Interview: Craig Fisher

In the earlier days of his racing career, Craig Fisher (who recently passed away) raced just about everything he could get his hands on, from used DKW Monzas at Harewood Acres to Abarth Simcas at Le Circuit Mont Tremblant and even the ferocious Comstock EXP at Mosport. He also raced at tracks across the USA and UK.  His talent and his dedication to being as professional a driver as he could be, brought him to the notice of Chuck Rathgeb of the Canadian Comstock racing team. His success with Comstock in turn brought him to the notice of Terry Godsall’s “merry group of University of Toronto buddies.” Thus it was that it was decided to build a new Camaro Z-28 for the new SCCA series, the Trans-Am. The new car was prepared by mechanical whiz Doug Duncan at the Burke Seitze Gorries Downtown Chevrolet and Oldsmobile dealership in Toronto, Ontario.  This entry finished a controversial second overall to Bob Tullius’ Dodge Dart in its first race at the four hour long 1967 Daytona Speedway race, but it would have been first had it not been for an SCCA pit snafu.  This made the Godsall effort the first Camaro to earn points for the marque. Craig’s success in this race brought him to the attention of Roger Penske.  In 1967, he teamed up with Mark Donohue and the partnership resulted in a win at Marlboro in 1967. Perhaps the culmination of the relationship was at the 1968 Twelve Hours of Sebring where Mark and Craig finished 3^rdand first in Trans-Am. Craig had other excellent results in Trans-Am finishing second at the 1968 Continental Divide Trans-Am and 2^nd at the 1968 Trans-Am at Kent. Overall, Craig raced 53 times in his career, with 33 finishes and 15 retirements and his finishing ratio was a creditable 68%.  John Wright caught up with Craig at the 2011 VARAC Vintage weekend, where he was the grand marshall.