ABOUT
(hometown: Ottawa, Ontario) Arnie Malcolm was raised on a small farm in Madawaska Valley, miles away from any dragstrip. Still, that did not stop him; he and his brothers would use farm horse to pull an engineless Indian Motorcycle chassis to the top of the hill. They would then proceed to take turns riding it to the bottom, sparking an immediate interest in racing.
Arnie Malcolm’s first true introduction to drag racing arose from listening to the family radio at night, when the US channels were the clearest. He would wait for the Englishtown Raceway Park Commercials on WABC New York and Raceway Rat. By the time Arnie was 14, he managed to buy an Austin Healy, that he would use to make “illegal” runs on the road in front of his older brother’s service garage.
At 16 years old, Arnie moved to Ottawa. Shortly after, he purchased his first performance car, a 1969 Mach I Mustang, which he quickly replaced it with a four-speed 400 Lemans GT. He began to make many trips to Luskville Dragway, where he watched racers such as Larry Aslagsen, Rolly Doucette, George Petric, Fast Eddy Bryck – fuelling his desire to drag race.
Many years down the line, a 1977 Don Hardy Super Gas Vegan would be the car to influence Arnie to run races, instead of solely competing in them. After a crash at Luskville Dragway in 1980, Arnie took over the complete operations of the track, where he remains to this day. However, in 1995, Arnie began to venture to other venues to host drag races, including four years of renting Sanair to produce the GM Good Wrench Nationals.
Over the decades, Arnie rented many tracks, including Cayuga, St. Thomas, Shannonville, and I-Car. Arnie produced the first airport race in Earlton, Ontario, which lead to other airports, such as Kirkland Lake, North Bay, Elliott Lake, Manawacki, Wawa, and Chapleau, Ontario. This promotion of drag racing has gathered hundreds of new racers into the sport, and greatly increased Ontario’s drag racing community.
During the last four decades, while doing a small amount of racing for himself, he has also given rides to his son, his son’s best friend, as well as his grandson, Cole, making for 3 generations of Malcolm’s Drag Racing. Arnie Malcolm eats, sleeps, and breathes drag racing, and has dedicated much of his life to growing the sport in Ontario and Quebec.