Norm Mackereth

Special to the Toronto Star by Norris McDonald, Jun 23, 2007

Norm Mackereth 80 and still loves the ovals
With countless victories and titles under his firesuit, there's always one more race to do...

Norm Mackereth of Toronto, 80 next month and forever young, was thinking one day 60 or so years ago that he'd like to give motorcycle racing a try. "I got hanging around with some fellows who were running the dirt tracks and saw a couple of them get pretty badly banged up – I saw one get his throat cut from ear to ear – and I said to myself, `Whoa, this is way too dangerous'." So he went car racing instead. And he's still at it. Last Saturday night, he was at Peterborough Speedway with his helmet and firesuit, just in case one of his two racing sons, Andy or Craig, or his racing grandson Tyler (Craig's son), needed some help sorting out one of their cars for a Can-Am Midget Racing Series feature event. It was not to be - this time.
But in his career, Norm Mackereth has raced and won at legendary Canadian speedways like the CNE and Pinecrest, U.S. oval tracks such as the Moody Mile at the Syracuse Fairgrounds, Langhorne Speedway, Pa., of "puke hollow" fame, the Action Track at Terre Haute, Ind., and at sports car courses like the old Harewood Acres circuit near Jarvis, Ont.
What's that you say? Norm Mackereth, driver of the No. 40 "New Toronto Rocket" supermodified (so named after a Gulf service station he once owned and operated at Lake Shore and 14th St.), one of the toughest of the open wheel, oil-and-dust eating, left-turn-only circle track jockeys, turning right on a road course and nodding pleasantly as he passed people?
Yup. It happened on May 28, 1960. The Canadian Racing Drivers Association promoted a 300 km Formula Libre race at Harewood in which any kind of car could enter. Carling Breweries put up the $6,000 purse and 32 drivers showed up, including European Formula One star Olivier Gendebien and U.S. sports car ace Roger Penske, driving cars like Porsches, Maseratis, D-type Jags and a Ferrari Testa Rossa.
And Norm Mackereth was in a Chevy-powered, Ford-bodied stock car with Buick brakes.
Are you ready for this? He set fourth fastest time in time trials on the Friday afternoon (Penske won the pole). Then he loaded up the car with his brothers Harry, Ben and Dave and hauled it back to Toronto, where he raced at the 1/4-mile CNE Speedway that night against such established Toronto-area stars as Ted Hogan, Jimmy Howard, Jack Greedy and Gary Witter.
Next day, Mackereth shocked the sports car crowd by just about winning the first heat (of three) of the Carling 300. The CRDA had made him start last (he needed a push to get going and the race was from a standing start), but in a little over 20 laps, he'd caught and passed 25 cars and was closing fast on Penske, Al Holbert, Gendebien, Harry Entwistle, Francis Bradley and Ray Carter.
But a rad hose blew, ending his day.
"They sure weren't happy when I set fourth fastest time in the time trials. And it shook them all up when I kept passing people in the race. I could have won it, you know? "Then they were very nice after the race – probably because I didn't finish. They were quite friendly then. But the fans loved me because when we were way out on the far side of the track, my car was the only one they could see above the hay bales!"
That was his one-and-only foray into circuit racing, but over the years, he's raced on just about every famous oval speedway in the east.

He looked south after 1962, when the CNE track was closed.
"I went down to race at the Syracuse Mile on Saturday afternoons. It was a big, dirt track. Then somebody said I should take my supermodified and go up the line to the speedway in Oswego. I did that and I fell in love.
"It was a big, fast, smooth speedway. I could go all over the track – anywhere I wanted. There was good competition: Gordon Johncock, Sammy Sessions, Bentley Warren – guys who went to Indy. I stayed racing there (on weekends) for 20 years and loved every minute."
One minute he didn't love all that much was the time he was badly burned in an accident.
"It was in 1968, my daughter Nancy's third birthday. I was passing three wide out of turn two, got up into the marbles and hit the fence. I broke the rear axle and I lost my steering and brakes. I had to ride it out all the way to three and I was on fire because the fuel tank had been punctured.
"I wasn't wearing gloves. Nobody did in those days. My firesuit held up but my hands were in bad shape. I managed to get unbuckled and I got out of the car and I dove over the fence and rolled down a hill to get away. Then I climbed back up the hill because I knew the ambulance would be coming and they could take me to the hospital.
“I was in the Oswego hospital for nine days. I had skin grafts, the whole nine yards. Then they said I could either go to Syracuse for more treatment or I could go home to hospital. I opted for Toronto General. My wife stayed down there with the kids the whole time. She drove me back to Toronto in the motorhome, pulling the race car on the trailer and four kids in the back with me. “I had seven pillows propped up around me. I was hurt pretty bad.
Four weeks to the day after I had the accident, I was back racing. I couldn't wait to get back."
  . . . written by Norris McDonald