User:Mushmason99

Paul S. Manson
(inducted into the Canadian Motorsport Hall of Fame April 2012) Paul Manson started rallying in October of 1962, when he drove his Volkswagen in two local Toronto events. He rolled the VW on his second rally and decided that navigation was his forte, and that if he could be a winning navigator, why bother with driving. During his career he competed and was involved with many hundreds of events. He competed in over eighty club, regional and national rallies in 1964 to win the Wilson Trophy. He won again in 1965 and 1967 competing in a similar number of events. He competed in a great number of events in 1966 only to be edged out by a competitor who competed in a far larger number of events than he did. In one 1967 club event organized by the Ryerson Light Car Club, he, and driver John Slade, was the only entry out of 60 cars to complete the route and arrive at the finish. The organizer had not announced, or given in the instructions, the location of the finish, so all the other competitors gave up and went home. Manson was involved in four major rollovers during competition, one while driving early on and three with other drivers later in his career. Fortunately he was never seriously injured during his rally career. In the rally season of 1967, Paul teamed with Klaus Ross and won the Fidler trophy for the Canadian National Rally Championship in their Nissan sponsored Datsun 1300 maintained by St. Clair Motor Service of Toronto. They amassed a total point lead in rallies across Canada from British Columbia to Halifax and most provinces in between competing in a total of 32 rallies, winning eight, placing second in five, third in one and fourth in three other events. He won the Canadian National Rally Championship again in 1969 with driver John Medwell. In 1968 the Canadian National Rally Championship awards were split with the addition of the Deak Trophy. After 1967 the Fidler trophy was presented to the drivers and an artist/rallyist from British Columbia, Ed Deak, presented to CASC a permanent wood carving trophy and keeper trophies to be presented to the championship winning navigator (later referred to as co-driver). Manson’s 1969 keeper trophy is on loan to the archive for display. He was a consistent competitor in the Winter Rally and the Shell 4000 amassing an impressive record. In the Shell 4000 Rally across Canada, Paul teamed with John Merriman (a fantastic driver) and churned across the country in a Chevelle to place eighth overall in his first attempt. In the 1966 running of the Shell 4000, he teamed up with Fritz Hochreuter in a VW 1500 to finish seventh overall. They also placed second in the private teams category, In the 1967 Shell 4000, Paul joined the Datsun (now Nissan) factory team with Karl Schulz as driver, and notwithstanding a rollover near Ottawa, placed third. An organizer’s seal on the alternator bracket broke when his driver reached into the back of the car to get a pair of sunglasses and rolled the car on a gravel trail north of Kingston, Ontario. The car passed scrutineering by Peter Bone in Montreal but between the inspection and the arrival at the Autostade in Montreal, Jim Gunn assessed a penalty for the broken seal moving them down one position out of a firmly established second place. In the Shell 4000 rallies the car was a major component of the team and wire seals were attached to major running components which could not be repaired or replaced during the event. Body damage could be repaired and many competitors literally rebuilt the body work on their cars during the rally. The Datsun team also came through to win the manufacturers' team prize in the 1967 running of the rally. In 1968 he teamed with South African Rally champion Ewold van Bergen in a Nissan Cedric placing fourth overall at the finish in Halifax. Manson, an accountant by profession, when asked if he felt that being an accountant had a bearing on his good record as a navigator, said that he firmly believed that it helped him. Through the years Paul has organized events, contributed time and effort to many Car clubs, marshalled and scored events, acted as a steward on Regional and National Championship events, acted as an FIA steward on the Rally of the Rideau Lakes and the Criterium du Quebec (World championship events in the 1970s before the WRC), assisted in scoring international tours including the New England 1000 and Forza Mille in the United States in the 1990s and competed in the Republic of South Africa in 1974 in the Total Rally. In the sixties he wrote a rally column for Wheelspin News under the pseudonym “Slowspin” and was a regular contributor to both Bob MacGregor’s CBC Radio Motoring show and the British weekly motorsport newspaper “Motoring News”. On the subject of rallying, from a personal standpoint, Paul’s equipment included two Heuer watches, two Curta calculators, a Tripmaster and a full selection of topographical maps. His collection of topographical maps covers all of eastern Canada from Sault Ste Marie to Halifax. He said that in the 1960s and 1970s all the serious contenders used these maps. There were no Personal Navigation Devices (GPS) back then. He said that it was most important to use these maps, as you could often plot the route from the instructions, saving time and doing a much better job of navigation. This way, a mistake in the instructions was avoided much more easily. Years ago when asked why he was rallying, he said quite simply: "Because I did it well."