Racing resumes, and Canada loses two greats
Local racing has been returning as tracks gear up for events with lots of social distancing and without fans in the stands.
Flamboro Speedway will be holding its season opener in a one-day event Saturday with a pair of 30-lappers for the Pro Late Models and two 20-lappers for the Canadian Vintage Modifieds.
Teams will be allowed to enter the grounds of the Millgrove oval before noon, get set up, then take part in practice laps and time trials, all to be completed by around 1 p.m.
Racing is scheduled to start at 2:05 p.m., and the winner of the 24-car Pro Late Model field will pick up $2,000. As per present government restrictions, no spectators will be allowed at Flamboro, but the event will be broadcast free on the GForce TV website.
III We lost two Canadian racing personalities recently, drag racer John Petrie and road racer Eppie Wietzes. Both came to Canada when young, both were inducted into the Canadian Motorsport Hall of Fame and both were true ambassadors to the sport and flew the Maple Leaf in international competition.
Petrie, who was one of the first Canadian drag racers to compete on a professional level, was born in England in 1942 and by ’64 was working as a mechanic in the Toronto area. His first race car was a 1959 Plymouth. Next, was a Hemi-powered Plymouth known as the Highlander, which was very successful. This led to him teaming up with Ford of Canada in the mid’60s to drive an early Funny Car. There were six of these 1,500-horsepower Mercury Cyclones built, and Petrie campaigned the car extensively. Part of Petrie’s involvement with the factory-based car was to travel around the country to performance clinics at dealerships. In the late ’60s, Petrie returned to Chrysler products, running in the NHRA along with travelling across Canada to hold performance car clinics at Chrysler Canada dealerships.
He raced with the big names of the day in the new Pro Stock class, including Bill Jenkins, Don Nicholson and the team of Sox and Martin. He won several NHRA division meets and was runner-up at the prestigious WinterNationals in 1971.
Not long after, Chrysler pulled its corporate support and Petrie was burned out from his years on the circuit. He moved to B.C. from his Toronto home but did travel east in recent years to attend special race and nostalgia shows, including the annual Dragstrip Memories at the Canadian Warplane Heritage Museum. He died in B.C. on June 8 after a lengthy illness.
Wietzes’ racing career was long, from 1958 to ’87. During that time, the Dutch native drove just about every type of car on the road courses of North America, from AC Cobras and Trans-Am Mustangs to Formula One.
Some of the highlights of Wietzes’ career included driving a Mustang and a Shelby King Cobra for the Comstock Racing Team before Ford pulled out of racing in Canada. He then hopped in openwheeled cars, driving in the Canadian-based Gulf-sponsored Formula A Series and the SCCA Formula 5000 Series behind the wheel of different McLarens and Lolas with the likes of Mario Andretti and the Unser brothers, Al and Bobby.
Through connections with Comstock owner Chuck Rathgeb, Wietzes was able to secure a ride in Colin Chapman’s spare Lotus for the running of Canada’s first Grand Prix, held at Mosport in 1967. He had issues with a wet ignition that day, as did several others, and DNF’d. He drove a Brabham in the ’74 Canadian GP but did not finish that race.
Wietzes, who died last week of heart failure at the age of 82, took a break from 1975 to ’80, but built a Corvette for TransAm racing, winning the championship in ’81. In later years, he would attend races along with running the family Toyota dealership and pursuing his other passion of boating.