After being a spectator for years I finally became old enough (21) to get involved. I wanted to race but not enough money. So I decided to marshal. It was also the year Mosport opened. CRCA, the first organized marshaling group had been organized just a couple of years earlier. With Mosport opening membership jumped from around a 100 to close to 300. I was one of the newbies.

Big and I mean big Harry Johnson was the President and he and his crew managed to deal with the influx and somehow conducted training, both classroom and at the track. My track training was under the guidance of Al Robinson and he was great. I earlier told about my first race as a marshal. Everybody was learning to a large extent as a real road course was far different than the airfields. But what a deal. For a club membership and CRCA membership you got to see the races free and close up. Real up close back then! One or two weekends and you were ahead financially.

Originally the marshal area was more or less behind where the restaurant now is and not far from the current marshal area. CRCA had a large tent where the one and only Muriel Knap presided over the issue of coveralls. CRCA issue was mandatory. I soon learned to arrive early. Have you ever seen some 6 foot 2 guy trying to get into a small? Or a 5 foot nothing into an extra large. Early and you got something that more or less fitted. You were also shown how to fold them at races end and you had better do it right or Muriel would tear a strip off you.

Back then a tent trailer was the Taj Mahal and other assorted tents common. The big tent accomodated quite a few otherwise tentless marshals (me). A groundsheet and a sleeping bag or a couple of blankets were the the way it went. As this was a big, probably ex military tent, there was no floor and usually some large gaps to the ground. The wind whisled through pretty good but it did keep the rain off! You quickly learned to stay away from the sides though.
Naturally there was a certain amount of libation around and sleeping usually wasn’t too hard for most of us with the sandy soil. The marshals area soon moved to turn 1 and Muriel and Hal had an actual trailer where they lived all summer. The parties got bigger and better! Beer cap paths!

From the very beginning the phones at Mosport were a little wonky and Hal was kept busy nursing them along. The marshals were mostly young with a few old ones, like mid 30’s. A pretty good time was had even quite often on Saturday night as racing was Friday and Saturday. It was ‘blue’ Ontario with dead Sundays back then.

There were plenty of marshals for racing but sometimes practice days were a little skimpy to say the least. I had a job where my boss let me take my holidays a day at a time so I was able to marshal on Fri. Even when I ran out he let me go and didn’t mark me away. Possibly because he was a racing nut. Only his racing interest had 4 legs. Out of office meetings coincided with big races at Woodbine.

On Fridays I soon became a corner Senior and often on race day. For an early September race I was the overall Senior at 5 on race day. I and a few other first year marshals had more experience, especially at Mosport than several of the long term members. We had a pretty good idea where cars were going to go when they overcooked it. Then came the Canadian Grand Prix for sports cars. On Friday I was Senior at 7. Actually I was the only marshal at 7!
Come race day and all the long term people showed up, some for only the first or second time at Mosport. Those of us who had been out all year were suddenly just flaggers or safety marshals. I ended up manning a fire extiguisher at 2. That caused a stir and although it did occur a bit in the future the powers that be realized that they had their most experienced Mosport marshals teed off. From then on at major races normally the experienced people were the seniors. A few 30 or so year olds did not like being just a marshal with a 21 or 22 year old Senior. In less than 2 years I had 40 events in my log book!
The other bone of contention was the restrictions on female marshals. They were phone girls and that was it. They were tied to the 12 foot phone cord. Quite a few of the younger male marshals and some, but only some, female marshals disagreed. It was the 70’s before this changed.

One kind of funny thing was that the male marshals received no training on the phones. That was for the ‘girls’. It had not been forseen that on Fridays there quite often were not enough women to man all the phones. Even corners that had a female phone operator they sometimes had to attend to nature’s call so then you had men on the phone with no procedure training. We ad libbed but it did get funny sometimes. Just the same we had a lot of fun, saw racing up real close and generally enjoyed ourselves big time.

Going onto a live track was normal and full course yellows did not exist and reds a real rarity. Ambulances responded and the racing went on, just obeying the yellow and white flags and lights. No Course or Safety cars. Austin motors had supplied two vans, one of which became the ambulance and the other the properties van. CRCA owned the fire equipment and the 3rd vehicle was a Gypsy (sort of a jeep) with a large dry chemical bottle.

The light hearted attitude lasted all the time I marshaled but a few injuries and a very experienced marshal’s death toned things down a few years later. It was a great time and I hope todays marshals have as much fun. They sure are a heck of a lot safer than we were. I will wrap this story up with what for me and a few other marshals was a rough weeked. For the organizers too.

It was the Player’s 200 weekend and on the Friday I was the Senior on turn 8. I had 3 other marshals but one had only marshaled one event. The other two had never marshaled. All male. The ‘expeienced’ one became the phone operator with some training from me. I think I had over 40 days of marshaling if that. I now had to train 2 complete rookies and one almost rookie.

I decided to keep everybody near the stand with the two newbies doing the back to back flagging to supplement the lights. I cleared this with control taking the phones myself. I positioned the fire extinguishers where I figured they would be closest to an incident keeping one for myself. I knew if anything serious happened I would have to go to the incident and hope my phone operator remembered the hand signals.

Well it did happen. Alistair Cameron-Smith went off the track on the outside in his D Type Jaguar just after cresting 7. He stayed on the gravel and started to dirt track it through 8. I yelled for a flashing yellow to the phone man and flags to the other two. The Jag then did an slow roll and slid upside down along the bank finally coming to a stop right side up. It was one of the softest rolls I was ever to see. I expected the driver to hop out but realized he wasn’t moving. I yelled to my operator to call the ambulance and crash truck. I headed uptrack with the extinguisher and called to the two flaggers to join me. I still didn’t think it was too serious.

Cars were really slowing down and in a gap we ran across to the Jag.

I knew then we had a big one. Alistair was bleeding from his nose and mouth and unconcious. I signalled to my operator for the ambulance in case he hadn’t heard me. I got a thumbs up. Two St. Johns Ambulance men came running up. I have no idea where from but I felt relieved. None of us had more than very basic first aid and that wasn’t going to help here. My relief ended quickly when they went to remove his helmet. I put a stop to that with a bit of an arguement. I was thinking head injury or neck and I knew there would be a doctor on the ambulance or hoped there was. It seemed to take forever to arrive but there was a doctor on board. He did remove the helmet very carefully and Alistair was loaded into the ambulance. No backboards then. He was alive but badly hurt. One of my placed extinguishers was five feet from the Jag.

I was sleeping that night, not well, in the communal tent. At about 5 am I was wakened and told Alistair had died. I didn’t sleep any more. I was asked if I wanted to go home but I stayed. I do not remember much more of the weekend though. I was never questioned about the accident. One of the other marshals went home Friday night and never returned. One left Saturday morning and didn’t return. Not sure about the 3rd.

Alistair’s head had hit a rock in the earth embankment.

It took a while to get over that but I had seen death before. Unfortunately it wasn’t the last I was to see or know the people. Far far too many drivers I knew died before safety improved. We sort of accepted it then. It still happens but rarely now.

Marshals are always needed and you do get a better view than the spectators and cost is pretty reasonable. You don’t get your choice of viewing spots and wet cold days can be a little nasty. You will make new friends and I hear the parties are still pretty good!

Editor’s note: click on the photo of the entry list and you should see it large enough to read. The photo of Cameron-Smith’s lightweight D-type Jag was taken by Tom Johnston in the Mosport paddock after the incident.

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• Tales from race control
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While searching for a photo to accompany Leighton’s story about the early days of race control, I came across this great set of black and whites from the Canadian Grand Prix on September 25, 1965. These shots, added to the CMSHG galleries by Rob North, are actually scanned from a contact sheet. I love the inclusion of the film as it really does make them look, well, old.

The photo above shows Bruce McLaren with just a nose ahead as the green flag flies. Not the clearest photo, but certainly a moment in history.

More photos after the break.

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Now the spectators rarely think of Race Control except when there were unexpected delays. Drivers and crews usually curse at Race Control and figure everyone there sits in climate controlled comfort in easy chairs drinking fancy coffee and eating caviar. Maybe somewhere but certainly not at Mosport in the 70’s. Race Control was in a wooden box like structure on top of the old pits on the infield with the Starter’s Stand across the track. Non opening windows and no heat. Metal chairs and not enough of them. Crowded conditions and terrible Mosport coffee, usually cold by the time you had a chance to drink it. At least we stayed dry! In the room would be the Clerk of the Course, his Assistant, the Chief Course Marshal and usually two Phone operators plus two or three other senior race officials and sometimes a Steward. The Head of Timing and Scoring often popped in and out. The Chief Course Marshal and the 2 Phone Operators were normally very good. The club running the pro races was the Canadian Race Drivers Club and we did request certain people from the Marshaling group, CRCA. They normally concurred.

A timetable for the weekend was worked out in advance with Mosport. CRDA were contracted to run the races for a fee. We did have shares in the track but little real say. We would build in time gaps for lunches, potty breaks for marshals and make allowances for guardrail repairs and pick up of damaged cars. Agreement reached all would be fine until we got a program. Invariably the track added in something without our knowledge and there went any gaps. Enough preamble. What follows are examples of problems, one exasperating and one serious.

The exasperating one happened on the Sunday morning of the 76 GP. Cleaning up the track after Sat. nights drunken spectators plus a Mosport add on had us really tight on time. Back then the F1 cars had a morning warm up. Mario Andretti went off at 2A and the question was do we stop warm up to retrieve him. They had to have x minutes of running and there was x time gap that had to be there before the race. The race had to start on time! Our window was disappearing. The Senior at 2A was a very long time experienced marshal and she was also on the phone. So the Clerk of the Course asked, through the CRCA tower operator (protocol of going through the Chief Course Marshal was conviently ignored by all concerned) if he had gone off on his own and was he in a safe place? The reply came in loud and clear ‘I don’t know.’ We all could hear the various stations. The is he in a safe place was repeated. Same response.

Next ‘Well how far from the track is he?’
‘I don’t know.’
‘Can you see him?’
Yes, but I can’t judge distance.
‘Any idea how far off he is?’
No.

By now some drivers were going by the tower shaking their fists. Quick questions to turns 2 and 3 brought little help although 3 did say he did spin there.

Red flag.

Now this particular senior was a good general marshal but should never have been a senior. Some drivers complained that we stopped the warm up and others complained we took too long to do so!

The next case was potentially a disaster. We were lucky. It was a Can Am race and Jackie Oliver and George Follmer were on the front row. They had an intense dislike of each other and both were fierce competitors. They started racing before they came onto the starting straight. The rest of the field were strung out far behind and in disorder. Clearly it was a no start and the starter correctly kept the yellow out. They didn’t care. They were racing full bore. That is when things went horribly wrong. The starter threw his flags in the air and the yellow actually landed on the track! The balance of the field didn’t know what to do. A few took off at speed but most just took it easy.

Meanwhile Oliver and Follmer were still flat out ignoring the Yellows everywhere. Here they were running as hard as they could and by now the balance of the field were trundling around. What to do and less than a minute to do something. Instructions were sent to the Starters bridge to throw a Red and the Checker. Hopefully somebody there would do so and the two flying idiots would respond. It worked thankfully and a possible disaster averted. It took a while to get everyone lined up and the riot act read to Jackie and George.

For the next start Paul Cooke was on the stand and although the Starter waved the green flag Paul was running things. CRDA had a new Starter for the next race.
Normally things did not go wrong like that but you never know.

Ed note: The photo above comes from the CMSHG group on Yahoo. It is a great place to waste some time looking at old racing photos! If you look in the background, you will see the old pits, which were torn down a few years ago to make way for modern pit equipment that teams bring with them.

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My new position as the chief and only photographer for the Canadian Baby Photographers in the Ottawa area was going well, but it had some serious challenges. Since I worked on a commission basis of my work sold, I needed to have good images and a great salesman to sell my work. The problem was the company would send up a salesman from Toronto to get orders. Then I would get paid. In between I was on my own. It was all very confusing and put a serious strain on my family life. I soldiered on trying to make ends meet. Over Christmas we decided to make a break out on our own with my wife now selling my work. The company supplying the leads for our now ‘Ottawa Baby Photographers’ came with us. There was now a lot more to consider with film processing and the final orders to be processed, but we dug right in and it turned the corner and began to make money. One of my neighbours was a very excitable man named Rick Conrick. Rick was a printing salesman for a Montreal printer. When he saw my work he began to envision a customer for a calendar of motor racing pictures. He came up with Imperial Tobbacco whose head office was in Montreal. He called them and got an appointment with the head of promotions. I soon found myself walking off a top floor elevator at the Imperial Tobbacco head office. The building had a strange smell.  It processed the cigarettes at this location.  We were met at the elevator by Tony Kallock, the VP of PR. All Rick said was, ‘Tony, I’ve got something thats going to blow your fucking mind!’  Not quite my approach, but we walked out of there with an order for prints for the Imperial Tobbacco calendar to the tune of over four thousand dollars!

On the motor racing end of things I thought more about Paul Cooke and the ‘portrait’ he wanted of Roger McCaig in the Can Am McLaren. I went through the images I had of Roger and picked two. One was a headshot with his helmet on. The other was a shot of the car at speed coming directly at me. The windscreen on the McLaren had a clear blue tint. I wondered if the shot of the car at speed would blend into the windscreen. Roger’s eyes were a beautiful Paul Newman blue, amost the same colour as the windscreen. I took my idea to my processor and we both wondered what it would come out like. His name was Goldie Lang. When it came to putting on paper what was on the negative he was an artist. The first print that came out of Goldie’s processor held both he and I speechless. Being Asian he tended to be very reserved. Now his smile was from ear to ear. The print was 16 x 20 inches. I decided right then and there not to do any portraits smaller. We cranked out another of Gordon Dewar. I had met Dewar in a converted grocery store in Hull just across the river from Ottawa. The old store was the home of JNO Racing and a rag-tag gang of hangers-on who loved cars, motorcycles and Dewar’s approach to racing anything! Several times I ventured with Dewar to the races in his motor home, but more on that in a moment. The first time I got a chance to see Paul Cooke, which I believe was the first race at Mosport, I showed Paul the unframed print of Roger.  He just stood there. ‘How much do you want for this?’ I didn’t know. I just stood there. After a restless moment or two I blurted, ‘Seventy-five dollars.’ I waited for him to laugh me off. He didn’t. ‘How much to frame it?’ I told him it would be around $35.00. He told me to frame it and bring it to the next race. I brought the framed portrait of Roger to Tremblant two weeks later. I had double-matted the print and put a gold brushed alluminum frame around that. I located Paul and told him I had the portrait in the car. He didn’t want Roger to see it. We went to their motor home where I unwrapped the finished portrait. He asked what I wanted for it now. I told him $125.00. The frame had only cost me $32.00 so I thought I was skinning him for another eighteen bucks! He told me to sit down. He kept looking at the portrait as he wrote me a cheque. ‘I’ve got a few words of advice for you. If you had asked me for five hundred dollars for this, I would have paid it. It is the most beautiful racing portrait I have ever seen. Never never undersell yourself. Get rid of the jeans. If you are going to be an artist and a professional, look the part. Now I want you to take this and show it to every driver you can and see what the reaction is. Make sure they know it is for Roger and that he does not know about it.’ I promptly put the price for new orders up to $390.00 for a framed portrait and took several orders that same afternoon. Paul had in less than a minute put my photography career on another level and path. My direction was now to serve the drivers and sponsors. Newsprint paid little then and still does unless you get the cover. The multiple image portrait of Roger McCaig became my signature.

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I delivered the portrait to Paul at Mid-Ohio where I had another great adventure. I got a ride at speed in a Can Am car! I traveled from Ottawa to Mid-Ohio in Dewar’s motor home with a guy they called ‘the Rat’. His real name escapes me. We towed the March 707 Can Am car behind us. Dewar drove his Corvette down a day later in time for Friday’s practice. I was helping out with the car as well as shooting images. Dewar had a few problems in practice and wanted to see if the changes made were effective. Of this I did not know or I might not have gotten into the car. Dewar got permission to take the 707 out for several laps to check it out and asked if he was able to take a photographer out with him. Things were mighty loose in those days.  I sat next to Dewar in the very tight cockpit…unbelted! I had my camera with a wide angled lens on iit.  We went for three totally hair-raising laps shooting images of Dewar beside me, me beside him, the two of us together and the view out the front of the car. When I put the camera down to enjoy the ride I realized just how serious the situation was. I put the camera back up into the air and began to shoot again.  The camera by this time was actually out of film! I rolled the film back into the canister. Shooting the camera took my mind off the excitement. I did not need support after I got out of the car, but I knew my knees were weak from all the adrenalin.

After the race I rode home with Dewar now driving the motor home with the 707 in tow on a trailer. For some reason we headed towards Detroit. On the freeway running through Toledo Dewar told me to take over the wheel. He didn’t stop. He just put the thing in cruise-control and stood up! I jumped into the driver’s seat and took over. Dewar walked to the back of the motor home and looked out the window. Right behind us was ‘the Rat’ in the Corvette. Dewar started to fiddle with some wire he had strung out the side window. I heard him start to laugh and looked in the rearview mirror. I could see him half out the window. I looked in the left-side-mirror and saw him yanking on the wire. It was attached to the septic system! Everything that went into that toilet over the weekend went out on the road right in front of the Corvette! I guess ‘the Rat’ tried to slow the car down, but spun it instead. He spun it right down the center of the highway! He never touched a thing and took off after us when he got it straightened out. Dewar just laughed harder as he looked out the back window. I don’t recall much of the outcome other than ‘the Rat’ was some pissed off. He was being cool with the roof down, so I guess he got quite dose from the motor home’s septic tank. Looking back, I am surprised it did not cause some problems with the handling of the trailer with the 707 aboard. There are many crazy stories of the guys and girls that are in racing, but that one almost takes the cake.

By this time I had done a number of portraits of drivers. Several absolute beauties were from Tremblant that year. The extreme rise and fall of the track and the fact that you could get very close produced some exciting portraits of Hiroshi Kazato, Dewar, Bobby Brown, Peter Revson, Oscar Koveleski and Jackie Stewart in the L & M Lola. I showed Jackie his portrait in Watkins Glen. The image was different than all the rest. The other portraits had all been vertical with the car under the driver with his helmet on. With Jackie’s portrait it was horizontal with the car coming over his right shoulder, again with his helmet on. It was the eyes I was after. Jackie has very distinctive eyes.  The car shot I got under the bridge on the run up to the last hair-pin at Tremblant.  It was stunning.  Jackie was impressed enough to want to show it to the L & M people at their motor home. It was here I met Rod Campbell who was L & M’s PR man. Rod seemed impressed and said it would make a great poster. Jackie piped up something about the portrait was for personal viewing only, but that he expected commercial rights could be acquired. Jackie told me to let him do the talking. I learned a valuable lesson about the commercial value of an image and that it exceeds the ‘personal view’ value greatly. Racing photography was now starting to pay off for me. I enjoyed the travel, but being away from home almost every weekend took it’s toll on my family.

On my return from a racing weekend I found my home empty and my wife and son gone. My personal life took on the normal separated-and-soon-divorced route. One very funny incident during this period happened, so at least I got one good laugh out of the situation. When my soon-to-be-ex-Father-in-law appeared at the door with the marina dockboy to pick up our second car he could not find it in the townhouse parking lot.  He came to the door and asked where it was. I told him it was out near the front of the lot. He came back in roaring about not being able to find it. I told him that several notices had been sent about the car saying that it was improperly parked. I guess I forgot to send them on to him. I took him back out and showed him the car.  It was now a nice square block that along with another offender marked the entrance to the parking lot. A small sign was attached to the block-car that simply said, ‘Private Parking! This WILL happen to you!’  I was now getting around on a 450 Ducati Desmo I had gotten through the Dewar gang.

The Formula One Championship was again won by Jackie Stewart with the Canadian Grand Prix at Mosport also his. The F1 race was shortened due to poor light conditions that were brought on by a late start to the race. The cause of this delay was a terrible accident in the first turn during the Formula Ford event. The race got off in fine form as Formula Ford races trend to do with several cars coming together in Turn One just before the tunnel. The leaders, unaware of the incident, took off. An ambulance was dispatched from it’s holding spot at the end of the pit lane. It pulled to the scene of the accident on the left side of the track…the racing line. It was protecting cars that ended up there during the first lap melee. On the second lap the leaders stormed down the pit straight and down the hill into the long right-hander of Turn One. The leading cars saw the ambulance and narrowly got around it. This lead group was all nose-to-tail. Reg Scullion was directly behind Wayne Kelly in this group. Acording to Scullion, Kelly looked in his right-hand mirror checking behind him. This quick check appears to have resulted in Kelly failing to see the ambulance parked on the racing line in time. He ran into the right rear corner of the ambulance at full throttle. He was decapitated in the impact. Scullion slipped by and the race stopped. Gary Magwood at the time was inside Turn One giving an interview to the CBC on the dangers of racing. Magwood would describe Kelly as a delightful character…tough, funny and not good when it came to losing…a true competitor. Formula One would lose Jo Siffert in a non-championship race at Brand Hatch. Siffert had a coming together with Ronnie Peterson in the opening lap, but continued until his suspension failed. Siffert was unable to get out of the BRM before it exploded. He died in the car. Pedro Rodríguez was killed in an Interserie sports car race at the Norisring in Germany at the wheel of a Ferrari 512M. Along with Siffert, Rodriguez was considered to be the bravest driver in motorsport. At the start of the 1970 1000 km of Spa, the sight of the pair in their identical Gulf Porsche 917’s, together, side-by-side in the rain and roaring through the then-very narrow and always dangerous Eau Rouge left everyone breathless and cheering.

Next: Motorcycles, Racing and a New Camera.

Read the whole Shutter Speed Series.

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As our regular readers know, there was a bit of a kaffuffle (is that a word?) raised when the Canadian Motorsport Hall of Fame announced that Carroll Shelby would be inducted into a new International category. Out of that induction has come some great conversations about the history of Shelby American and their involvement with the Canadian Comstock team. While any secrecy of deals should be long gone, the mists of time are making some of the details a bit cloudy.

The great photo above, shot by Hans Gulde and provided by Colin King shows the two Comstock Cobras exiting Mosport’s Moss Corner in a rather interesting sandwich during the 1963 Players Grand Prix.

The details of the Comstock cars and Shelby seem to be coming together thanks to 3 members of the CMSHG group on Yahoo.

Erik Zurbriggen:
The Eppie Weitzes and Ken Miles Cobras are 289’s (CSX2002 and CSX2129). Eppie Wietzes’ Cobra was the original/first race Cobra (CSX2002) that was originally equipped with a 260 but was changed to a 289 by the time of the 12-Hours of Sebring in 1963.

The deal between Comstock, Ford and Shelby, as I understand it was one of a “lease option” where Shelby supplied the cars, parts, engines and technical support and Ford of Canada provided some of the financial backing and cars the rest was up to the Comstock Team. Shelby provided the (2) Shelby GT350’s, (2) Cooper King Cobras, (1) Cobra, and I’m guessing that Ford provided the TDF Notchback Mustang, TDF Rally Falcon, Lotus Cortina and the (2) Ford GT40’s. The Team was able to keep and sell what ever cars they wanted at season’s end to cover their costs….
Eppie wiped out one of the King Cobras at their debute event at Westwood in ‘63 and he was not to race again until ‘64.

Colin King:

The GT40’s were provided by Ford. P1000 was a Ford Mule and originally painted dark blue with (I think) orange stripes. P1037 was a LeMans car that was originally a powder, or light blue. The car today still bears the original colour in the engine bay, at least it did at Watkin’s Glen in 2007. The car was restored (again) in 2008 and was supposed to spend the 2009 season in Europe. My understanding was it was going to be restored to the Comstock livery, not as it ran at LeMans so the engine bay may now be white as is the rest of the car.

The Comstock rally Lotus Cortina ended up in the hands of a fellow by the name of Gord Archibald. Gord stripped the car to it’s last nut and bolt and completely rebuilt it. Later it was sold to Hugh MacGregor who I believe repainted it in the original white and green Lotus colours. It was then passed to Hugh’s son and I think he sold it in the late 90’s or early 2000’s.

Jeremy Sale:

I believe the following to be correct, it’s from a story I did some time ago and sent to Paul Cooke for corrections.

Rathgeb made a five year deal with Jack Still of Ford Canada to supply cars for his team to race. During the following five years they acquired a Lola FJ, a Lotus Cortina, two Ford Cobras and two Cooper Ford “King Cobras”. Later there was a 384 bhp Comstock Mustang, followed by two Shelby GT350 Mustangs.

Below are some period photos of the Mustangs discussed above and of GT40 1037 in the original Le Mans livery. I have a feeling that more photos will surface and I’ll post them as they arrive.

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Editor’s note: The GT40 in the gallery is in fact 1017 (EPR 525D), which began its racing career in Europe during 1966. 1037, currently the only drivable Comstock GT40 is owned by Tom Mabey and is on display at the Miller Museum at Miller Motorsport Park in Tooele, Utah.

Related Post

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A while back I wrote about the early days of marshaling at Mosport.

Recently on the Canadian Motor Sport Historical Group site there have been some stories and many pictures posted of the first race at Mosport. It was not the Players 200 as many think. The first race took place a few weeks earlier and was organized by the now defunct Oakville Trafalgar Light Car Club. Dave Cook, a long time enthusiast, track announcer, race car owner and Mississauga Counciller was a key organizer.

The track was not really even finished. The final layer of pavement had not been laid. It stayed that way for many years as the contractor, Beamish Paving had not been paid. There were logs, tree stumps and many rocks along the verges and banks. By the time the Players Race happened most of the bigger junk had been cleaned up.

A large percentage of the cars at the first race were driven to and from the track. Some were flat towed. There was even a 2.4 Jaguar Sedan running whitewalls.
Today, seeing the Barrett-Jackson auction the few tow cars would be worth high 5 figure dollars!

It was my first race as a marshal. I had worked Friday practice at turn 2 and that was my first real experience. On race day I was stationed at turn 10, the last turn. Real road racing, as opposed to airport cicuits, was new to almost everyone. Practically no one, officials, marshals or drivers had ever been faced with one. A very few drivers had run at Watkins Glen or Waterford Hills. But Mosport was something new even for them. Alan Bunting, the bulldozer operators and the topography had resulted in one of the most daunting circuits ever. It still is!

The male marshals moved from duty to duty on each corner. Flagging (usually two, face to face), Safety (fire extinguisher and/or crowbar) and blue flagger, normally someone with a few races under their belt, were the duties. The phone girl was tied to her phone. If there was more than one operator the spare(s) twiddled their thumbs. Females were considered incapable of doing anything but talking on the phone and only then what they were instructed to say. A real bone of contention that lasted well into the 70’s. Quite a few good marshal’s, both female and male quit because of this attitude. The Senior Marshal on 10 was the late Louw Broadfield. He was half way between old school and more pragmatic. The face to face really was useless at 10 as the position meant the flag man could see everything so Louw did away with face to face.

The first several races were pretty sedate as drivers tried to come to grips with a pretty daunting venue. I am sure many were remembering that their race car was also how they had to get home and the family transportation!

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My baptism of fire, literally, happened well into the day. I was the flag man, backing up the lights we had in those days. I was also designated as a fire marshal with a large CO2 fire bottle. Most extinguishers were dry chem but quite a few were CO2. Hugh Sutherland’s 100S Healy popped into sight just past 7, going into 8 well and truly blazing. Hugh was already sitting on the back deck. We on 10 sort of went ‘wow’. Then the Healy came through 9 still going like stink and Hugh sort of steering from outside the cockpit. Now we really woke up. He was drawing a bead on us, me in particular! My yellow flag went flying and I grabbed the fire bottle and moved very rapidly out of his trajectory. As the Healy mounted the so called safety earth berm Hugh went backwards onto the track. The car landed right on top of the rest of my flags, still blazing away. I raced (well sort of, have you ever carried one of those 60 lb fire bottles?) to the car. Another marshal arrived about the same time with another CO2 bottle. We both let fly. Well he did. Mine went pfffd. Another try. Same result.

Since I was looking like a fool and there were flames shooting out of the cockpit I figured no one would notice if my extingusher was useless if no one could see it. I stuffed it into the cockpit. A couple of more tries and it worked! That fire was out. Real good firewall! Meanwhile it was a losing battle up front. No master kill switch then and the fuel pump was gaily ticking away feeding the fire. Trust a normally useless Lucas fuel pump to work when you did not want it to. The Healy 100S had louvres all along the hood and the other bottle was being shot through them slowing the fire but not putting it out. The hood was secured by a leather strap in the midst of the fire. I realized the marshal using the other bottle would soon be on fire himself as flames were coming out of a side duct on the side of the Healy onto his untreated coveralls. I stuffed (long nozzle) my bottle into the duct and it again worked. This actually really slowed the fire down and Louw with a very good knife could now get his gloved hands in and cut the strap. Hood off and we quickly doused the fire.

An exciting first marshaling event.

I still do not trust CO2 fire bottles! After that I carried a short Bowie style knife and gloves.

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As I’ve mentioned, a bunch of these great old racing photos we’ve been sharing have come through Robert Barg. As you might have guessed, Barg was a rather successful sedan racer back in the day.

In this photo, Robert is sitting on the pre-grid at Mosport. The sedan race is a support event for the Can Am race in June 1969. Leaning in having a chat is mechanic Brian Robertson. Barg finished 3rd overall behind Mo Carter and Al Mason.

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We’re on a hunt for details folks. Robert Barg has provided this photo of a Hunter Buggy at the 1970 Sundown Grand Prix. Looking at the pit boxes, I’m assuming this is Mosport but I know nothing else of this rather odd looking machine.

Who can tell us more?

Editor’s note: Robert has done some more digging and found that the car was driven by Bill Heemsoth and Uwe Falkenburg and may have been Porsche powered. The pair finished 2nd at the Sundowner in 1970. Robert also recalls competing against the car in 69 when he was driving an MGB with Cam Champion. For more history on the Sundown Grand Prix, visit Canadian Racer.

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Mosport was a different place in the beginning. To start with it was 10 feet narrower. The top of 7 was ten feet higher and back flips were a real danger. Only run off, if you could call it that, was bottom of 2 where you might get stuck in the swamp. Single row guardrail was at the tunnels at 1 and 9 and at bottom of 4. Tunnels were shorter and no room for error. Jim Hall at 9 and John Surtees at 1 both went over. Both Paul Cooke and Jack Boxstrom went for a swim at 4. Earth banks surrounded the track as protection and cars surmounting them was not unknown. Race Control was the bottom floor of the tower on the inside just past 10. Those working in the pits were well protected from errant cars by a white line painted on the track. All Starts were standing.

At the pro races, spring and fall CRCA would have about 300 marshalls on raceday which was Sat. Fri. practice was another matter but still about 60 to 70 people. Club races would have in excess of a 100 marshalls on Sat. and about 40 on Fri. No Sunday racing back then.

There were marshall platforms at 4 and 8 but no cover. Otherwise you stood on the ground sometimes on less than level ground. All stations had lights controlled from the phone position. Green, Yellow, Flashing Yellow and Red controlled from the tower. More on that later.

Other positions were in flux and often, to a limited extent, controlled by the corner senior. The flag and safety people had no protection from the cars. At one point the control position at 4 was moved to the outside of the track, inside of the corner. I was, by that time one of the most experienced Mosport Marshalls. Most of the powers that be had more expeience but mostly at the airport tracks. I was very vocal in my opposition to the move so I promptly was the senior at 4. In that one day we had 3 close calls, including a car right through the phone position. We were lucky no one got hurt. It was moved back to the other side of the track quickly.

There were ill feelings quite often as marshalls who had worked all year at Mosport, quite often as corner seniors were relegated to ordinary marshalls , at the big races by people who had been marshalls for years but practically no Mosport experience. One BEMC weekend I was the senior at 5 including 5B and C. For the next race, the Cdn. GP (sports cars) I was a safety marshall at 2. Oh, I had been a senior on the Fri.

CRCA had 3 vehicles supplied by BMC. One van served as Equipment transport and one as the ambulance. There was no truth to the rumour that a snail could outdrag it up the back straight. A turtle maybe. The crash truck was an Austin Gipsy (sort of a jeep) with a 150 lb dry chem bolted in the back. Usually driven by Dick (Sonny) Rogers , later a FV champ, he would 4 wheel drift it down 2!! On one memorable occasion Paul Cooke was hanging on to the the extinguisher screaming as Sonny did his usual 4 wheel drift..

Days usually started with a 7am callout and quite often finished at dusk.

Reds were a real rareity and there was no such thing as full course yellows or safety cars. Marshalls went out onto live tracks to deal with situations. At the first Cdn GP for sports cars Bob Holbert flipped in turn 1 on lap one and landed upside down crosswise dead center in the middle of the track. There were 7 Ferraris and a couple of other cars strewen all over. By the time the cars got around again the racing surface was basically clear. In a couple of laps all was clear. We did have more time as lap speeds were about 1.35. I was one of the idiots standing on the bridge between the guardrails as the cars raced by.

You were on your own as far as food and drinks went. Rarely was there a lunch break and even more rare would an organizer send around some pop. No bottled water in those days.

Extraction equipment on a station was crowbars and marshalls ‘ own knives. The crash truck had bolt cutters and a hacksaw.

Now back to the Phone stations. The phones were a little problematic if it rained. It didn’t always need lightning for people to get a shock! Remember no covered stations. The light usually worked well and were mostly well placed. The one at 3 was not where a driver would normally look. Talking as a driver here.

The phones were always operated by female marshalls . Men were not trained on then and were not expected to do so. Minor detail that often on a Fri. there would be no women at some stations. Female marshalls were only allowed as phone operators and could only relay the senior’s instructions not make reports on her own. They were not allowed to operate the lights.. That was supposed to be the senior’s job or another experienced marshall .. The phone operator had to pass on to the senior what the female control tower phone operator was told to say or ask by the Clerk of the Course. Lost in translation did occur. Very much the old boys school.

This, of course, left the senior tied to the phone when his experience would have been more use trackside.

Quite few of the younger marshalls sort of ignored these rules (me included) and if we had a good phone operator (like Dawn Robinson) had her operate the lights and do her own reports. She was sharper than most of the men! Once in a while a couple of experienced seniors on adjecent corners would want to discuss something when there were no cars on track. Again in theory everything had to go through the phone operators and be relayed through control back and forth. Naturally the girl at the next station heard what was being said to control but was supposed to wait until control relayed the question and then pass it on to her senior. A few of us just took the phone from the operator and asked for the senior at the next corner to come on. Again it was mostly the younger marshalls who did this. Rockets usually came from on high and an adverse report filed. I kid you not!

The ruling caste was mostly older English marshalls in those days. It did create some real animosity and led to some good people quitting. I soon started racing but probably would have quit anyway. Mind you CRCA was pretty darn efficient despite the problems. The reasons for their decline are numerous and I do not know a lot of the details.

Editor’s note: the photo above was taken at the 1962 Canadian Grand Prix at Mosport. Notice how unprotected the marshals were. Courtesy of Dailu Racing Cars Archive, well worth a visit to see more period Dailu shots.

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In 1967 in a race at Mosport in my 1100cc Elva Mk6 Climax I was gradually catching the Porsche 904 driven by either Ray Brezinka or Horst Peterman. I am not sure who was driving. Now there was no way the little Elva should be anywhere near that Porsche!

Anyway I caught up and made a couple of pass attempts but as it was far faster on the straights I was having little luck. Every time down the pit straight I was shaking my fist hoping to get a reaction from the officials and being ignored.

Finally I made one of my banzai moves going down the chute into 5 and was by. I loved 4 and did most of my passing there. Now as we proceeded up the straight I watched as the Porsche closed up and somehow my car just seemed to wander in front of it no matter where it went. Now, of course, out came the blue flags and blue mutterings came from my mouth.

Approaching 7 I saw Eppie Wietzes in the GT40 coming up like gangbusters so I pulled over to the left to give him room as there should have been lots for the 3 cars with me right over to the left edge. Only problem was a certain Porsche driver proceeded to pass me plunked dead centre in the middle of the track. Since I had been rather clearly blocking up to that point I would have thought he might have considered checking his mirrors, especially as there were at least 3 McLarens in the race and several other very fast cars besides Eppie.
As Eppie pulled even with me I looked over and he looked at me. I took both hands off the wheel and shrugged. I could see him start to laugh. This at around 130 mph. There was a picture taken by Bob White of the 3 of us in 10 with Eppie still stuck behind the Porsche. Pit straight and Epp was gone.

Back to 4/5 and I did a repeat performance. Ditto up the back staight with blue flags everywhere but somehow my car was wandering again. This time I got into 8 first and that was that. Next trip up the straight the Porsche was well back and I saluted the blue flaggers. I know I really shouldn’t have, having being a flagger, but I was a little cheesed off since it was clear for several laps I had been catching the 904 with no flags and then to get them when I got in front was a little annoying.
For me the fastest point on the track was the bottom of 4 where by my revs I was just a little faster than going into 8.

Editor’s note: the Elva Mk6 pictured above is not the exact car, rather it is an example so our younger readers know what Leighton is talking about! Photo taken at 2008 VARAC Festival at Mosport.

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