Two PCA Members Inducted To Hall of Fame

TWO PCA UCR CLUB MEMBERS, Larry Caruso and Dan Proudfoot, were honoured and inducted into the Canadian Motorsport Hall Of Fame (CMHF) at a ceremony held Feb. 15 during the Canadian International Auto Show in Toronto.

Larry Caruso catches the action at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park in 2019.

LARRY CARUSO was one of the seven new inductees who range from open-wheel promoter to stock-car team owner. Caruso began his racing career in 1960, competing in karts, drag racing, stock cars and road racing for the following 30 years. Caruso has mentored young talent as a driver coach starting in 1987 with the Porsche Advanced Driving School, travelling to major road-racing facilities across Canada.

Larry Caruso started his road-racing career in the Rothmans Porsche series running five races in 1987 and then teamed up with Ludwig Heimrath in 1988 when the Rothmans Porsche Turbo Cup Series came to Canada. Heimrath and Caruso went on to win races in the Firestone Firehawk Series and won the Valvoline Touring Car Championship in 1996 in their potent Porsche 968.

Recently Larry Caruso has been participating at the PCA UCR Can-Am Challenge Club Race at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park (Mosport) every year since 2014, bringing home multiple class wins. Caruso started the Canadian Road Racing Academy in 2017 and will take on a new role in 2020 as Head Driver Development Coach in charge of Canadian Automobile Sport Clubs race licence certification.

DAN PROUDFOOT joins nine other Canadian motorsports journalists who were inducted into the CMHF. These 10 inductees are part of a new media category this year. Proudfoot was the first motorsport reporter for The Globe And Mail in the early 1970s and moved on to cover racing for the Toronto Sun in the 1980s through to 2001. Proudfoot won an early award for a story in Toronto Life magazine about attending his first racing school. Proudfoot has been a regular contributor to our Provinz magazine.

In conversation, Dan Proudfoot told me about another 2020 inductee to the CMHF by the name of Allen Berg who now operates Allen Berg Racing Schools primarily in WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca, among other locations in southern California. It is said that Berg’s father owned one of the first 911 Turbos in Canada and he would sneak rides in it before he even had a driver’s licence. He followed Gilles Villeneuve in F1 later on, but wasn’t as talented and lacked the sponsorship to advance beyond his first uncompetitive team.

The Canadian Motorsport Hall Of Fame honours and recognizes achievements and contributions that Canadians have made in the realm of Canadian motorsports. Since its official opening in 1993, it has inducted over 200 individuals and organizations. In the list of inductees below, a number of popular names are highlighted, some of these previous inductees either raced Porsches or played a major role in PCA UCR history:

  • Horst Kroll, 1994, competitor in road racing
  • Ludwig Heimrath, 2000, competitor in road racing
  • Greg Moore, 2000, competitor in road racing
  • Ted Powell, 2006, competitor in road racing
  • Bill Adam, 2009, competitor in road racing
  • Jacques Duval, 2010, competitor in road racing
  • Scott Goodyear, 2011, competitor in road racing
  • Rudy Bartling, 2011, competitor in road racing
  • Mario Andretti, 2012, international
  • Ron Fellows, 2012, competitor in road racing
  • Paul Tracy, 2013, competitor in road racing
  • Chris Pfaff, 2016, significant contributor

More Great Articles

Comments

Popular stories

0
YOUR CART
  • No products in the cart.