Inside Track Motorsport News - 25.02 - History of Motorama special feature (March 2021)

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(Above) 2014 Ridler Award winner J.F. Launier of Osoyoos, BC’s 1964 “Anvil” Acadian at the 2019 Motorama show. Photo by Paolo Pedicelli

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Welcome to Motorama Motorama and Mopar Show History Show Memories in Photos & Programs Looking Ahead to 2022 Show Memories: Gary Challice

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Show Memories: McCrae & Hinds Show Memories: Bob McJannett Show Memories: Bob Larivee Sr. Show Memories: The Tachmen Show Memories: The Motion Show Grand Champions Over the Years Racing at the Show Celebrities at Motorama Yesterday's Speedways Chrysler Cars at the Show Motorama Speedshop InsideTrackNews.com 29

(Above) Marc McCrae (red sweater) accepted the Motorama Grand Champion Award for the 1959 Corvette he brought to the 2020 show. Photo by Paolo Pedicelli.

(Below) Al Hinds built two Grand Champion car in a three-year period, at Performance World, including this ’92 Pro Street Lumina. Photo Courtesy of Al Hinds.

Stories by Greg MacPherson wenty-twenty was a year of firsts for Marc McCrae of Fast Company Canada. The Kenilworth, Ontario builder headed to the Motorama Custom Car & Motorsports Expo for the first time with one of his own creations, a white and red ’59 Corvette.

And while the COVID pandemic shut down the show a day early, the awards presentations were all moved forward to the Saturday of the show and the Corvette came out on top, earning McCrae his first Motorama Grand Champion award.

Asked about his reaction to winning, McCrae said, “It’s Canada’s biggest show and it truly was an honour to finally have a vehicle there – the first vehicle out of my shop – and win Grand Champion. I mean it. Really, out of anything I did last year, winning at Motorama was the coolest thing.”

Involved in racing and building cars, McCrae has been attending Motorama and its predecessors for almost 30 years.

“I’ve probably been going since the early ‘90s, bringing show cars and drag cars when he worked for Al Hinds. I never went to my first

real big car show until Good Guys, so I didn’t know what to expect.

I was always a drag racing guy, being involved with Pro Mods since ’94-’95. I’d been to Super Chevy shows across the US with Al Hinds but nothing like Good Guys until this car. The thing rolled in at Columbus and we got a top 10 with like 9,000 cars on hand. The Corvette was actually the first one out of my shop. When I went on my own (Fast Company Canada), the plan was to shoot for the stars and take that car everywhere. The car’s owner, Viv Agresti, loves showing his cars off and gets a thrill being at SEMA and Detroit.

Looking ahead, McCrae is currently working on a car that he’d like to debut at Motorama in 2022.

“I’ve got three other builds, including a ‘69 Camaro, in the works right now and the owner of that car is interested in having it at Motorama, so that would be cool. It should be ready for paint by the end of the summer.”

As well, McCrae anticipates having the ’59 Corvette back at the show, as well, in a place of honour traditionally reserved for the previous year’s Grand Champion Award winner.

AL HINDS WON THE GRAND CHAMPION AWARD TWICE WITH PRO STREET CHEVIES Al Hinds was a two-time Grand Champion Award winner at the Performance World show. Both were Pro Street cars. In 1990, Hinds took top honours with a colourful ’89 Chevy Beretta. He came back with the same car, the following year, and took second-place. With the Grand Champion Award being reserved for ‘first time shown’ vehicles, it wasn’t eligible for the top spot in its second appearance.

To get back on top, the Waterloo, Ontario resident set about to building a new car, that would be eligible of winning again. And that’s exactly what he did, in ’92, with a 1991 Chevy Lumina. And just like he’d done before, he was back and Performance World in ’93 – with the same car – and won the runner-up prize, yet again. Following that stretch, Hinds decided his cars were too fast and fun not to race and turned his attention toward the drag strip. Before long, he was at Performance World again, but with a Camaro Pro Mod car.

“The first Grand Champion car (’89 Beretta) took 14 months to build. They were fast cars but I didn’t race it. We just took it out a few times to see how it would run. But we eventually got out of the Pro

Street stuff – as they were pretty much just about doing the US car show circuit – and jumped into Pro Mod racing.

“General Motors had actually given me those cars and I built them into Pro Street cars, and we did a lot of events for GM. But in the end, I got sick of not driving them because most people treated them like ‘trophy’ cars.”

Prior to his Grand Champion days, Hinds had other cars at the Motion show.

“It was probably about ‘85 or ‘86 that I had my first car – a Camaro – at Motion. I had that car in the front room. The next year, they did a ‘Camaro Corral’ at the show, so I had it there again. IT

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ince its inception, in 1975, the mid-March show at The International Centre. As with other shows, cash prizes and awards have been offered in many different categories and classes.

But the most coveted and prestigious prize has been the Grand Champion Award. In most cases, it’s been awarded to a Canadian car being shown for the first time.

While there isn’t a definitive record of all the vehicles to have been labelled Grand Champion – through all the show’s different incarnations – here are some of the past champions.

MOTORAMA 2020: 1959 CORVETTE CONVERTIBLE The 2020 Toronto Motorama show was only open for two days, due to the emerging COVID-19 pandemic. But the judging team was able to review all the vehicles, identify The Canadian Ten contenders, and determine a Grand Champion. In the final hours of the show, on Saturday afternoon, builder Marc McCrae of Fast Company Canada took to the stage to accept the $5,000 cheque and award. McCrae built the winning ’59 Corvette convertible – dubbed Vivacious – for client Viv Agresti.

MOTORAMA 2018: 1956 CHEVROLET 3100 PICKUP This LS-powered truck was finished just before showtime by builder Hitman Hot Rods and swooped in to take the Grand Champion award. The burgundy ‘56 Chevy 3100 pickup with wood boards in the bed was built for Andrew Legacy to be a ‘driver’ but earned the top prize in 2018.

MOTORAMA 2019: 1964 PONTIAC ACADIAN A former Detroit Autorama Ridler Award winner, Osoyoos, BC’s J.F. Launier is unquestionably one of Canada’s top custom car builders. His JF Kustoms was commissioned to build a car for owners Danny and Sandy Jadresko, and produced ‘Anvil,’ a white, 1964 Acadian with orange highlights. The car was a Great 8 finalist at Detroit and a week later headed to Toronto for Motorama. The car was a stunner in terms of looks and power, with a 632 cubic-inch motor boosted by twin turbos, producing 2,500 horsepower.

MOTORAMA 2017: 1936 FORD 3-WINDOW COUPE Bolton, Ontario car enthusiast Enzo Covello built ‘No Mercy,’ a bright red ’36 Ford 3-Window Coupe. The car made its first-ever appearance at Motorama and drove away with the Grand Champion award and cheque.

MOTORAMA 2015: 1971 EL CAMINO MOTORAMA 2016: 1948 FORD ANGLIA Randy Colyn Restoration & Rod Shop restored a 1948 Ford Anglia for customer David Dadd. Colyn, a long-time exhibitor at the show, was on hand as Dadd took to the stage, on Sunday afternoon, to be presented with the Grand Champion award.

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Quebec’s Eric Boily headed to the first Toronto Motorama Custom Car & Motorsports Expo, in March 2015. And when the weekend was done, he headed back to La Belle Province as the show’s inaugural Grand Champion winner. His metallic charcoal-coloured 1971 Chevy El Camino dubbed ‘Blessed Persistence’ was the judges’ choice, with its 650 HP big block engine. The vehicle was built by Roger Ouellet’s Showtime Muscle Cars, in Laval, QC.

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