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Index by last name:
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Index by year:
[1993] [1994] [1995] [1996] [1997] [1998] [1999] [2000] [2001] [2002] [2003] [2004] [2005] 2006 [2007]
Bob Atchison (2006)
Builder Drag Racing
Bob Atchison is one of the true pioneers of Canadian drag racing. Born in
1941, Bob started competing in the mid-1950s with an Oldsmobile-powered 1955
Ford and an Oldsmobile powered 1951 Henry J. In the early 1960s, Bob began
racing in the dragster classes, first with a B dragster and then a
nitro-fuelled Top Fuel dragster. He became a frequent winner at Grand Bend
Dragway, Motor City Dragway, Detroit Dragway and at the St. Thomas Dragway.
The reputation Bob established was enhanced when he opened his machine shop,
Atchison Machine, in 1967. He became well-known for building chassis,
engines and custom components not only for himself but for other racers. The
list includes previous Canadian Motorsport Hall of Fame inductees Scott
Wilson, Frank Hawley and Bill Kydd. In the 1990s, his son Robbie went racing
and father and son took on the task of creating an alcohol burning Funny
Car. During record-setting and dominating 2003, 2004 and 2005 seasons, Bob
choreographed his son Robbie to three straight IHRA Hooters Drag Racing
Series Alcohol Funny Car World Championships. Bob was IHRA Crew Chief of the
Year in 2004 and Crew Chief of the Year in a Drag Race Canada poll. The team
currently holds 10 speed records. Bob is responsible for the current success
of the AJ481X, an engine considered to be obsolete in today's highly
competitive world. He has developed camshafts that have increased the
horsepower in these engines to staggering numbers. In addition, many top
engine builders now use the supercharger technology that Bob pioneered. Bob'
s achievements in the last five years are world-class. Even more remarkable
is that he accomplished them using an eight-year-old chassis in the midst of
constant engine evolution.
More about this member :: Back to top Alec Bennett (2006)
Competitor Motorcycle Racing
Alec Bennett was born on April 21, 1897, in what is now Northern Ireland.
The Bennett family emigrated to Canada in 1905, living first in Alberta,
then in Vancouver, B.C. Little is known of his early motorcycle racing but
by the time he was 16 he was already a competitive force on the dirt tracks
of B.C. In 1920, he left Canada for England to pursue his dream to be a
motorcycle factory test rider and a motorcycle racer. Alec Bennett's
post-First World War racing career consisted of only 29 races but he won 13
of them - a remarkable winning percentage. Of those 13 victories, 11 were in
classic races. In competition at the Isle of Man races, Bennett won the
Senior Tourist Trophy three times and the Junior Tourist Trophy twice. He
won the Grand Prix of France four times and the Grand Prix of Belgium twice.
All of his European wins were in the premier 500cc class. The races were not
for the faint of heart. When he went to the Spanish Grand Prix for the first
time in 1923, the 12-hour race was on a 60-mile course that included two
mountain peaks and an open stretch of near-desert. After his front fork
broke, Bennett rode until his hands swelled to the size of boxing gloves.
Only then did he drop out. When he retired, he did so as the most successful
racer of his generation. He died in in 1973 at the age of 76. To this day,
no Canadian rider has come close to matching his record. He was the most
successful motorcycle racer Canada ever produced.
More about this member :: Back to top John Bird (2006)
John Bird and Bruce Simpson - Competitors Rally Racing
"Always play to win." That was the motto of the rally team of John Bird and
Bruce Simpson - and win they did. As a team, they entered 140 rallies and
won 107. A few times they were merely close, recording 12 seconds and 5
thirds. That is a record unmatched in motorsport. The record shows that John
Bird, a university professor, was Canadian Rally Champion in 1963, 1964,
1965 and Bruce Simpson, an elementary school teacher, won the title in 1966.
In those days the Fidler Trophy was given to the winner of the National
Rally Championship. There was no separate category for drivers and
navigators as is the case today. They won four consecutive events with
losses of 0, 1, 0, 0 penalty points. John Bird still insists that the
organizers made the mistake on the second of those four rallies. This all
took place at a time when rallying attracted a large number of competitors
and 100-car fields were not unusual. The team of Simpson and Bird defined
rally excellence in Canada against all comers. They became legend not just
for their ability to win but for the way they went about winning. They were
all business, but they also indulged their other interests as they competed,
listening to football games and cheering for their respective teams - John
supporting the Argos and Bruce for the TiCats. John Bird entered the
ultimate Canadian rally, the Shell 4000, six times and won it twice while
navigating for driver Klaus Ross. Ross and Bird were the only team ever to
win it back-to-back, in 1964 and 1965. John and Bruce each won the Ontario
Rally championship seven times. Bruce won it seven consecutive years from
1963 to 1969. John missed in 1964 but won it in 1962. John, Bruce and Paul
Manson shared the Wilson Trophy for most active competitor of the year in
1965. Bruce also won it in 1963. They also had success rallying with others.
John Bird navigated for a number of other drivers on 100 rallies winning 37.
Bruce Simpson won 14 of 27 rallies while driving for other navigators. He
also won 50 rallies while navigating for several other drivers on 97
rallies.
More about this member :: Back to top Jacques Dallaire (2006)
Dan Marisi and Jacques Dallaire - Builders All
Daniel Marisi was born and raised in Saskatoon where, as a teenager, he
gained considerable fame as an athlete (football, basketball, and
wrestling). He got his master's degree in phys-ed at Saskatchewan and then a
PhD in educational psychology at the University of California, Berkeley. He
joined the Department of Physical Education at McGill in 1971 and helped
define the department's curriculum in motor learning, sport psychology, and
research methodology. Jacques Dallaire was born in Oshawa and spent most of
his early teenage years at nearby Mosport Park. He got his master's in
exercise science at the University of Ottawa and his PhD in exercise
psychology at the University of Alberta. He joined McGill, where he met
Marisi, and in 1983 they co-founded the McGill Motor Sport Research Group.
From '83 through '99, they guided the mental training of nearly 500
high-performance racers from 35 countries, including 60 Canadians (Ron
Fellows, Miguel Duhamel, Patrick Carpentier, Greg Moore and Scott Goodyear,
among them). They were founding members of the International Council of
Motorsport Sciences and their understanding of the role of physical
conditioning and cognitive function, the limits of the human body and the
opportunity to improve contributed in many ways to the significant
developments in driver safety seen in recent years. In 1999, Dan Marisi died
and Jacques Dallaire was faced with some difficult choices. In the end, he
remained true to the vision created by the two of them. Since then, Jacques
has made many television appearances to talk about their work and numerous
TV and magazine features have focused on the work of Marisi and Dallaire.
More about this member :: Back to top John Duff (2006)
Competitor Oval and Road Racing
John Duff was born to Canadian parents in China in 1895. At a young age, he
was sent to their hometown of Hamilton, Ont., where he stayed till he was 16
before returning to China. After the First World War, in which he was
wounded while fighting for England, he learned to drive. A year later, in
1920, he started to race. Over the next six years, he became one of only two
Canadians who raced and won on England's famous Brooklands Motor Course (Kay
Petre, an honourable member of the Canadian Motorsport Hall of Fame, is the
other). He also was overall winner of the 24 Hours of Le Mans and scored a
top ten finish in the Indianapolis 500. Although other Canadians have since
scored class victories at Le Mans, John Duff remains the only Canadian to
win the race. And to finish in the top ten in his first attempt during the
early, ultra-dangerous days at Indy, was similarly remarkable. John also set
more than 50 speed and endurance records. In his day, endurance and speed
records over distances of 1,000 or 2,000 miles, for 12 hours or 24 hours,
were considered astounding achievements and received big play in the press.
His greatest successes came while driving Bentleys. He was a Bentley dealer
and delighted in racing the cars to victory. His race wins and speed records
were responsible, in large part, for establishing the name and reputation of
Bentley cars as reliable sports/touring machines. An accident forced his
retirement from racing and he settled in California, teaching swordsmanship
to many of the movie stars of that time. An enthusiastic equestrian, he was
killed in a riding accident in England in 1958.
More about this member :: Back to top Lorne Liebel (2006)
Competitor Boat Racing
Lorne Liebel, born in Toronto in 1951, was fascinated with boats from an
early age. In 1976, he represented Canada in the Olympics, sailing in the
Tempest class with his cousin. After the Games, Lorne focused his attention
on developing his career as a homebuilder. Six years later, during a visit
to a friend's cottage, he was offered a ride in a high speed offshore
powerboat. In Lorne's words, "To say I was hooked would be an
understatement!" He first purchased a 30-foot performance boat, then a
faster 38-foot "Cigarette." After that, it was off to Miami, the hotbed of
performance boating and offshore racing. He eventually purchased a 41-foot,
three-man, offshore racing machine from Japan and set about building a team.
In 1986, he won the American Power Boat Association's rookie-of-the-year
award and was named Canadian Yachtsman of the Year (Powerboat) that same
year. In 1993, he won the U.S. National Championship and in 2001 earned the
title of Superboat World Champion. Offshore powerboat racing is a very
demanding sport. The combination of high speed and large waves result in
very harsh conditions for the participants. Lorne's career has been free of
major crashes and injury but the constant pounding took its toll on his back
and legs. Lorne began to consider retirement but one goal remained and that
was to be the first to move the A.P.B.A. speed record over 200 miles an hour
and leave the sport with a milestone that would be a legacy of his career.
In 2003, Lorne won his second Word Superboat Championship, set an official
A.P.B.A. World Speed Record of 177 mph and ripped off a single run of 201
mph. In retirement, Lorne is involved in vintage car racing and collecting.
More about this member :: Back to top Dan Marisi (2006)
Dan Marisi and Jacques Dallaire - Builders All
Daniel Marisi was born and raised in Saskatoon where, as a teenager, he
gained considerable fame as an athlete (football, basketball, and
wrestling). He got his master's degree in phys-ed at Saskatchewan and then a
PhD in educational psychology at the University of California, Berkeley. He
joined the Department of Physical Education at McGill in 1971 and helped
define the department's curriculum in motor learning, sport psychology, and
research methodology. Jacques Dallaire was born in Oshawa and spent most of
his early teenage years at nearby Mosport Park. He got his master's in
exercise science at the University of Ottawa and his PhD in exercise
psychology at the University of Alberta. He joined McGill, where he met
Marisi, and in 1983 they co-founded the McGill Motor Sport Research Group.
From '83 through '99, they guided the mental training of nearly 500
high-performance racers from 35 countries, including 60 Canadians (Ron
Fellows, Miguel Duhamel, Patrick Carpentier, Greg Moore and Scott Goodyear,
among them). They were founding members of the International Council of
Motorsport Sciences and their understanding of the role of physical
conditioning and cognitive function, the limits of the human body and the
opportunity to improve contributed in many ways to the significant
developments in driver safety seen in recent years. In 1999, Dan Marisi died
and Jacques Dallaire was faced with some difficult choices. In the end, he
remained true to the vision created by the two of them. Since then, Jacques
has made many television appearances to talk about their work and numerous
TV and magazine features have focused on the work of Marisi and Dallaire.
More about this member :: Back to top Ted Powell (2006)
Competitor/Builder Road Racing
Born in Quebec City, Ted Powell's love affair with motorsport began at an
early age and after obtaining his electrical engineering degree in England,
he and a friend entered a hill climb in a Fraser Nash and finished second.
After the Second World War, Ted returned to Canada (by way of Malaya with
the British Colonial Service) where he joined the Department of Transport
and the Ottawa Light Car Club (later the MCO). At Mosport in 1962, Ted
watched an exhibition race featuring a field of new Mini Coopers and
starring many of the top drivers of the day. Grand Prix pilot Innis Ireland
rolled the one he was driving and Ted promptly purchased it. Displaying his
No. 30, that Mini became his stepping-stone to circuit racing, which he
attacked with a passion. When not racing himself, he volunteered to help
other teams and he devoted a considerable amount of time to the
administrative and regulatory side of the sport. In all, Ted raced for 10
years, entering 123 road races (he won five regional championships), 12 ice
races, 15 rallies and 15 solo events. He was president of the MCO, president
of the CASC Quebec Region and vice-president of CASC-National. He organized
national races and a stage of the Shell 4000 rally. His experience, logic
and diplomacy was very much in demand during the creation of the CASC
Pro-Racing Division - the forerunner of today's ASN Canada. When he retired
from competition, he served as race steward for the Rothmans Porsche Cup in
1987-'88 and the Formula 2000 pro racing series in 1989. He also pitched in
at club events as a scrutineer, marshal, judge-of-fact and race instructor.
He died in 2001.
More about this member :: Back to top Lloyd Shaw (2006)
Competitor/Builder Oval Track Racing
Lloyd Shaw had a spectacular career as a builder of racing cars, as a
champion racer at home and in the United States in both open-wheel and
closed-wheel cars, and as an administrator and promoter. Born in Toronto in
1912, he was 20 when he built his first sprint car and went racing at
speedways in places like Leamington, Chatham, and Sarnia. With most of the
records missing, we don't know how many races he won in those days but we do
know that on his first visit to the circuit in Leamington, he set Canadian
and British Empire speed records for a half-mile dirt track. Following the
Second World War, in which he flew bombers for the Royal Canadian Air Force,
Lloyd won Canadian Auto Racing Society sprint-car championships in 1948,
1950, '51 and '52. During the 1950 season, Lloyd also drove a stock car and
won that year's CARS stock car championship. In 1953, NASCAR opened up a
Grand National race at Langhorne, Pa., to "foreign cars." Lloyd's sponsor,
James Cook, who was the Canadian agent for Jaguar cars and had dealerships
in Toronto and Winnipeg, entered a Jaguar for Lloyd and he won the pole in
it. To this day, Lloyd Shaw is the only Canadian ever to win a pole in
NASCAR's premier division. As well as racing himself, he was also a builder.
He was one of the founders of the Toronto Racing Drivers' Club (he also
served as treasurer and was instrumental in the club's construction of
Canada's first post-war race track, Pinecrest Speedway) and the Canadian
Auto Racing Society. He retired from active participation in the sport in
the mid-1950s and died in 1983.
More about this member :: Back to top Bruce Simpson (2006)
John Bird and Bruce Simpson - Competitors Rally Racing
"Always play to win." That was the motto of the rally team of John Bird and
Bruce Simpson - and win they did. As a team, they entered 140 rallies and
won 107. A few times they were merely close, recording 12 seconds and 5
thirds. That is a record unmatched in motorsport. The record shows that John
Bird, a university professor, was Canadian Rally Champion in 1963, 1964,
1965 and Bruce Simpson, an elementary school teacher, won the title in 1966.
In those days the Fidler Trophy was given to the winner of the National
Rally Championship. There was no separate category for drivers and
navigators as is the case today. They won four consecutive events with
losses of 0, 1, 0, 0 penalty points. John Bird still insists that the
organizers made the mistake on the second of those four rallies. This all
took place at a time when rallying attracted a large number of competitors
and 100-car fields were not unusual. The team of Simpson and Bird defined
rally excellence in Canada against all comers. They became legend not just
for their ability to win but for the way they went about winning. They were
all business, but they also indulged their other interests as they competed,
listening to football games and cheering for their respective teams - John
supporting the Argos and Bruce for the TiCats. John Bird entered the
ultimate Canadian rally, the Shell 4000, six times and won it twice while
navigating for driver Klaus Ross. Ross and Bird were the only team ever to
win it back-to-back, in 1964 and 1965. John and Bruce each won the Ontario
Rally championship seven times. Bruce won it seven consecutive years from
1963 to 1969. John missed in 1964 but won it in 1962. John, Bruce and Paul
Manson shared the Wilson Trophy for most active competitor of the year in
1965. Bruce also won it in 1963. They also had success rallying with others.
John Bird navigated for a number of other drivers on 100 rallies winning 37.
Bruce Simpson won 14 of 27 rallies while driving for other navigators. He
also won 50 rallies while navigating for several other drivers on 97
rallies.
More about this member :: Back to top Robert Theoret (2006)
Competitor Boat Racing
Robert Theoret was born 64 years ago in Valleyfield, Que., home of the
oldest continuously run powerboat regatta in Canada. Robert grew up with
hydroplane racing and started driving in 1970 when he purchased a 145 c.i.
class boat that he named Miss Virgo. The following year, he bought a
rear-engine, or cab-over 145, which carried on the Virgo name. From 1973 to
1979, Robert was virtually unbeatable. He won 10 Canadian and North American
high point championships and set five speed records along the way. In the
late 1970s, he served as a technical inspector and referee for the Canadian
Boating Federation. In 1980, Robert and Guy Lafleur, an architect, purchased
a 22.5 foot Grand Prix boat which they named Grand Prix Valleyfield (444).
From 1982 through 1988, he dominated the GP class winning 22 of 65 races and
was Canadian high-point champion every year except 1987. He also was U.S.
and world high-point champion in 1982, '83, '84 and '88 setting three new
world speed records. He retired in 1989 and became an owner/manager. His
two-boat team won the Canadian, U.S and world high-point championship plus a
North American championship and set two more world speed records. He also
found time to be chairman of the Grand Prix Hydroplane Association in 1984,
'89, '90 and '91. In his day, Robert Theoret was a major sports star and
celebrity in Quebec, winning the Merite Sportif Quebecois award for the
Athlete of the Year (Motonautisme) in 1974, '82, '83 and '84. He came to be
known as the Gilles Villeneuve of boat racing.
More about this member :: Back to top
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