Like many Langford boys, the roar of the nearby race track was irresistible for Gary Kershaw. He began a long and illustrious racing career in 1961 at Western Speedway, piloting a 1932 Ford stock car against such veterans as Billy Foster and Dave Cooper.

Finishing sixth overall that year gave Kershaw top rookie honours. He wound up second in 1962 and also began driving in the higher-calibre modified division. Late in that season he scored a rare double victory, winning stock car and modified 25-lap main events.

In the mid-to-late 60s he was the driver to beat at Western. He dominated the 1967 and '68 campaigns, winning 9 of 15 mains. He almost retired in 1969 but was talked into driving Rich Graham's car on the Pacific Northwest NASCAR super stock circuit. The partnership proved fruitful, as Kershaw took the title his first season, winning six of eight main events.

Kershaw and his team dominated the circuit in 1970 as well. On the heels of that solid season, he became the first Canadian to win the prestigious Permatex 200 in Riverside, California in January 1971, winning the race in his second try against a field of talented American drivers.

Named Victoria's male athlete of the year that March, he won the inaugural International Drivers' Challenge series, thrilling fans with his duels against American driver Herschel McGriff.

After five largely successful years on that circuit, he rounded out his racing career almost like he started, by driving a 1930 Ford in the Old-Time Racers Association.

A natural mechanic who loved to tinker with cars and get the most out of them, Cooper was a stalwart in the days of the old Langford Speedway in the 1940s. He learned the game on the dirt and by the time the speedway closed to make way for a school expansion in 1950, he was one of the highest winning drivers at the track. After further success in the northwest, Cooper and a group of drivers and builders started the new Western Speedway 1953. In the first season he won both the sprint car and big car points race. In 1957 and '58, he won five feature events and captured his third and fourth season points championships. His overall win total was more than 200 races at the new track. He shifted gears and moved into the super stock division after that and retired as a driver in 1974. He was among the inaugural inductees into the Victoria Auto Racing Hall of Fame.