LOOKING BACK FAREWELL, BILL ZARDO SR.

BillZardo Sr. – ‘The Big Z’ – was a racing legend in Southern Ontario. Starting from his humble beginnings at Pinecrest (aka ‘PineCRASH’) Speedway, in 1961, Bill was encouraged to race by his friend, Jimmy Hallahan, another Canadian Motorsport Hall of Famer.

His racing career initially ended in 2001 with a run that spanned 40 years and saw him accumulate countless wins and several championships along the way. He was also one of the patriarchs of the Zardo / Shepherd racing clan, which is pretty much stock car royalty in Ontario.

On December 13, Bill passed away suddenly. He was on his way out to his garage, to work on his race car. Last summer, he came out of retirement to drive an OSCAAR Hot Rod, and by all accounts, he was planning to race it again in 2023.

But getting back to his first career, Bill won the inaugural CASCAR Super Late championship, in 1981. He was also a regular, weekly competitor at Flamboro Speedway, winning the Molson Series championship in 1984, the Late Model championships in both 1984 and 1986 as well as the Triple 50s title in 1987.

Bill bought his race cars from Junior Hanley. He joked that, over the years, he ‘invested’ about three million dollars with Hanley Enterprises.

During the ‘80s, Junior had been running the ASA circuit, but decided to switch to Tom Curley’s American Canadian Tour (ACT) on a full-time basis, in 1989.

Zardo decided to tag along, and he quickly became one of the favourites to win on ‘any given Sunday.’ He scored a huge series win, at Flamboro Speedway, during an ACT doubleheader weekend at Flamboro and Sauble, in the early ‘90s. ‘Dizzy’ Dean Murray promoted the race at Flamboro, and the place was packed!

I had a deal at Motion for any racer –drag, stock, sportscar, motorcycle, whatever – where I would take $1,000 off the selling price if they would run a Motion decal on their race vehicle.

Zardo, of course, jumped at the chance and took advantage of that offer on several occasions.

In one of our transactions, Bill had a Hutter Ford motor and wondered if he could trade that in. Yup… deal. I needed a spare for our Super Late, which had a Prototype for power. I had sold a couple of custom-built cube vans, and Bill wanted one.

We shipped the chassis to Gary, Indiana… and had it built. Bill and I drove to Gary to pick it up. During that trip, I learned a lot about Bill that hadn’t known before.

He joked that he was a ‘pilot’ and loved ‘flying under the radar’ with his very successful Zardo Scrap Metal business. It was tucked away in an industrial area of Brampton, up against some train tracks.

Bill was very proud of his children and grandchildren and supported them in their racing endeavours.

Junior and I both felt that his daughter, Sharon, was the best of the bunch, but motherhood took the place of her racing career.

Sharon’s husband, Pete Shepherd, Jr., had a successful racing career of his own. And their son, Petey, went on to become part of the Jack Roush ‘Gong Show’ a few years ago, taking part in several ARCA and NASCAR Truck Series, before returning home to the NASCAR Pinty’s and APC Late Model series. Petey’s grandfather, Pete Shepherd, Sr., was also a racer, back in the day, as well as crew chief for Rich Grady.

Bill’s son, Bill Zardo Jr., was a good racer in his own right. His sons, Billy Jo and Lane, are also successful, with Billy Joe competing in the APC Series, while Lane won the 2021 Qwick Wick Super Stock title.

Finally, Bill’s brother-in-law, Jim Collison, was a long-time Flamboro racer. He was calm, quiet and easy going, so pretty much the polar opposite of Bill.

One of the best stories about Big Z is better told by others. In this case, Ken Rockwell relates what happened when he and ‘Dizzy’ Dean Murray – who also put on the popular Motion Car Show, in Toronto – encountered Johnny Cash during a trip to Jamaica.

Cash had written and performed a song entitled ‘One Piece at a Time’ regarding a GM employee who had smuggled enough assorted parts out of a Cadillac plant to build his own car.

Having fun with the song, Cash commissioned a bizarre car to be built, and here’s the rest of the story.

Never one to miss an opportunity, Dizzy convinced Cash to let him display the car at the Motion show, in Toronto. According to Rockwell – Dizzy’s righthand man – the Toronto appearance was the first time the car had ever left Nashville, TN.

Dizzy hired Zardo to drive south to pick up the car. Apparently, the car had been sitting outside, in front of the Johnny Cash Museum, and needed some work.

As part of convincing Cash to go along with the deal, Dizzy promised to pick up the car, drive it to Toronto, do a restoration on it, show it at Motion, and return it back to Nashville. Bill Zardo drove it back south, too. This all happened because of a chance meeting on a Caribbean Island.

Looking back now, it was a legend towing a car – owned by another legend – thanks to a deal set up by a third legend! It just doesn’t get any better.

I had the honour of conducting The Big Z’s funeral service, in front of a packed room filled with family and friends. In his coffin was placed beer from a case dropped off during a visit to the family’s home by Junior Hanley. And as they took Bill from the room, when the service was over, the assembled crowd waved checkered flags at him, one last time. IT

By Erik Tomas