With flowing strawberry blond hair and eyes as blue as Paul Newman’s shining behind bright red eyeglasses, Sylvia Braddick is a welcoming presence at London Drugs on Lonsdale Avenue.
Customers line up, looking forward to exchanging a word or two with the friendly cashier at till #9.
Many are elderly, and for some, that friendly exchange with Sylvia may be their sole human contact from one week to the next.
“I serve them like I do everything – with all my heart and soul,” she says. They know Sylvia as the friendly cashier. Some remember the businesses she and her husband Stewart operated in Vancouver and on the North Shore. Some may know Sylvia from her years in the fast lane, when she was racking up records racing cars.
Sylvia is the first woman to drive dragsters at the quarter-mile tracks at Abbotsford and Mission Raceway and the first woman anywhere to race wheel-standers.
How does it feel to drive a vehicle a quarter of a mile in 12 seconds on two wheels?
Alyn Edwards, fellow member of the Greater Vancouver Motorsport Pioneers Society, writing in the Vancouver Sun, Nov. 3, 2010:
“… climb into the cramped cab of a highly modified 1968 Dodge D-100 pickup truck, flip some toggle switches igniting two 800-horsepower, alcohol-fired Chrysler hemi engines, lock her hand on the steering wheel with her arm jammed against the side of the truck so the wheels would remain straight and prepare to be lightning fast as the “Christmas tree” lights flash red, yellow, green, GO! … the sound of the two huge engines is deafening as the smell of burning rubber and burned alcohol fills the air. The front of the truck lifts high in the air as the twin rear-engine-powered truck with monster horsepower screams down the track.”
“Twelve seconds over a quarter mile, it’s a breath,” says Sylvia. “You take a breath, watch that Christmas tree signal flash and that’s it, you’re gone. Before you take another breath, the race is over. There’s nothing like that feeling. That’s why I named my wheel-stander Ecstasy.”
Picture Vancouver in the 1950s, at the dawn of rock ‘n’ roll, and the car culture that embodied the music: drive-ins, jukeboxes, poodle skirts for girls and ducktails for boys, Bill Haley and His Comets at Kerrisdale Arena, Elvis at Empire Stadium.
For Sylvia Sivac, it all started with a car, a Sweet Sixteen gift from her father, on condition that she would drive it to church on Sundays. Sylvia agreed, and drove immediately to Cal-Van Auto Supply to have the car fitted with dual exhaust pipes. There she met her future husband, ace mechanic Stewart Braddick. They married in 1958, started a family and opened Payless Auto Accessories on Hastings Street.
For over 20 years, Sylvia raced cars that Stewart modified to go fast. Up and down the West Coast, they travelled the car racing circuit, hobnobbing with racecar drivers Mario Andretti and Paul Newman. “We were in California, bench racing. That’s what we call talking about cars when we’re not driving them. Someone noticed that the colour of my eyes matched Paul’s and yes, he agreed.”
In the 1980s, Stewart and Sylvia decided to change it up. They sold Payless and their vehicles, including Ecstasy, and went into the food supply business. “Stew and I were partners in everything we did together. And you know, that feeling I got racing cars, I got it working in the stores and I get it working at till nine, too.”
Sylvia and Stewart operated the Food Warehouse, one at the foot of Lonsdale, and another on Commercial Drive. As well, Sylvia opened two women’s clothing stores on Lower Lonsdale, Sylvia’s Place and the Quai Boutique.
Sadly, in 2002, Stewart died unexpectedly. By then, they had sold their businesses except for the original Food Warehouse, which Sylvia ran for another five years.
Work, family and a return to the world of hot rods and dragsters keeps Sylvia on the go. A member of the B.C. Hot Rod Association and a founding member of the Greater Vancouver Motorsport Pioneers, Sylvia started the annual Shipbuilders’ Square Car Show, a celebration of car culture.
Next Canada Day 2018, you’ll find Sylvia among the hot rods and dragsters, steps away from the sites of the Braddick family businesses at the foot of Lonsdale. In the meantime, Sylvia Braddick, car racing trailblazer, is always ready to exchange a friendly greeting at till #9.
Laura Anderson works with and for seniors on the North Shore. Contact her at 778-279-2275 or email her at [email protected].
