Saturday, September 28, 2019

"Canadian Motorsport Hall of Famer" Ron Fellows Born - September 28, 1959

September 28, 1959
Ron Fellows
Born in Windsor, Ontario, Canada.
Canadian Motorsport Hall of Fame member, accomplished SCCA Trans-Am, IMSA, and American Le Mans Series driver, and a NASCAR "road course ringer".

Fellows at the age of 4 became interested in auto racing with his family. He found a love for French-Canadian Formula 1 driver Gilles Villeneuve. Fellows has one of the biggest collections of Gilles Villeneuve merchandise in Canada and called Villeneuve his idol. To attend F1 races at a young age, Fellows went to watch them at a local track on an island in Montreal, Canada named Île Notre-Dame, a track that eventually would be named Circuit Gilles Villeneuve. When Villeneuve died in 1982 the track was named after Villeneuve himself. Fellows developed a dream to win at Circuit Gilles Villeneuve when he became a racing driver. He accomplished his goal in 2008, winning the NASCAR Nationwide Series race at the track the NAPA Auto Parts 200.

Besides his racing career, Fellows owns a corporate business chain the Ron Fellows Performance Driving Schools and is one of the owners of car brand, Corvette as well as Corvette's racing operations. He also owns a charity called the Sunoco-Ron Fellows Karting Championship to help young kids become race-car drivers. In January 2013, Ron Fellows purchased the Canadian Tire Motorsports Park racetrack and NASCAR hosted a truck series race there-the first time since 2000 that the truck series came to a road course. Fellows' current goal for his track is to bring the Cup series to the track someday.

He and wife Lynda  have 3 children, Lyndsay, Sam and Patrick Fellows. Ron is a close friend of Dale Earnhardt Jr. as well as Gilles Villeneuve's son Jacques who was a student in a racing school with Ron.

See also: Tribute To Ron Fellows

No comments: