Racing Days Skiroule/Allouette Factory Teams 1970

Ray McMurry, Captain of the Skiroule Racing Team at the the winter show in Toronto 1968 riding an RTX 800 cc factory modified machine.  I was a member of the Skiroule team for 2 season, then I was invited by Bob Gaston to join the Allouette Racing Team. We had a young guy from Quebec only 17 years old, a young Gilles Villeneuve.At the time Bombardier hired John Cordts, a Grande Prix driver; that didn't last too long. You had to be a special kind of crazy to race open modified in the OSRF.

I stopped by the Skiroule factory on Doncaster in Thornhill, there it was, a dream come true, a factory modified 800 cc beast.  I just left my schoolbooks on a crate and went off racing for a few years. First thing we took the motor to our friend Toni Perroni in Whitby for some real high performance polishing and porting. It lasted for one race at the Kawartha Cup in Peterborough, I finished first before the engine blew up. We drove back to the factory overnight to pick up a replacement piston, we stripped the engine down and expected to see a mess.  This high rpm engine just vaporized the piston without scoring the cylinder walls.  Just popped the new piston in and were racing again on Sunday.

It wasn't all smooth sailing, I got lucky, I didn't get hurt too much; my pal racing partner Stormin Norman wasn't so lucky. He was severely injured in this crash. We both gave up driving after this.

My lucky day up in the Sunridge races, I went over the bank and flipped all the way down the track. The machine on its side was a modified 640cc machine.

All eyes were on World Champ Jim Adema in the open modified race at Kawartha Cup; he won of course.  Jim was fearless and he was a great guy, sadly his favorite sport caught up to him, he was killed in a race a short time later. It was a dangerous sport; still is.

I just wanted to pay tribute to one of my favorite snow machine guys Bob Gilbert. He was the head mechanic at Skiroule, a former RAF mechanic throughout WWII.  I learned a lot from Bob, especially about the importance of putting tools back in their proper place

My pal and racing partner for years Stormin Norman at the winter show in Toronto CNE.