Toronto Star trip sparked motorsport hobby
Casual race fan became involved after winning British Grand Prix draw 20 years ago
Kathy Koczekan of Markham will be working at this weekend’s Honda Indy Toronto as a track marshal and it’s all because of the Toronto Star’s Wheels section.
Back in 1996, Koczekan — who’s 62 now — and her husband, Steve, 67, were casual race fans. They would attend events a couple of times a year at Mosport (now Canadian Tire Motorsport Park) but they never missed a Honda Indy (then sponsored by Molson’s).
One Saturday, there was a promotion in Wheels involving the Star, Mosport and a company called Formula One Tours. The prize? An allexpenses-paid trip to that year’s British Grand Prix plus $1,000 spending money (those were the days, eh?).
They went, they saw (Canadian Jacques Villeneuve won the race; he’d been the previous year’s Indy car champion) and Kathy Koczekan became so enthralled with the sport that, on her return, she went go-kart racing with her then-young-son Andrew and did all the mechanical work on the kart when they went to the tracks together. And then, when Andrew went away to university and stopped karting, she started marshalling and even took and passed a race-driving course, although she hasn’t taken that next step.
Not bad for a retired forensic drug chemist for Health Canada.
Kathy dropped me a note several months ago to say that it had been 20 years since her life changed, and she wanted to thank the Star for everything. “It inspired me to get more involved in the sport,” she said.
“I always read the Wheels section first,” she said, when we sat down to talk about her big trip. “I saw the draw in there. I filled out the ballot and the next day I put it in the box at Mosport and I thought to myself, ‘I’m going to win this.’ ” Her luck was on a roll. She won a ride in the parade lap for the Trans-Am race, which was being held that day, and it was while she was out on the circuit that they an- nounced the winner.
“We’re home that night and I got a call from Patricia Berton (of the Star’s promotions team) who said, ‘You won the trip!’ And I said, ‘Yeah, my brother put you up to this, didn’t he?’ ” But it was true. They (Berton of the Star and Nelson Hudes of Mosport) flew us to England, put us up in a wonderful hotel in Stratford-on-Avon, took us to and from Silverstone in a luxury tour bus and our guide was Phil Hill (who won the 1962 world championship for Ferrari), who kind of adopted us.
“We had these gala dinners and one of the fellows we got to know was Perry McCarthy (who became the Stig on the BBC television show Top Gear). He’s famous for being the Formula One driver with the worst luck. He got into one Grand Prix and the car conked out as he was leaving the pits. He didn’t have enough money to get home so he had to hitch a ride. He was hilarious. I don’t think I ate anything, I was laughing so hard.”
And Villeneuve, who’d raced at the previous July’s Molson Indy, was the winner.
“His teammate was British driver Damon Hill and we were watching the big screen and I saw one of the Rothmans cars go off and we said, ‘Oh, no!’ because we thought it was Jacques. It turned out to be Damon, and stupid me, I’m in England, and I go, ‘Yea! Damon’s off!’ and there are English people all around us.
“But they were nice folks and knew who we were, so they cheered Villeneuve on too.”
Really bitten by the bug, Kathy jumped in with both feet when son Andrew wanted to go karting.
“He was about 13 when he started karting. Steve didn’t want to have anything to do with it (Husband Steve: “I couldn’t watch”) but I loved it. I did all the mechanical work on the kart (Steve: “I threw the money at it and she was the mechanic”) and our son won junior Rookie-of-the-Year his first year at the Toronto Kart Club. We did this together for four years.
“Then Andrew went away to university (Steve: “Our son didn’t lose interest; he wanted to concentrate on university. He’s a very focused in- dividual and he wanted to focus on his studies. He graduated from Wilfrid Laurier with honours and is working as a financial analyst for the government of Canada.”) and I was so upset. I thought, ‘Oh, no — I have nothing to do now — and I thought, ‘I’m going to go marshalling.’ “So I did.” Since then, she’s done work at CTMP, the Honda Indy and the F1 Grand Prix du Canada, among other places and races. She’s a 10-year-veteran and has significant responsibilities. “I’m trained as a corner captain,” she said. “I’m responsible for everyone at the corner. We do training. I do flagging and communication. At the Toronto Indy, I’m a captain of a number of corners.”
Kathy said there are many reasons she was drawn to motorsport over other pastimes.
First, it`s the racing. You’re right out there, you’re right involved. And then there’s the weather. You get to experience it all and to enjoy it all. And I like all the people I work with, working together as a team. We all have something in common. We practice and we talk about it — ‘If this happens, this is what we`re going to do.’ So in a panic situation, I think, ‘Okay, we talked about that and everybody knows what to do.’ ” There have been a few close calls.
“A pickup truck was competing in a regional race at Mosport and coming up the back straight, which is the fastest part of the track. I was flagging with another marshal and that was before the fences were put up and all of a sudden he veered toward us and we both took off, running, and he blew into a big fireball right beside us. After I made sure the driver was okay, the first thing I did was to check my pony tail to see if it was still there.
“It’s a risky business (for the drivers) but it’s less risky now. Same with marshalling. We don’t run out on the track, we talk to race control before doing anything. Corner people, for instance, can call for a local yellow but race control decides on the fullcourse cautions. We tell them what the situation is and they make a determination.” As most people know — or should — the drivers and others in big-league auto racing make (in some cases) scads of money while the marshals work for maybe a free lunch. But they do it for love and a sense of accomplishment.
“You know what’s really nice?” Kathy said. “When the race is over and the drivers go by and they wave to you. They say thank you. That’s really nice.”
It’s said that — like most sports — auto racing is a family sport and many couples marshal together. But not the Koczekans. Says husband Steve, who met Kathy in 1971 when they were both at Ryerson, married her and then worked beside her at Health Canada until retirement, also as a forensic drug chemist:
“A lot of men are marshals and their wives say, ‘Ah, he’s gone marshalling again. We’re exactly the opposite — she marshals, I don’t. I like to go to the races, particularly when they’re held at Mosport. I do a little bit of photography and I like nature. I like taking pictures of the cars and the people but I’m not addicted to it like she is.
“My main interest? I grow orchids. It’s a great hobby. It keeps me off the streets.”