1978 was the year that Jimmy Carter led Israel and Egypt to sign a lasting peace accord, the first test-tube baby was born (she’s 42 this year!), new DNA techniques were used to produce human insulin for the first time, Princeton scientists created a nuclear fusion reaction that lasted for 1/20 second and has never…

October-November, 1977 —  The winds were kicking up and a storm was brewing between the Ottawa-Hull Kart and Recreation Club (OHKRC) and the track-owning corporation, Share 50/74. The OHKRC started out as a karting club encompassing social recreation and racing. It had big plans to build a club track and be around for a long time. But…

September, 1977 — For me, our very first race weekend on our new track at Quyon, Quebec, was pretty close to perfect — I scored pole position, I won my heat, and then I won the final. It doesn’t get much better than that. Our new track had just been completed a couple of weeks…

After staging a very successful public race at the Museum of Science and Technology in Ottawa, you’d think that our local Ottawa-Hull Kart and Recreation Club (OHKRC) would be getting ready to accept a flood of new members.  After all, we’d had a full house of spectators, the racing had been terrific, and we passed…

Black-and-white photographs in this story are by Dirk Van Battum. June, 1977 — The expected showdown between Jon Snadden and I materialized at a very public event in the parking lot of Ottawa’s Museum of Science and Technology. We’d raced there before with radio-controlled cars, but this was the first time we’d put on a…

Full disclosure: the above picture is the start-finish line at the Picton racetrack, but it is from the 1978 Canadian Pro race and not the 1977 race documented in this post. There are almost no pictures of the 1977 event available. May 22, 1977 — The race at Picton, soutwest of Ottawa, was held on a…

1977 was the year that saw Roots change television, the Concorde and the shuttle take their first flights, Elvis leave the building for the final time, and Saturday Night Fever and Star Wars command the box office. I’ve often heard that comprehensive preparation is the key to success in any field and racing is certainly…

(Above) Getting ready to go out onto the track for practice: in red, Dave Elliot (#5), in white, me (#25). In the yellow shirts: Al McRory (left), Paul Joinette (right). September 19, 1976 — By the time I was 20 years old, I already knew I was late getting into the game of being a…

After completing the Jim Russell school in the summer of 1975, my attention turned to college — but I was still so fixated on getting into karts that some of my classmates suggested I should quit college and go racing instead. If only… But I was in my last year and I would graduate in…

A friend recently described a photograph as a return ticket to a moment otherwise gone. When I posted several photos of karting days-gone-by on Facebook a few months back, many long-lost former colleagues and competitors suddenly appeared to comment and respond.  Clearly, getting a “return ticket” was important to more people than I had thought…