You’re never too old to love drag racing
While some seniors are taking driver refresher courses, others are tearing up the race track, looking after drag race vehicles or watching them speed by.
“I work on cars and make them go down a straight track as fast as possible,” said Garry Matolsci, 69, who is retired after working for 34 years at Xerox.
“I started drag racing in high school in Alberta. I used to go Friday nights down Main Street and rip it up.”
Then he moved to Ottawa in 1975, and “family came along, and I had more to think about than drag racing.”
Drag racing automobiles compete, usually two at a time, to be first to cross a set finish line on a short, straight course from a standing start over a measured distance.
Matolsci resumed drag racing in 2011 at Capital City Speedway in Stittsville. “I got to know a lot of people there by helping them out,” he said. “The drag racers are about age 45 to 70. I myself don’t race any more, but this keeps my foot in it. I just enjoy listening to the cars as they go down the track. I love the smell of the burning rubber.”
His car maintenance skills were “totally self-taught on the farm, looking after the cars,” he said. “At Capital City, I help my buddy out, showing him the Old-school way is better than modern.”
The drag racing gang often get together afterward to socialize, and from May to September, many head to the Luskville Dragway, run by Arnie Malcolm.
“I’ve owned Luskville Dragway for 40 years,” said Malcolm, 64, who figures he knows most of the drag racers in Eastern Canada.
“Next year Luskville will celebrate its 50th anniversary,” he said, “even though race tracks are closing right and left. There are too many other things to do and so much more going on than there was back then. We’re fortunate because we still have a core of racers and a large following.”
Drag racing is “not like boxing or stock car racing, because you don’t need as much stamina to continue,” said Malcolm. “You can drive a very fast drag car when you’re older because it’s a different format.”
Luskville Dragway puts on races throughout Eastern Canada and attracts 5,000 spectators to some of them. “It’s like Christmas in July. All these communities have airports that haven’t been used for a while and that’s where drag racing started.”
And when you’re finished drag racing, you don’t have to give up your love of cars. “Exdrag racers become car show people and sit at car shows in Kanata, for instance, and talk about cars,” Malcolm said. “Some of these car shows attract up to 600 cars. Some retired people play golf, some go fishing and some people drag race. Drag racing is a sport, and we have a class of junior dragsters starting at age seven.”
As well, once a year there’s a nostalgia race for old cars. This year it will be held at the Luskville Dragway Sept. 8. For information, view www.luskvilledragway.com.