Toronto, ON - October 3rd, 2011: From his first days as a teenager on the Exhibition Oval in Toronto, Harold Cole was known as a feisty, exciting rider-called the greatest living motorcycle racer in Canada in his heyday- and a self-made track expert who presided over the front rank of motorcycle stars. On Saturday, November 5th, Harold Cole will be honoured as an Historical Inductee at the Sixth Annual Canadian Motorcycle Hall of Fame Induction Banquet and Reunion at the Delta Meadowvale Resort and Conference Centre in Mississauga, Ontario.
Born in Toronto in 1895, Harold Cole became the owner of his first motorcycle-a 4hp Yale- on June 1, 1910, at age fifteen. After his first spin around the old Exhibition oval that same day, Cole and the track became inseparable.
Racing stole his heart at an early age, and Cole attempted to enter competitions at the dangerous quarter-mile track at Scarborough Beach and Exhibition Place during the summer and autumn of 1910. The Toronto Motorcycle Club advised him he was too young, however-so in the meantime, Cole took his Yale on a solo trip to Buffalo, NY.
The next summer Cole finally had the opportunity to shine in a three-mile race on the Waterloo quarter-mile dirt track on July 1, 1911. He won his heat and the final, with an average time of 1:20/mile. That same week, Cole won his first event on his home track at Exhibition and set a new record for Eastern Canada-twice in one day.
After those first heady days on the track, Cole went on to a distinguished career as a motorcycle racer, setting records for distance in both dirt track and motordrome races. He was Dominion Champion and took home the Commeford Cup three times before his death in Toronto in the mid 1950s.
Harold Cole, a pioneer of Canadian motorcycle racing, will be made a historical inductee into the Canadian Motorcycle Hall of Fame on November 5th.
To order tickets for the Sixth Annual Canadian Motorcycle Hall of Fame Induction Banquet & Reunion, please visit www.hofbanquet.eventbrite.com.
