When I was about 12-13 ( 1960) I decided I wanted
to be a mechanical engineer. I was fascinated by the
ways things worked and why. At some point I fell in
love with cars and racing - particularly Formula One
racing. There was a time when I could have drawn maps of
the great GP circuits. I was engrossed in the details
of circuit design. My thinking progressed to F1
suspensions, tires, circuit pavements and safety design -
barriers, restraints etc.. I went to marshals school at
Mosport, nearly fainted during the first aid film and so
they put me on signaling, communication and
timekeeping. I worked at several races and also participated
in car rallies as a navigator. <br> <br>During high
school I was allowed to attend engineering classes at
the University of Toronto. At 15 I was the youngest
and the first female student member of the Society of
Automotive Engineers. My best male friend raced motorcycles
and so I went to races with him. I was well on my way
to a career in engineering. Who knows I might have
been a F1 team manager! LOL!<br> <br> Then at 18 I had
the car accident that changed my life. I died,
briefly and was revived ( well, I guess that is obvious
LOL). everything changed for me. I knew then that I had
to devote my life to humanitarian projects - a major
career change. I threw myself into that with my
customary enthusiasm. But it didn't pay very well.<br> <br>
BMF, best male friend, Derek was by now a Honda,
Ducati and BSA dealer. One of the our top local racers,
Al Johnson, wanted to retire and sell his Yamaha,
Triumph, Norton dealership. Contracts prevented Derek from
owning both so he asked me if I would like to run it for
the extra income. So for two years I was a yamaha,
Triumph and Norton dealer! I had a racing a motocross
team and belonged to the same club as Mike Duff ( as
he was then).<br> <br> Naturally I went to all the
races that my teams were in. But I didn't follow the
European racing scene - it was so far away and I was
juggling two careers and family commitments. <br><br>By
1967 I had to resign from the day to day operation of
the dealership but stayed on as nominal owner. You
can bet I took a lot of teasing from Mike when I
finally 'fessed up and showed him my business card - he
accused me of being a secret agent for Phil Read -
jokingly of course.<br> <br>One of the last things that I
did related to motorcyle competition was that I had a
very small role in organizing the Canadian national
motocross team that competed against the US in a challenge
match in '67( and won). By the end of the summer I had
nothing more to do with racing of any kind.<br> <br> It
was Derek who took me to the reception where I met
Mike . and It was Derek who made me read all the
magazine articles about the factory teams before we went.
My negative pre-impression of Mike was a combination
of what I read and what I picked up from some of the
local racers who were frankly green with envy over the
the factory teams and eager to spread anything
negative.