1967 Mosport GP 50th Anniversary

Reader Contribution by Alan Cathcart
Published on October 30, 2017
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Michelle Duff, formerly Mike Duff, at the Mosport GP 50th anniversary celebration on the Arter Matchless G50 she rode to third place behind Giacomo Agostini and Mike Hailwood in the 1967 500GP at Mosport. Photo by Bill Petro

On Sept. 30, 1967, the one and only Canadian road racing GP ever staged took place on the 2.459-mile Mosport circuit 60 miles northeast of Toronto, Ontario. Opened in 1961 and still in use today in essentially unchanged form, it’s one of the most challenging circuits in the world, with significant changes in elevation, copious blind apexes, and an undulating main straight where top-gear wheelies are a matter of course. This past August, Canada’s VRRA (Vintage Road Racing Association) staged a commemorative 50th anniversary event as part of their annual Mosport Vintage Festival. 
 
1967 marked Canada’s 100th birthday as a nation, and to mark the occasion the Federal Centennial Commission underwrote the costs of bringing the world’s top riders and their machines to compete in the season-ending Canadian GP race, the final round in the 500cc World Championship so closely contested by Honda four mounted Mike Hailwood and his former teammate at MV Agusta, Giacomo Agostini, on the Italian triple. 
 
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