Sad News in Daytona

I first discovered Montreal stock-car racing legend Dick Foley on the eve of NASCARs inaugural NAPA Auto Parts 200 race at Circuit Gilles Villeneuve in 2007 a race I thought NASCAR should have invited Foley to attend as an honoured guest, since in 1959 Foley was the only Canadian to race in NASCARs inaugural Daytona 500, today famously known as The Great American Race and the Super Bowl of Stock Car Racing.

Today, with his racing days long behind him, Dick Foley who turned 80 this month is finally being inducted into the Canadian Motorsport Hall of Fame at a gala in Toronto on April 21.

But the thrill of getting behind a wheel never goes away, Mr. Foley told me last week when I called him at home to congratulate him. I got to ride [eight laps at Daytona with the Richard Petty Driving Experience ] last year and its still a great feeling.

When I first interviewed Foley five years ago, he told me about the day his race car flew in the air after smashing through a guardrail in his first career accident. It was at the old dirt track at Bouvrette Speedway, in St-Jrme, back in the mid-1950s.

I turned the wheel and nothing happened as I went into corner one, Foley recalled. But the car wouldnt turn. So I went up the bank and off the track, up in the air and then hit the ground, coming to a dead stop in a ditch. The car had buckled, the steering wheel hit me in the chest and my foot went through the floorboard. Id also swallowed my tongue, but [when the rescue crew arrived] my cousin reached in and pulled it out, so I was okay.

(Photo courtesy Eva and Dick Foley)

Foley also triggered the biggest wreck in NASCAR history (see clip below, or click here ) in a sportsman-modified feature at Daytona back in 1960. I started in 16 th position and when I was up in 10 th coming out of corner four, the car got airborne on me, Foley recalls today. I was so far ahead of the others I wasnt worried [and] guided my car down to the infield. But I suppose the boys were used to shorter tracks, werent looking ahead and the cars kept coming in and rolling.

When the smoke cleared, one car was even fished from Lake Lloyd in the middle of the speedway.

It was some show, Ill tell you that, Foley says. There were 37 cars in that accident! Fortunately no one was seriously injured. It was a miracle.

Foley says his love for racing began when he was 17. My brother and I raced two old [1930s-era] Fords on my fathers farm and later at the Bouvrette Speedway. I loved speed and handling the car. But the thrill was more about outperforming yourself.

Each winter the Foley family would head south to Florida where, in 1957, Dick Foleys father asked him, Do you want to drive in a race car down here?

Daytona then was famed as the place to set world land speed records 15 records were set on this beach between 1905 and 1935. Then in 1936, the Daytona course began hosting car racing events. Drivers raced a 1.5- to two-mile stretch of beach as one straightaway, and beachfront highway A1A as the other.

As Foley explained to me a few years ago, There was an ad in a local newspaper for a 1956 Chevy racecar. The man who sold it to me was [Indianapolis legend] Marshall Teague. I used to go see him daily and he became my mentor.

Eva and Richard "Dick" Foley at Daytona in 2011 (Photo courtesy Eva and Dick Foley)

Foley raced that Chevy painted No. 61 at the Daytona Beach and Road Race a few days later, finishing 48th in a field of 57.

The beach [part of the] track was hard-packed sand its like driving on snow at high speeds. They piled the sand at the corners to create a bank. And when you drove north, you drove partially in the water to cool off your tires! So your windshield well, if you were following anybody, you can imagine what that was like!

Foley bought a second car from Teague for the 1958 Daytona Beach and Road Race (he came in 19 th place this time and won $75). We werent like other competitors who had professional teams. We had nobody. But I wasnt intimidated by what the others had.

When NASCAR founder Bill Frances new Daytona International Speedway was completed (a monstrous 2.5-mile tri-oval with 31-degree banks, ready in time for the inaugural 1959 Daytona 500), Teague asked Foley if he wanted to race at Daytona.

Ill build the car for you, Teague told the then-26-year-old driver. Youll do well there.

The Foleys at home (Photo by Richard Burnett)

Of course it was a question of price, Foley says. That Impala ended up costing me $10,000.

That was because Teagues three-man crew took over after Teague was accidentally killed in a 175 mph crash at Daytona, 10 days before the big race, trying to set a closed-course world record in a streamlined Indy car.

I was devastated, Foley says.

But race at Daytona he did.

In fact, Foley was the only Canadian to run in that first Daytona 500. That race one driver was even allegedly offered $1,000 to race without a roof was won by racing legend Lee Petty, patriarch of the famous racing family whose most renowned member, Pettys son Richard, has won seven Daytona 500 races. Foley, meanwhile, placed 32nd. The next year, in 1960, Foley finished 61st. Then he pretty much called it quits. With Marshall gone there was no one there to give me the support I needed, Foley says today.

Still, I was so taken by Mr. Foleys NASCAR accomplishments and thought he deserved to be inducted into the Canadian Motorsport Hall of Fame, that in 2008 I filled in a nomination form with all the requisite attachments. After all, the man was the first-ever Canadian to race in the Daytona 500.

Bill Cannon and Dick Foley reunite in Florida, after over 50 years ( (Photo courtesy Eva and Dick Foley)

Now, thanks in large part to the tireless efforts of his incredible wife Eva and other supporters, like legendary Canadian motorsports journalist Norris McDonald , Mr. Foley will finally be inducted into the Canadian Motorsport Hall of Fame on April 21 . In fact, this has been one hell of a month for Mr. Foley: in addition to being inducted into the hall and turning 80, last week he and Eva were both in Florida for a sunny reunion with 93-year-old Bill Cannon, the man who with Foleys original mentor Marshall Teague built the stock car that Foley drove in NASCARs inaugural 1959 Daytona 500.

I want to thank all the people who worked hard to get me inducted into the Canadian Motorsport Hall of Fame, you included, Mr. Foley says. My wife put in a lot of effort to really get it going. Its going to be a very special day for me.

I must ask Mr. Foley one last question: When I visited his Montreal home back in 2007, he still owned 22 cars (including a Rolls Royce), five boats (including a yacht) and two airplanes. Does he still have them all today?

Ive changed that a little bit I sold the planes and now I have only two boats, Mr. Foley smiles. But I have more cars I bought a Jaguar XJS.

Click here for the official Canadian Motorsport Hall of Fame website