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Index by last name:
[A] [B] [C] [D] [E] [F] [G] [H] I [J] [K] [L] [M] [N] [O] [P] Q [R] [S] [T] U [V] [W] X Y Z
Index by year:
1993 [1994] [1995] [1996] [1997] [1998] [1999] [2000] [2001] [2002] [2003] [2004] [2005] [2006] [2007]
Bill Brack (1993)
Bill Brack is the only driver to win three Canadian driving championships, and he did it in consecutive years- 1973, '74 and '75. To do it, he had to beat some of the future Grand Prix champions; future Indy 500 winners and a young up-and-comer named Gilles Villeneuve. In his outstanding career, Bill also won a North American Formula Atlantic Championship and the Canadian Touring Car Championship.
More about this member :: Back to top John Cannon (1993)
John Cannon was the first Canadian ever to win a Can-Am race. In a three-year-old car, John lapped the entire field in the rain at Laguna Seca in 1968, including the mighty Team McLaren of Denny Hume and Bruce McLaren. John went on to star on the U.S. continental circuit and his performances brought much prestige to Canadian racing.
More about this member :: Back to top Billy Foster (1993)
Billy Foster, born in Victoria B.C., became the first Canadian to race in the Indy 500 in 1965 when he qualified the Jim Robbins Autotron entered Vollsted Offy 6th in his first attempt at the 500. He finished 17th when his car suffered a broken water manifold on the 85th lap. Billy raced stock cars and super modifieds on the West Coast before starring on the Indycar circuit and on the United States Auto Club (USAC) stock car circuit. He was a cinch to one day win at Indy, but that was not to be. Billy was killed in practice for the Riverside NASCAR race in 1967. In reaction to that NASCAR created the window net rule that is now extended to all closed cars. So, the next time your favourite driver pops down his window net prior to hauling himself out of the car, pause a minute, smile and remember Canada's Billy Foster
More about this member :: Back to top Bob McLean (1993)
Bob McLean came barnstorming across the country in 1965, winning the Canadian Driving Championship and proving to the eastern establishment that western drivers could run with the best. He did his own mechanical work and stretched every dollar to do it. It seemed that getting a ride the next year in a Comstock Ford GT-40 for the Sebring 12 hours was his big break. But it ended in tragedy when he crashed and died during the race.
More about this member :: Back to top Chuck Rathgeb (1993)
The head of Comstock Canada, Rathgeb built the most successful racing team Canada has ever seen. Comstock Racing gave many promising Canadian drivers a chance to compete in major North American races- and win. A true sportsman who has competed in many of the world's toughest rallies, Chuck Rathgeb also financed the building of the Comstock-Sadlers, which helped to put Canada on the racing map.
More about this member :: Back to top Peter Ryan (1993)
If Canada had a chance of landing a driver in the big times in the early days of auto racing in this country, it was Peter Ryan, the first Canadian to compete in a Formula 1 Grand Prix. Peter Ryan was born in Philadelphia, PA. He grew up at Mont Tremblant, PQ and always raced as a Canadian. He caught everyone's attention by winning the 1961 Canadian Grand Prix in a Lotus 19. He drove a Lotus Climax in the 1961 US Grand Prix on October 8,1961. He started 16 of 19 starters and finished 9th. His drive impressed Lotus sufficiently to land a factory drive in 1962. In 1962, at Riems, France, Peter was killed when his factory Lotus Formula junior rolled violently. He was just 22
More about this member :: Back to top Bill Sadler (1993)
Canada's most successful racecar builder, Bill Sadler earned a place in motorsport history with the cars he designed and built. His most successful racers were the Comstock-Sadlers he built in 1961. He won against some of the great European racecars of the day. Although ahead of their time, the Sadlers had a profound effect on the future design of Group 7 and Can-Am cars.
More about this member :: Back to top Imperial Tobacco (1993)
Imperial Tobacco, primarily through their Players Brand has been a signature sponsor of Canadian motorsport. From the Players Grand prix of 1961 through the first World Championship Canadian Grand Prix for Formula 1 car, through the Players Formula Atlantic Series and the GM Players series and a plethora of other series and individual races, Players has been a force in Canadian motorsport.
More about this member :: Back to top Gilles Villeneuve (1993)
Gilles Villeneuve became a legend in his own time, a driver whose skill and daring personified the ideals of Grand Prix racing, the pinnacle of motor sport. With his flamboyantly aggressive, press-on-regardless style in scarlet Ferrari, he captured the imagination of a vast international audience as no other driver has in recent times. Villeneuve's esteem and popularity have grown since his tragic death in a terrible accident during qualifying at Zolder in Belgium on May 8, 1982. Canada's Grand Prix circuit, in Montreal, is named for him and there are statues commemorating him in Europe where he is revered as one of the greatest racing heroes in the history of the sport. Author Gerald Donaldson, an award-winning journalist and commentator, covered Gilles Villeneuve's first and last Formula 1 races and many of those in between. In his full-length authoritative biography of the spectacular French-Canadian driver, Donaldson captures all the drama and emotion, humour and heartbreak of a life lived at the limit. The truth about Gilles Villeneuve is more remarkable than any fiction, a rags-to-riches saga of his rise from obscurity and triumph over adversity to achieve undreamed of fame and fortune. Beyond the breathtaking accounts of his epic races Donaldson's book covers every aspect of the Villeneuve legend to reveal the private man behind the superstar image.
More about this member :: Back to top Eppie Wietzes (1993)
A two-time Canadian Driving Champion, Eppie Wietzes won in everything he drove, from a Sunbeam Alpine to Comstock Mustangs and GT-40s and finally to a flock of very quick Formula 5000 cars. He won back-to-back Canadian Championships in 1969 and 1970. Then headed south to star in the Continental (F5000) circuit where he did himself and his country proud.
More about this member :: Back to top
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