Your faithful DragRaceCanada founder (yours truly) did receive some humbling and distinctive recognition recently……
Let me first offer my apology for some tardiness for posting this. But the realities of life since my relocation from Canada to Australia (mid 2022) have been demanding (to say the least!).
I did find out after leaving Canada that I had been nominated for induction into the Canadian Motorsports Hall of Fame (the class of 2022) and with that invited to attend that Gala ceremony on February 25th to accept the award (at the John Bassett Theatre during the Toronto International Auto Show).
But as fate and circumstance would have it that date coincided exactly with the possession and moving date to our new home over here in Australia (Feb. 27th) — making it impossible for me to attend in person.
But through the kind cooperation from the Canadian Motorsports Hall of Fame itself (Peter Lockhart, Greg MacPherson, Robin Virtue & Mike Crawford) and help from close personal friend & renowned Canadian drag racer Wally Clark — I was able to attend virtuality and also be represented on stage for the Gala.
Instead of elaborating further here — I would be pleased if you could take the time to view my short acceptance speech* (recorded from Australia – from timemarks 38:00 > 47:00) and including highlights from the entire evening on their official YouTube archive link posted : HERE
(* Highlights from my acceptance speech are also scripted just below).
Bruce Biegler Acceptance Speech – Canadian Motorsport Hall of Fame (Feb 25th 2023)
Greetings to “my beloved homeland Canada” from Brisbane Australia everyone – I hope you are all enjoying your evening.
I sincerely regret not being able to join you in person tonight – but life’s circumstance combined with the very long distance to travel back to Canada at this time for me prevented that.
Let me first offer my sincere congratulations to all of the other inductees this evening – I am sure you were just as thrilled as I was when I first heard the news.
(I’d like to give a special “shout out” to Uli Bieri – who is also being inducted into the Canadian Motorsports Hall of Fame tonight. I had the pleasure of working with Uli and his Cayuga Dragway staff for approx two decades — Congratulations Uli and thank you for all you did for me!)
To think that my name could ever be mentioned within a same grouping of previous Canadian Motorsports Hall of Fame drag racing inductees — names like Gordie Bonin, Ron Hodgson, Terry Capp, Dale Armstrong and Barry Paton – is just plain humbling.
A huge thank you to the Canadian Motorsports Hall of Fame nomination committee for this kind recognition. I accept it both personally and also on behalf of the form of motorsports I love – drag racing.
My serious involvement with drag racing did in fact evolve from a short experience as a minor level racer.
That did have a short shelve life and ended with a broken motor and a maxed out credit card! Despite my ambition, I realised soon that for me to remain involved with this sport of choice — I had to change direction — and so I elected to pursue a photography and journalism path in drag racing instead.
A Nikon for Nitro so to speak!…
Over the couple years that followed — various doors of opportunity opened as I migrated from being a track photographer at Saskatoon International Raceway to the print pages of National Dragster and Wheelspin News.
After moving to Ontario, and with personal guidance from non other then NHRA’s chief photographer Leslie Lovett (my mentor) I did begin an extensive and frequent regiment of season travel into the USA while honing and accelerating my craft and photographic art with both the NHRA and IHRA.
That led to some rewarding contributing editor stints with many major publications including – Car Craft, Hot Rod, Popular Hot Rodding, Super Chevy, Chevy High Performance, Drag Review and very prominently with the Mopar brand’s factory magazine.
All of that helped to open opportunities for me back in Canada and I was thrilled with being selected to be the Drag Racing Editor for both of Canada’s two primary racing publications – first Performance Racing News and then Inside Track magazine.
In 1999 with the onset of the internet absorbing motorsports too, I founded DragRaceCanada.com.
Since then I have tried to use that to give the sport of drag racing in Canada what it truly deserved — prominence and respect within the motorsports community.
Needless to say I was pleased and very proud that eventually DragRaceCanada became what it is and rose to where it did. It was fully embraced by the drag racing community and gained recognition world wide as the official “voice for drag racing” from Canada.
I would be remiss if I did not mention the sponsorship help DragRaceCanada.com has had throughout that journey. But to be honest that is a very very very long list – just too many to cite this evening. But a sincere thank you to each and all.
DragRaceCanada would never have been possible without a network community of friends within drag racing. Including support from accomplished photographers like David DeAngelis and Steve Embling + my valued webmaster Todd Paton.
We also benefitted greatly from the long term primary involvement of presenting partners Mopar Canada and Lucas Oil Canada – who shared our vision about the importance of our on-line product to the Canadian market.
My ventures all over Canada (and the world) resulted in countless interactions with racers and race track ownership. In fact the real reason I am receiving his honour tonight is a testament to exactly them.
During my career I most enjoyed the great friendships that developed, all the creative people I met, the incredible technology on display and the art form for photographing what are “hands down” the coolest cars seen anywhere on our particular planet!
Thank you to all drag racing drivers, drag racing teams, sanctioning bodies and drag strip management for giving me both the opportunity and also that basis for all the stories I reported and filed.
Since moving internationally — I have fielded a few queries about the future of DragRaceCanada.com because of that.
While I can’t yet be specific – be assured I am working hard to continue and position the site to a spot where — with the proper partners found — it can remain and advance as Canada’s undisputed #1 for the sport into the future. DragRaceCanada will remain part of the overall LMLC Media parent company.
I have now migrated permanently to Australia, full-fulling a long time dream for my wife Myrna and I to retire here > along Queensland’s Sunshine Coast – with board shorts and sandals on and golf clubs in tow!
Wait — did I say retire? Truthfully my involvement with drag racing is probably a “never ending story”. Maybe “scaled back” would be somewhat more closer…..and in fact — I am already involved with Drag News – Australia’s primary drag racing on-line entity,
Lastly a sincere thank you to my long time friend and very accomplished drag racer Wally Clark for graciously standing in for me tonight.
Here’s signing off from “the future” (it’s tomorrow here for you). I hope everyone enjoys this evening’s gala!
– Cheers and G’Day Mates!
Visit the Canadian Motorsports Hall of Fame Official : HERE
Posted by Bruce Biegler
Photos courtesy of Joel Robinson