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Art Asbury (2001)
Art Asbury is probably Canada's most successful and exciting hydroplane boat racer. During a career that spanned 40 years, Art won 12 international, national and provincial championships and set seven North American and World speed records. Born in Dwight, Ontario, in 1922, Art was the youngest child of James and Annie Asbury, whose maiden name was Newton. Art takes great pride in his ties with the province of Quebec. His maternal grandfather, Pierre Villeneuve, was born in Sherbrooke but came with his family to Renfrew, Ont, when he was 18. He later moved to Dwight and changed his name to the anglicized version, Peter Newton. The Asbury family owned and operated the Dwight General Supply Store on the shores of Dwight Bay. It was one of Art's chores to deliver groceries to the summer cottages, a task he performed in a skiff, powered by a small outboard motor. When Art was taking his load of groceries out on the lake, he travelled sedately but coming back at the end of his deliveries, he realized that if he put the remaining groceries at the front of the boat, he could really fly. Thus came the beginning of a hydroplane racer. During the second World War, Art served with the Royal Air Force Coastal Command and flew 37 operational missions in a Liberator B-24 bomber. Upon returning home after the war, he worked with his parents operating a tourist lodge and resumed his friendship with Art Hatch of Hamilton, a long time friend and summer guest. As a consequence, the Costa Lotta boat-racing team was formed and the two men were instrumental in the eventual formation of the Canadian Boating Federation. On Nov. 1, 1957, Art set a World speed record of 184.54 mph in the unlimited hydroplane class driving Miss Supertest II for Col. J. Gordon Thompson and his son James at Long Reach near Picton, Ont. For this , he was awarded the World Medal of Honour by the Union of International Motorboating located in Ghent, Belgium. This was what you might call getting his feet wet, because Art went on to set two more World speed records, three Canadian speed records and one American speed record. He was Canadian National Champion in 1948, '51 and '57; American National Champion in 1963 and '64; Canadian High Point Champion in 1953, '58, '60, '61, '69 and '78 and Quebec Provincial Champion in 1978. In 1964, Art was inducted in the American Marine Racing Hall of Fame and this was followed by his induction into the Canadian Boating and Huntsville, Ont. Halls of Fame in 1990. In 2001, he was inducted into the Great Lakes Maritime Institute Hall of Fame as a Pioneer of Power Boating. Other honours include being named Marina Captain-Harbour Master at Expo '67 in Montreal, Honourary Race Chairman for Prince Edward Gold Cup, citations for making outstanding contributions to water safety, and receiving the Boating Recognition Award from the Canadian Power Squadrons. And just so nobody thinks he's been away from the action, in 1996 he was Grand Marshal of the Spirit of Detroit Thunderfest and Quake on the Lake, Pontiac Michigan, 2001.
More about this member :: Back to top Don Biederman (2001)
Oakville, Ont., stock car driver, Don Biederman, was known primarily for his aggressive manner on short-track speedways. But he drove the big speedways as well and was the first Canadian to campaign full-time on the NASCAR Grand National circuit (now Winston Cup). He finished 39th in points in 1967, a campaign won by Richard Petty but including such names as Bobby Allison, David Pearson and Cale Yarborough. Don was more than a driver - he built the car that Dave Marcis drove in his first Daytona 500 in 1965 - and he's credited with paving the way for compatriots like Earl Ross and Roy Smith ``to go south.'' Frequently described as an original who had the fire to win every time he got behind the wheel of a stock car, his presence at any speedway was enough to generate excitement. Described as crusty, cantankerous, opinionated and outspoken, he was one of the greatest short-track racers of his time. Famous for his activities in and around Southern Ontario at tracks such as Cayuga, Pinecrest, Flamboro, Peterborough and Delaware, where he won numerous races and championships, Don also raced across the border at Lancaster, Holland and Perry in New York state as well as in the Maritimes at speedways such as Riverside in Nova Scotia and River Glade in New Brunswick. This is where he would go head-to-head with arch-rival (and Hall of Fame member) Junior Hanley. In fact, he was instrumental in convincing Hanley to relocate to Oakville so they could race against each other more often. A man who built race cars and drove them for a living, Don would often start out on Wednesday night at Kalamazoo Speedway, race at Mount Clements Speedway on Thursday (both located in Michigan), cross back into Canada for a meet Friday night at Delaware Speedway near London, race Saturday night at Pinecrest Speedway in Toronto and then head right out for a big-money raced somewhere on Sundaqy afternoon. His greatest achievement was winning the 1977 Oxford 250 in Oxford, Me., where he beat many of the established Winston Cup stars of the day. Don was not averse to putting up the dukes if he thought someone was cheating him out of money and was at war on a number of occasions with promoters and speedway operators. But there was another side to Don that was not evident at the speedway: away from the track he quietly helped some of his fellow competitors such as Howie Scannel and Norm Lelliott, with parts and advice. He also quiety donated time and equipment to restoration projects. He liked nothing more than to see famous old stock cars and superrmodifieds restored to their former glory. But let's not forget that first and foremost, Don Biederman was a character. When his shop was broken into in 1984, Don bought advertising space in two of the Toronto newspapers and published this message. ``I hope you crash and burn with those parts.'' Don Biederman was greatly admired for his passion and dedication. When he died in 1999, the outpouring of grief was overwhelming and impressive, considering that many of the people mourning his passing - fellow competitors, promoters, officials, journalists and fans - had just about all been the recipient of Don's outspokenness at one time or another.
More about this member :: Back to top Jean-Paul Cabana (2001)
In the 1950s, when Canadian road-racing events were few and far between and organized drag racing had not even started, a little guy from St. Hyacinthe, Que., was tearing up most of the stock-car tracks of his home province and the northern United States. His name was Jean-Paul Cabana. The last of 13 children born on a farm, Jean-Paul started working as a mechanic when he was 17. He first got behind the wheel of a racing car at the Drummondville Autodrome in 1954, driving a 1932 flathead Ford V-8, and he never looked back. He won most races he entered, sometimes running as often as five times a week at Drummondville, Montmagny (near Quebec City), Riverside Speedway (Laval) and Bouvrette Speedway (St-Jerome). At the end of the 1950s, he switched to Chevy power and started racing in the northern U.S., initially at Airborne Speedway in Plattsburgh, N.Y. He got his first start at the Daytona Speedway in 1962 in the Sportsman Division. During the main support race for the Daytona 500, Jean-Paul drove what he remembers as an ex-Junior Johnson Pontiac Catalina to ninth place (first in the Sportsman class, as they also ran Modifieds in the same race). In 1965, John Paul won the first race at the Milton Speedway in Vermont (then owned by CBS's Ken Squier) and, ironically, won the last race there before it went out of business in the 1970s. He won the track championship there three times. As well as dominating northern speedways, he ventured south to Charlotte, Richmond and Martinsville, with mixed results. In his 40 years of racing, Jean-Paul never ran less than three times a week but most often five. He raced frequently in Ontario, running at Cayuga, Mosport and Sauble River. During his career, Jean-Paul won more than 500 races and helped many young drivers get started, such as NASCAR stars Kevin LePage (he was best man at LePage's wedding) and Ricky Craven, to name a few. Living the life of a gentleman farmer today, Jean-Paul still operates a driving school at the Sanair Speedway and does some announcing at Saturday night tracks in the province. In Quebec, Jean-Paul Cabana is known as the King of Stock Car Racing
More about this member :: Back to top Terry Capp (2001)
During the mid-1970s to the early 1980s, Terry Capp and his crew chief, Hall of Fame member Bernie Fedderly, were instrumental in bringing Canadian Top Fuel drag cars to the forefront of the North American drag-racing scene. He was honoured four times by making the cover of the NHRA's National Dragster magazine and the highlight of his career was winning the Top Fuel championship at the U.S. Nationals in Indianapolis in 1980.Much ado has been made about Hall-of-Famer Gary Beck, the all conquering Top Fuel hero who lived in Edmonton and was instrumental in making drag racing a truly international sport. But Terry Capp was his equal.Terry started drag racing in 1967 with Fedderly and the two made a formidable team for most of Terry's career. Their initial entry was a 1951 Anglia B/Gasser that produced more success than is usually expected from a first-car effort, winning the Western Canadian Championship Series that season. In 1968 and 1969, they quickened their pace with a C/Dragster and then switched to the lightening fast A/Fuel Dragster category in 1970. Shortly thereafter, they met up with Wes Van Dusen, who had a Top Fuel dragster but needed extra assistance in campaigning the machine. A three-way partnership was formed. Terry purchased a 426 Hemi from a retired US Funny Car racer and the team went to Saskatchewan International Raceway for a meet and surprised everybody, especially themselves, by hitting a 6.42 second run-225 mph-which set a Canadian record. Terry's thundering performances proved to be no fluke as he journeyed to the United States to race in division VI at Seattle International Raceway and he came away with an even more impressive 6.40 sec run (236 mph), something (as the Americans said) that Canadians weren't suppose to do. Beck convinced them to go rear engine in 1972 and they finished in the Top Ten of the NHRA World championship Series, something again they weren't suppose to do. Many wins and regional championships followed. In 1980, Terry went up against the likes of Beck, Connie Kalitta, Shirley Muldowney and Dick Lahaie at the U.S. Nationals in Indianapolis. Qualifying second with a 5.80 sec. ET at 243.24 mph, Terry beat Jeb Allen in the final, posting the quickest side by side race in history, winning with a 5.82 sec. ET at 241.93 mph to a 5.99 sec. ET at 245.23 mph. Terry went into semi-retirement after that, but teamed up with Ron Hodgson. Gordon Jenner, Dale Adams in 1988 to try Top Fuel racing again. They won the AHRA World Finals in Spokane that year and went back to the US Nationals in Indianapolis where Terry qualified ninth, loosing in the second round with a gigantic wheel stand. Over the next decade Terry kept his Top Fuel and Funny Car licenses current by running match races throughout Canada and the US. And then in 2000 he returned to the AHRA World Finals in Spokane, Wash. where after the smoke had cleared, he added another trophy to his collection by posting a time of 5.22 seconds and a 297 mph run, winning the AHRA World Finals. Not bad for a semi-retired driver. Terry Capp says he's not finished. Before he hangs up the helmet for good, he wants to make a 300 plus mph pass in the 4-second range. He's had a 5.02 run at 297.97 mph, so that barrier can't be far off.
More about this member :: Back to top Jacob DeRosier (2001)
Jacob De Rosier is considered one of the greatest motorcycle racing champions of the 20th century.Sponsored by Indian Motorcycle and later Excelsior, De Rosier was the fastest rider in the U.S in the early 1900's. Born in Quebec in 1880, he moved with his family to the U.S. when he was four. Facinated with motorocycles, De Rosier persuaded Frenchman Henri Fournier, who brought the first bicycle pacing machines to the U.S., to let him ride one of the motor pacers. Impressed with his natural ability, Fournier hired him to ride the machine in the Paris races and thus started De Rosier's professional career. While becoming one of the best pacing riders in the world, he met Indian co-founder, Oscar Hedstrom, which later led to De Rosier's long relationship with Indian Motorcycles. He raced Indian Motorcycle machines in the endurance runs and bicycle velodrome track races becoming the top rider at the 1908 Federation ofAmerican Motorcyclists (FAM). This led to a full-time racing contract with Indian and from that point forward, he won races nearly every weekend earning most of his victories on the newly built Los Angeles Motordome in the 100-mile record trials. De Rosier's popularity was so great that track promoter and builder, Jack Prince, hired him to race at the opening of many of the board tracks being built across the country. In an amazing show of dominance De Rosier held every FAM speed record for professional riders by the end of 1911 forcing hhim to search out new challenges.He travelled to Great Britain and became the first American rider to compete in the Isle of Man TT setting the fastest qualifiying speed and finishing an amazing 12th only to be disqualified for outside assistance. After leading the first lap, he began losing his tools and spares on the rough course and was forced to borrow a spark plug to complete the race after crashing out. But the loss was minor as De Rosier won the hearts of British motoracing fans who adored his magnetic style. On March 12, 1912, while racing for Excelsior, De Rosier sustained serious injuries in a match race at the Los Angeles Motordrome. De Rosier rallied after an operation on his severly broken leg, but he never fully recovered. He returned to home to Massachusetts for a third operation , but died of complications on February 25, 1913, at the age of 33.Hundreds attended his funeral and Indian flew flags at half-mast and ceased production for five minutes tohonour the greatly loved motorcycle racer. De Rosier won nearly 900 races during his racing career and was considered one of the most daring racers of his era. He raced everything from the early single-cylinder motor bicycles to the full-fledged motorcycles capable of triple-digit speeds.The motorcycle magazines of the time call him the most famous racer the sport had ever known.
More about this member :: Back to top Guy Lombardo (2001)
For most people, Guy Lombardo is remembered as the legendary Canadian musician and bandleader of the red-jacketed Royal Canadians best-known for "The Sweetest Music This Side of Heaven". What isn't as well known to many is that he was also a highly successful hydroplane racer. Born in London, Ontario, Guy originally caught the boat racing bug as a young boy by running his fathers flat bottom row boat up and down the Thames River in London. "Papa" had evidently purchased the first outboard motor in London and attached it to the rowboat. Even though the top speed of this motor was only about six miles an hour, the sense of speed and control of this power was enough to set the stage for Guy's future racing exploits. But, it was many years before Guy officially entered the world of boat racing. style="mso-spacerun: yes"> Despite missing the start of his first race because he couldn't hear the starters pistol, Lombardo quickly demonstrated that he was a fast learner and very talented. style="mso-spacerun: yes"> In 1942, in the 225 Cubic Inch class, Guy won 20 of the 21 races he entered. He did not race again until after World War II. When Guy resumed racing, he stepped up to the elite Unlimited Hydroplane racing class following the purchase of MY SIN, the 1939 and 1941 American Power Boat Association Gold Cup Unlimited Class Winner piloted by Zalmon Simmons. style="mso-spacerun: yes"> In 1948, Guy renamed the craft TEMPO VI.Between 1946 and 1953, Guy is credited with fifteen Unlimited or Gold Cup victories. His two major victories were the 1946 Gold Cup and the 1948 Ford Memorial Contests, both run in Detroit with TEMPO VI.Other wins include the 1946, 1950, and 1951 National Sweepstakes Trophy Races in Red Bank, New Jersey; the 1949 and 1950 Star Spangled Banner Regattas in Baltimore, Maryland; and the 1950 and 1951 Buffalo Launch Club Regattas. At Miami Beach in March 1946, Lombardo broke the record for super-charged Gold Cup class boats with a one-mile straightway average of 113.031 mph, eclipsing the former mark of 100.987 set in 1940. In doing so, he became the second Gold Cupper in history to clear the then elusive 100 mph. Guy continued racing TEMPO VI until 1953 and appeared occasionally in the cockpits of other well-known boats.Skipping the 1954 campaign, Guy reappeared in 1955 with a new TEMPO VII - which the press labelled "The Sweetest Boat This Side of Heaven".
More about this member :: Back to top Eldon Rasmussen (2001)
Eldon Rasmussen was the second Canadian (after Billy Foster) to race in the Indianapolis 500. Eldon and Billy were supermodified drivers who went on to the big time after competing in the old CAMRA series (Canadian-American Modified Racing Association) that promoted races in British Columbia, Alberta and throughout the western United States. Eldon was a successful driver and continues to be a race engineer, designer, builder and fabricator. He started building at the age of 9 when he put together a soap box derby car. He then fashioned a go-kart out of part of an old Model T frame and a lawn-mower engine. He started racing seriously in 1952 on the dirt tracks of Southern Alberta. Racing on pavement in Edmonton and Calgary, he went on to make more than 600 starts with the touring CAMRA series. He won local championships on many occasions and finished second once in the CAMRA series, a circuit that boasted the likes of Foster, Art Pollard, Jim Maloy, Tom and Jerry Sneva, and Cliff Hucul of Prince George, B.C., who followed Billy and Eldon to the big track at Indianapolis. Eldon served on the CAMRA board of directors and was president of the Edmonton Auto Racing Association for many years. He moved to Indianapolis in 1967 but never gave up his Canadian citizenship or Edmonton as his racing address. He ran more than 50 USAC sprint car races before concentrating on the Indy cars. He qualified for three Indianapolis 500s in 1975, '77 and '79 (he renewed acquaintances with Sneva in 1975 when they came together in Turn 2 at the Brickyard, leaving Sneva's car a twisted, smoking wreck). He qualified for 10 other 500-mile races - at Pocono, Pa., and Ontario, Calif. - and 36 other USAC short-track races for Indy cars. He retired from driving in 1979 when he was injured after cutting a tire and crashing during the Pocono 500. But Eldon is better remembered as an engineer, designer, builder and fabricator. (He says one of the reasons that he didn't start driving the Indy cars sooner was because his other talents were much in demand. He had to wait four years after moving to the U.S. before he started to drive Indy cars because he was too busy building, tuning and repairing crashed cars for other drivers and teams.) He updated cars for various teams and designed and built his own Indy cars. A visionary, Eldon designed and built some of the first wings for the Indy 500 cars. He designed and built the wing for Gary Beck's top-fuel dragster in 1972 that contributed to Beck's first Top Fuel U.S. Nationals victory, and designed and built the first tall wing in NHRA racing for Joe Amato. He also designed and built the top North American Ice Racing car for Hall of Fame member Tom Jones of Thunder Bay in 1975-76, not to mention the racing motorcycle and sidecar be built for Greg Cox and Bill Davidson of Ottawa in 1975. From 1975-'80, he designed and built 172 Ras-Car rent-a-racer cars for several Mario Andretti Grand Prix International tracks and 380 Ras-Car Can-Am-style go-karts. Eldon continues to be involved with, as he puts it, ``anything on wheels'' and to this day he is busy building exhaust header systems for Indy cars and various types of pit equipment. And are you ready for this? Much of Sylvester Stallone's racing film Driven was filmed at last year's Molson Indy here in Toronto and the person who did the powerplant conversions for the three cars the actors drove in the movie was - you guessed it - Eldon Rasmussen.
More about this member :: Back to top Dave Sehl (2001)
Dave Sehl was very likely Canada's most successful dirt-track motorcycle racer. Unlike the up-and-over motocross rider, or the super-smooth motorcycle road racer, dirt-track motorcycle racing is conducted on speedways from a half-mile dirt track to ones a mile long. The riders are flat on the machines down the straights and then slide through the turns with one foot skipping along the top of the dirt surface to keep everything upright. Dirt-track speedway motorcycle racers are the bravest of the brave. During his three-year professional career riding for Harley-Davidson, Dave won six AMA National races, a marvellous record. He won on the half-mile tracks at Louisville (three times), Columbus and Terre Haute and on the mile at Atlanta, Ga. Dave Sehl was king of the dirt. He won the dirt portion of the AMA championship in 1969; he was fifth in the AMA National title chase in 1971 and 10th in 1972. As well as competing in the United States, Canadian Motorcycle Association records show that Dave was the 250 Expert Dirt Track Champion in 1970 and 1973 and the 750 Expert Dirt Track Champion in 1971 and 1973. As well as winning sanctioned events, Dave was also expert at running non-sanction, big-money events, notably an invitation-only race in 1971 at Roosevelt Raceway on Long Island, N.Y., when he walked away with first prize money of $4,000 from a $15,000 total purse.
More about this member :: Back to top Richard Spenard (2001)
Richard Spenard has been a very active and successful competitor at the senior level of Canadian and international motor racing for more than 25 years. In fact, he tops the list for the most wins in Canadian road-racing history. He won his first championship title in 1974 with eight victories in 10 races at the Jim Russell Racing School series at Mont Tremblant. He raced Formula Atlantic in Canada and the United States and was a teammate of Gilles Villeneuve in 1977. Not content with pavement, Richard also won the Quebec Ice Series championship that year. Richard won Canadian championships, year-after-year, from the late '70s onward in Production GT racing, Formula 2000, the Players GM series and the Porsche Turbo Cup series. In 1986, a banner year, he recorded 12 wins in 24 starts in three different series (F2000, Porsche and GM), including four wins in the Players series, six wins and two poles in Formula 2000 and two wins and four poles in the Porsche Turbo Cup. He holds the record for most wins, poles and earnings in both the Porsche and GM series. Richard has also raced in European Formula 3, the 24 Hours of Le Mans, 24 Hours of Daytona and has recorded victories and poles in Trans-Am, IMSA and North American Endurance racing. But the Quebec native is known for more than being a great racing driver. He is also one of the finest racing instructors in North America. He started teaching initially at the Jim Russell school at Riverside and Laguna Seca raceways in California. In 1985, he founded the Spenard-David racing school at Shannonville, Ont. He was the first teacher for such Canadian stars as World Champion Jacques Villeneuve, the late Greg Moore, Patrick Carpentier, David Empringham, Ron Fellows and Trevor Siebert. He was employed for a number of years as the driving coach for the Player's-Forsythe CART team (Carpentier and Tagliani) and was director of the Player's driver development program during its existence. Although Richard doesn't drive as often these days, he's still fast. Who among us will ever forget his win in the Motorola Cup race at the 1998 Molson Indy when he drove to victory all the way from the back of the pack. Or the Enduro race, also at the Molson Indy, when - not even entered until the night before the race and not having any practice time whatsoever, he started last - and won. A man who freely admits that his timing for success in racing's upper echelons was never the best, Richard Spenard was nevertheless one of the greatest racing talents ever to come out of this country. He has been a marvelous ambassador for Canadian motorsport and is most worthy of induction into the Canadian Motorsport Hall of Fame.
More about this member :: Back to top Jacques Villeneuve (2001)
Jacques Villeneuve, the brother of Gilles and uncle of Jacques, is being inducted into the Canadian Motorsport Hall of Fame for his excellence in snowmobile racing as well as automobile racing. He is best known as the first Canadian to win a CART Indycar race at Elkart Lake, Wisconsin, in 1986) and has been World Snowmobile Champion three times. In fact, he is favoured to become the sport's first four-time champion. Modest, friendly and full of fun, Jacques is known for his wide open, sometimes wild, driving style and his passionate desire to win every time out. He started racing in 1976 and was rookie-of-the-year in the Honda Civic championship. He won the title in 1977 b+A59efore going Formula Ford racing in 1978, where he finished second in the Jim Russell championship. In 1979 he was rookie-of-the-year in the Canadian Formula Atlantic series and won the Atlantic championship in 1980, the same year he won his first world snowmobile championship. He repeated as Formula Atlantic champion in 1981 and tried his hand at Formula One, failing unfortunately to qualify an Arrows at the Canadian Grand Prix and the U.S. Grand Prix at Las Vegas. In 1982, he was second in the Can-Am two-litre championship and won his second snowmobile title. In 1983, he won the Can-Am 5-litre title but again failed to qualify for the Canadian GP. He entered CART competition in 1984 with Hall-of-Fame member David Billes and the Canadian Tire racing team and set the series on its ear by winning the pole at the Phoenix round, setting (for that time) a world closed-course speed record in the process. Unfortunately, he crashed heavily while practicing for the Indianapolis 500 and was forced to skip that race but the Canadian Tire team returned to finish fifth in 1985. In 1986 his luck at Indy went sour again and a gearbox problem saw him finish 15th but, in the rain at Elkart Lake, he became the first Canadian to win a CART race, In all, he drove three seasons for the Canadian Tire team before leaving the CART series. In 1986, by the way, Jacques added his third snowmobile crown. Jacques is also known in snowmobile circles as having incredible mechanical ability in that winter sport. From 1986 until 1993, Jacques' full-time auto racing career wound down but every time out, whether it was in Can Am, the Porsche Super Cup or Formula Atlantics, he qualified frequently on pole (Mont-Tremblant, Trois Rivieres), and either won (Trois Rivieres) or finished near the front. Now, Jacques is unable to be with us tonight. He is snowmobile racing in Winnipeg, naturally, it's winter and that's what Jacques does in the wintertime.
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