On Friday, March 19th, 2021, legendary Canadian racer Ludwig Heimrath passed away.
When I was a car-crazy kid, I grew up five-minute’s bike ride from his Heimrath Porsche shop. Me and the local bicycle boys would ride up to the dealership, having no idea the place was owned by racing royalty. Here’s a picture from years later, but by then the place was just called HP Cars.
I met Heimrath briefly in 2014 on a lapping day at Mosport’s big circuit. Lots of Mustangs and Mazdas running around the track that day. I got my recently purchased Subaru SVX up to 180 km/h on the Mario Andretti straight and was just scared to death of the 20+ year old suspension failing. I was just nervous.
While I sat on the pit wall later that day, I saw this Porsche 911 rumbling into pitlane, with traces of smoke coming out of its brake ducts. The passenger’s side door opened and a tourist who’d been on a ‘hot lap’ thrill ride climbed out, took off his helmet and tried not to get sick. It was too much for him. Then out the driver’s door pops Ludwig Heimrath.
He was pushing 80 years old, but could still hustle a Porsche around better than anyone else at the track, effortlessly. He didn’t look nervous at all.
The photos have been removed, and replaced with images from Google Maps and Wikipedia. The intent was to tell a story about crossing paths with Ludwig Heimrath (RIP) and were not used for commercial purposes.