The Canadian Grand Prix, a round of the 1965 Canadian Sports Car Championship, was held at Mosport Park on 25 September of that year.
The event was marred by huge accidents.
First occurred the nearly fatal crash of John Surtees, during practice, when he destroyed his Lola T70, being seriously injured.
Then, during the race, two other cars were badly damaged by fire, the McLaren M1A of Augie Pabst, and the Elva-BMW driven by Herb Swan of Cleveland, Ohio, who managed to escape unhurt.
In December 1965, a British newspaper reporting the deeds of David Fletcher, a British mechanic of the Harold Young Racing team, which entered a Lola T70 for David Hobbs in the final rounds of the series, wrote:
"The trip was beset with troubles... at Mosport, Toronto, a photographer was killed at the start and the assistant starter had both legs broken. The fire service excelled themselves by letting two cars burn out because their extinguishers were empty".
I've found Canadian newspaper articles of September 1965 about Herb Swan's crash, with impressive pictures of the huge fire (The Star-Phoenix of Saskatoon, SK, Canada, issue of Monday 27 Sep 1965, page 1), but no one reporting the fatality.
Possibly the unfortunate photographer involved in the accident, succumbed to his injuries some days later.
Edited by Nanni Dietrich, 07 February 2023 - 17:32.