.dayusroofing.com
Frank, thanks for checking in.
Let us know when it’s online. if you have any old photos, I’d love to see them too…
http://dayusroofing.com
I’m still not sure. Where was Checker Flag at?
@Uzzy… Checker Flag was located on the south side of County Road 42 (was Hwy #2 at one time) just west of Lesperance. It is now occupied by a subdivision serviced by Shiff Drive and Cranbrook Crescent.
I had it marked out on wikimapia, but I guess someone didn’t like it there.
As JBM stated…… http://goo.gl/maps/gNiwp
Thanks Aaron & JBM. I was thinking of a totally different area, and I did scour Wikimapia for it (even near that area). So it wasn’t far from Windsor Raceway. Why would somebody remove it from Wikimapia?