Quiz: Cdn. street races

[Easy Drifter]

Note: I do not consider Cicuit Gilles Villeneuve in Mtl. to be a street circuit.

The first modern (and still running) street race in NA is Trois Rivieres.

Name 5 other Cdn. cities that have held or hold street races?
Two should be a cinch.
There are more than 5 by the way.

One was a total fiasco and came within hours of never happening as cars and spectators just waited and waited.

Bonus for knowing the city and what the reason for the main foul up was.
It was an idea that was a total flop in more ways than one.

[edv]

Well, of course there are :
Pacific Place Vancouver
Exhibition Place Toronto
Edmonton (Airport)
--
There used to be a race course in Edmonton called Breckenridge, but it is now mostly built over

There was a street circuit in Halifax years ago which hosted a couple of open wheel races, but not any major series.

A street course was designed in Calgary for Champ cars but it never got traction, IIRC.

Dunno which one was the 'flop'

[Easy Drifter]

First two are right.
Halifax is right.
I do not count Airport circuits. There have been many of those in just about every province. Alberta had Ft. McLeod and Gimli in Manitoba still runs.
There are 4 more I can remember and I was at 3 of them.
All were F. Atlantic races when Atlantic was a headliner not an add on.
Edmonton Int'l was a proper road circuit and had Cam Am, FA and a major league dragstrip. Was there several times. Tom Fox owned it and both he and his son raced. Was to Tom's house on Fox drive. The only house on the long street.
Dave Morris, (Weldandgrind) who raced FA later built motors for Gilles Villeneuve and others.
Ric Forrest was another Edmonton driver in FB/FA.

[janvanvurpa]

OK whatever this is doing here in Off Topic so go off topic and tell us about the one which was a big catastrophe (as if any event where 99% of the people see only occasionally the tops of a helmet over the top of barriers and chain link is not a catastrophe).

[Easy Drifter]

Hey pretty well anything goes in Chit Chat so I do not consider it off topic.
I will give it a couple of more days at least to see if anybody else comes up with some answers.
I will just say an event that was supposed to start on Fri. morning and did not see a car on track until Sun. afternoon at 4 was a disaster. One driver in the event was a future World Champion.

I am kind of surprised that no one has come up with an answer to the other thread about history that I posted as it covers sports cars and oval racing. The US driver was one of the best in the 50's and was to race for Ferrari (before Phil Hill) when he retired after witnessing the LeMans disaster.
That driver is in at least 2 Halls of Fame.

[schmenke]

Did Quebec city not attempt to host a street race some time ago?
It was probably as successful as a reenactment of a battle on the plains of Abraham :rolleyes:

[Easy Drifter]

Quebec City is correct and it was a success from a racing point of view.
I was there and was crew chief for Bruce Jensen. I also did the signaling. I came back in to the pits and told the rest of the team that Keke Rosberg had just clipped the wall on the last turn. Everyone said I was nuts (probably true). A couple of months later out came one of the racing mags with a picture of what I had seen. He had just ticked the concrete.
I also had an interseting conversation with Ron Tauranac. I had designed a skirt system for our Ralt RT1 and was lying under the car working on it when this very Aussie voice said 'That is an interesting skirt design.' All I could see was a pair of shoes and ankles. I did roll out and talk to him for some time. We were the first Ralt in NA to run skirts.

[Easy Drifter]

Time to answer this one.
In addition to the correct answers above St Felicien PQ. I was not there.
St Johns, Newfoundland. The race was around the Parliament Bldgs and surrounding streets. The pits were the circular drive in front of the Parliament building which was also the parking area for the premier and cabinet ministers. Our pit was labled Frank Moores who was the Premier at the time. The washrooms were in the Parliament building and you had all these grubby mechanics wandering down the marble halls to the rather fancy can. The race was a success but never repeated.
The fiasco was Hamilton Ont. The organizers were the local Chamber of Commerce and they thought they knew everything since they had organized the Grey Cup Parade (Canada's Super Bowl). They had gone to Long Beach to see how the race was organized and took along a couple of people from the marshalling group. My ex was one of the marshalls. She said by the time they got to LA they basically poured the Chamber reps off the plane. They flew First class, the marshalls Economy. Apparently they partied the whole weekend. So much for learning.
They had the bright idea of using steel barriers, basically U shaped, open topped about 8 inches wide and filled with water. Hamilton is nicknamed the Steel City. I forget how long each section was but they were then joined together. They were told it wouldn't work but went ahead anyway. No testing.
Thurs. they started filling them with water. They had numeous leaks but that was minor. If a section got hit it started a wave action that the dividers did not stop. A hundred yards or so away the wall would fall over! Big OOOOPS.
Eventually it was decided they would have to empty them out and fill them with sand. Next OOPs. No drains. Call out the fire dept. to pump them out.
We are now to Fri. and practice is supposed to start. No Way.
Sand by the truck load is brought in but it has to be dumped on the road and shovelled into the barriers. Fri. is shot. So is Sat. Sunday they finally get enough sand into them and the road cleaned up. It is now afternoon. The rep for the insurance Co. goes out to have a look. Many of the fasteners holding the walls up and sections together were not properly secured. More panic, Not enough tools or men. Eventually an appeal went out to the teams for the crews to help.
About 4 pm the Vintage cars got out for a few laps.
My driver had withdrawn his entry but still had his passes so I got them so I and a few friends were spectating. There were a couple of teenagers standing next to us at one of the corners. They had been laughing at the vintage cars and one had said he could go faster in his dad's Buick. The Atlantics went out led by Keke Rosberg. Second lap and the first thing into sight from behind a building was his rear wing and his foot was buried! The two teenagers jumped back and went white.
The race finally got going about 7.30 and was cut short due to darkness.
Hamilton never had another race! I wonder why?
Oh and the cleanup which was supposed to be complete Mon. night didn't get finished until the next weekend.

[Mark in Oshawa]

Drifter...I knew that answer. A buddy of mine from Timing and Scoring was there and he still is chuckling about what a farce it was.....

[Easy Drifter]

They were lucky they didn't have a riot. They lost a bundle with refunds although they apparenty tried to wiggle out of that for a while because the Atlantics did run. By the time cars got on the track most spectators had gone home.
The media had a field day.
I heard rumours that the Chamber of Commerce went bankrupt but do not know if that is true.
They tried to blame the insurance Co. The Insurance Co. rep was a former racer who knew what it was all about. He had told them long before the race the water idea would not work. Others had too but it was more about leaks. I do not believe anyone expected the wave action that actually knocked the barriers down.

[Easy Drifter]

I was glad we were not racing. I was staying with friends just a few miles from the track and they had a pool. We spent a good part of Sat. in the pool and did manage to consume some beer. During the day there were about 8 to 12 drivers/mechanics there so it was quite a party. All local non pro racers.
I suspect some metal scrap yard got quite a deal on the barriers.
Watching Bill Brack work on the barriers was amusing. A heck of a driver but I cannot ever recall Bill with tools in hand before. My tool box was a 100 miles away & I kept away from the pits.
My ex was Director of Safety for CRCA at the time and I did not know her then. Later she became a darned good driver. 1st woman to win a Formula car race outright in Ont., at Mosport. Held the class lap record at Nelson Ledges and Waterford.
But it sure was a fiasco.