LEGENDS OF MOTORSPORT


‘63 and ‘65. He was the first Canadian to drive in Formula 1 when he was entered by Porsche, in Pau, France in 1962. He won the SCCA Trans- Am championship twice in 1977. He was an ex- pert long-distance racer and teamed up with such champions as Johnny Rutherford and Craig Hill in entering the Sebring 12 Hours and the 24 Hours of Daytona. He was a USAC Indy- car competitor in ‘68 and ‘69 and raced in the Canadian and Continental Formula A division in 1970. Heimrath raced touring cars until 2000, before retiring at the age of 66.


CrAig fisHer Craig Fisher of Toronto was one of the top


Two-time Canadian driving champion Eppie Wietzes (above) and Canadian Sports Car Racing Champion Ludwig Heimrath (below) will both take part in the Legends of Motorsport panel at the Canadian Historic Grand Prix.


legends of motorsport Hosted By tHe toronto stAr’s norris mCdonAld


N


orris McDonald is the host of the 2014 edi- tion of the ‘meet the fans and press’ ses-


sion Sunday morning, where fans will have a chance to hear Canadian racing icons like Bill Brack, Eppie Wietzes, Ludwig Heimrath, Craig Fisher and Walt Mackay reminisce about their careers. The event is open to all at no cost, so everyone can mix with old friends, racers and champions.


eppie Wietzes Eppie Wietzes began racing in the late 1950s


and in the ‘60s he established himself as a ver- satile and capable driver on the Canadian rac- ing scene. A two-time Canadian Driving Champion, Wietzes won in everything he drove, from a Sunbeam Alpine to Comstock Mustangs and GT-40s, Trans-Am Corvettes and a flock of very quick Formula 5000 cars. He won back-to-back Canadian Championships in 1969 and 1970. Then, he headed south to star in the Continental (F5000) circuit where he did himself and his country proud. By 1980 he was well ensconced in Trans-Am. His bid at the Mo- sport 6-Hour race that year with Jacques Bien- venue in a Chevrolet Corvette was unsuccessful, but 1981 was the year when it all came together. Despite a DNF at the Daytona 24 Hour race in a Chevrolet Camaro with Mau- rice Carter and Richard Valentine, Wietzes took his Garretson Enterprises Chevrolet Corvette to two wins and the Trans-Am title. Wietzes would prove to be the last driver for over 15 years to win the Trans-Am title in a Corvette. That year, he also secured a drive in a Lola T600 Chevrolet prototype for the Mosport 6-Hour


16 •WWW.CAnAdiAnHistoriCgrAndprix.Com


with Brian Redman for Cooke-Woods Racing and came second. Wietzes remains 49th in the all-time Trans-Am earnings list and is equal in the all-time winners list with Peter Revson and actor Paul Newman. Wietzes also competed in the first ever For-


mula One Grand Prix at Mosport, driving a Lotus entered by Comstock and again in 1974 in a Brabham entered by Team Canada F1 Rac- ing. Because of his long and varied career, Wi- etzes was one of the first inductees into the Canadian Motorsport Hall of Fame when it opened in 1993.


ludWig HeimrAtH One of the most famous names in Canadian


auto racing, Heimrath won the Canadian Sports Car Racing Championship (later known as the Canadian Driving Championship) in 1961, which was the first year the title was awarded, and in 1964. He was the first runner-up in ‘62,


sedan drivers in North America in the ‘60s and early ‘70s. He won several CASC, SCCA and overall sedan championships. Fisher, a former member of the Canadian Comstock Racing Team, joined the Penske Racing in mid-’67, teaming with Mark Donohue. The highlight of their success together resulted in Donohue and Fisher placing first in the Trans-Am class and third overall at the prestigious Sebring 12 Hours race in 1968. It was the highest finish ever at Sebring for an American sedan up to that point. Fisher became the first Canadian to win a Trans-Am event when he teamed with Mark Donohue at Marlboro, MD in 1968. Fisher was also the first driver to score Trans- Am points for both Chevrolet and Pontiac.


WAlt mACkAy Walt Mckay’s first car was a 1948 MG TC fit-


ted with a Ford flathead V860 motor. His first competitive experience came in 1954 in hill climbs at Hockley Valley and Rattlesnake Point. The MG TC’s were followed by a ‘53 Xk120 Jaguar coupe and a Bugeye Sprite. Walt then bought a Lotus 18 Formula Junior and drove in the first event ever held at Mosport in June of 1961. He was presented with the “Driver of the Year” award in 1961 by the Canadian Racing Drivers Association and was winner of the CRDA Formula Junior Championship in 1961


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