History of auto racing in Montréal

Drivers, start your engines

With the arrival of the automobile in the 20th century, it did not take long for the sport of auto racing to begin in Canada. Open-wheel, touring car, stock car and drag racing have long been popular in Québec where the sport took off with the opening in 1964 of Circuit Mont-Tremblant just north of Montréal. Circuit Mont-Tremblant is the second-oldest existing race track in Canada.

When it was established in August 1967, the Formula 1 Grand Prix du Canada alternated between Mosport Park (just east of Toronto) and Circuit Mont-Tremblant. The race has been a highlight of the automobile racing season ever since. 

In 1978, Montréal’s Circuit Île-Notre-Dame was created by British-born engineer Roger Peart on a man-made island in the St. Lawrence River. Originally built to host Expo 67 a decade earlier, Île-Notre-Dame turned out to be the perfect site for a race track, with its excellent Métro access. 

Three months after construction began on the track, the Formula 1 Grand Prix du Canada “was moved to Montréal, where it was won for the first time by a Canadian, Gilles Villeneuve – for whom the course is now named,” the Canadian Encyclopedia explains.

Circuit Île-Notre-Dame was renamed Circuit Gilles-Villeneuve after the local hero and Ferrari icon died following an accident during the final qualifying session for the Belgian Grand Prix in May 1982.

Race against time

Another legendary Montréal race car driver was Dick Foley, the only Canadian to race in NASCAR’s inaugural Daytona 500 in 1959. Foley finished 32nd out of 58 starters in the iconic stock-car race. “The thrill of getting behind a wheel never goes away,” Mr. Foley told me when I called him at home to congratulate him when he was inducted into the Canadian Motorsports Hall of Fame in 2011. 

Former owner of the Circuit Riverside Speedway Ste-Croix, Mr. Foley was a celebrated guest at NASCAR’s second-tier Xfinity Series race, the NAPA Auto Parts 200, held at Circuit Gilles-Villeneuve from 2007 to 2012. NASCAR is now looking at bringing their top-tier Cup Series to Montréal as they expand internationally.

Circuit Gilles-Villeneuve also hosted the Grand Prix of Montreal from 2002 to 2006 as part of the open-wheel Champ Car World Series. Hollywood movie star and former race car driver Paul Newman attended each race as co-owner of the Newman/Haas Racing team whose driver Sébastien Bourdais won the Montreal race in 2006.

Let the good times roll

The Formula 1 Grand Prix du Canada has become one of the most popular races on the Formula One calendar, popular with the drivers and race fans alike, drawing tens of thousands of tourists to Montréal each summer. With live bands and DJs, downtown Crescent Street hosts its annual outdoor Crescent Street Grand Prix Festival, billed as the largest F1 party in the world. During the street festival, Crescent Street icon Sir Winston Churchill Pub and its second-floor Winnie’s terrasse has some of the best views of the street festival.

“We have groups of F1 fans – from New York, the Maritimes, from Ontario – who have been coming back to Montréal on Grand Prix weekend for over 15 years,” says Sir Winston Churchill Pub Complex general manager Jan Wilson. 

Past winners of the Formula 1 Grand Prix du Canada include Formula One icons Jackie Stewart, Nigel Mansell, Aryton Senna, Alain Prost, as well as seven-time winners Michael Schumacher and Lewis Hamilton, all of whom mastered the 4.361-kilometre (2.5 miles) fast, low-downforce track with its famed hairpin curve.

The 2024 edition of the Formula 1 Grand Prix du Canada runs June 7-8-9.