By Ken MacIsaac, Maritime motorsports photographer and archivist. Donald Chisholm, from Antigonish, Nova Scotia, has an impressive racing resume. He is the defending champion and a multi-time winner on the Parts for trucks Pro Stock Tour and a winner on the NASCAR Pinty’s Series. This in-depth interview with Chisholm reveals details of his racing career, the influence his father (the late John Chisholm) had on his career, as well as behind-the-scenes anecdotes from his role as owner of Riverside International Speedway. This is an especially timely article with the IWK 250 weekend looming, starting this Thursday with the inaugural IWK 250 Tailgate Party with a concert by Signal Hill, Canada’s east coast acoustic party band. On Friday it’s the Highland Home Building Centre 100 and Maritime Legends Challenge, and then on Saturday it’s the IWK 250, this year celebrating 10 years being affiliated with the IWK Health Centre and Steve Lewis Auto Body. Advance reserved and general admission tickets are available until Thursday online at www.riversidespeedway.ca or by calling 902-863-2410. On Friday and Saturday, general admission tickets will be available at the gate. Many thanks to Ken for doing this story and to Donald Chisholm for taking time from his busy schedule to participate. KM – We all know about your father (the late John Chisholm) and his contributions to the sport, so it’s really not a surprise that you would try your hand at stock car racing. Can you tell me some of your earliest memories of how you got interested? DC – Dad stopped racing in ’77. Even though I was just an infant, I heard all of the stories growing up. We were at the track for most of the races over the years. We were always at Riverside, even after he sold the track to Eric Van Daalen. I guess that’s when I got hooked. KM – You started your racing in a pro stock. No street stock or sportsman? DC – No. In fact, my first race was a MASCAR race at Riverside. It was July of ’99, and I finished 14th. We decided that after I finished university, we’d head to Florida and enroll in a racing school. I did the late model portion. It was really more of a school than a driving experience. In fact, they’re still on the go. One of the guys in my class, Chris Fontaine, is still running some truck races now. Anyway, I finished the racing school in June, came home and bought our first car which was the Junior Hanley car that Scott Kelly last ran. We bought it from Junior Kelly; Scott had passed earlier that spring and Junior was selling off his equipment. KM – You ran that car for several years, didn’t you? DC – I did. Ran it for a long time. It was only a few years ago that we sold it to Tom Nicholls from P.E.I. That was the car that he had that bad wreck in practice at Scotia. But after we sold that car, we ran some Distance Chassis’ which we had some success with. They were similar to Stevie Henderson’s cars, the one that Shawn Turple runs. KM – You had that McColl chassis as well? DC – One of them. We won in Riverside a couple of times with it. Then we switched to the Port City cars. The McColl car ran very well at Riverside. We sold that car to Josh Collins. I believe that he took that car to Speedweeks at New Symrna. KM – Are you still running Port City chassis’? DC – We are. We had Port City cars years ago, which were similar to what Junior Hanley was building. We tried a few different chassis but eventually went back to Port City. We’ve been all Port City since. We have a good relationship with them. Any new ideas, they keep us up to speed on them. If we find anything that works well, we give it back to them. It’s been a good relationship. KM – I remember you running at Lakeland Speedway in Florida in 2001. DC – We actually went to Florida from 2000 to 2005. We ran the Hanley car in Lakeland that year. KM – I had no idea you went down that often? DC – I guess back then, the winters weren’t as busy. I didn’t have a wife and kids, was still pretty young. And the way dad and I looked at it, it was big jump at the time for me to jump right into pro stock. We could go down in February and run eight or nine races, which is almost a full season up here. So that experience was what we were after. It would have taken me years to get the equivalent seat time here. But we haven’t raced in the U.S. since 2005. I’d like to go back to Florida and run…someday. I think we could go back there and run very well. KM – In 2002, you ran a big PASS race in Thompson, Connecticut. DC – We had engine problems. But it was a beautiful fast race track. I loved it. Reminded me a lot of Lakeland actually. I’d like to go back there someday, too. KM – In 2005, you attempted the PASS 400 at Beech Ridge Speedway in Maine. DC – That was our first time to Beech Ridge. We had just got a new set of Penske shocks built. We were actually pretty quick in practice. But the car got worse as the day went on and we didn’t qualify. That December, we sent the shocks to Gary Crooks to be re-valved for somewhere else. He called me and said ‘did the car get airborne on you?’ I said ‘no’. He said ‘the shocks are beat up, the base valves are destroyed’. They were nine-inch shocks for a seven-inch car. The car was pretty good until the shocks beat themselves to death. But we were about four months before we figured out the problem. Anyway, that was that trip. KM – What about Oxford? DC – I would love to race there. We’ve been down to watch five or six times; it’s on my bucket list. It’s so difficult to find the time to run down south. Twelve weekends with the tour up here, then another with the NASCAR Pinty’s Series, that’s 13 weekends. We just don’t have the time. KM – Tell me about the NASCAR Pinty’s Series? Riverside has been on the schedule since 2007… DC – It’s a fun series with some great people involved. When we knew they were going to have a race at Riverside in ’07 so we looked at renting a car. It seemed to be pretty expensive to rent cars, so we found an older, complete car. It was cheaper to buy the car then to rent one, and we intended on running additional races with them. Ran a year or two with it, then sold it to Scott Steckley. He uses it as a show car. KM – So you bought another car to replace it? DC – We built a new McColl chassis. We ran that car for a couple of years. Wayne Smith ran that car the year he ran with the series at Riverside. John Flemming also rented that same car from us as well. John ended up buying that car from us. The car we currently have was built in 2009. KM – Getting back to Riverside, did your father ever tell you the origins of the track? DC – The story is he decided he was going to build a racetrack. I think he was 22 or 23 at the time. He needed some advice so he called NASCAR in Daytona and asked for Big Bill France. France returned his call and they chatted. France liked someone with the ambition to build a track, and he ended up giving him some advice. KM – Did your father tell you what advice France gave him? DC – Things like build it near an interchange, build it with a four-foot wall, right angles to the track. Dad wanted to build a ½ mile, but France told him no. Said it was too big, too expensive, too fast, more expensive crashes, too expensive for a smaller population. He suggested the 1/3 mile. KM – So did he have a smaller version of Bristol in mind? DC – Yes. The deal was, he and a surveyor went to Bristol and got permission from Big Bill to survey the track after the race. They set up the transit, did a bunch of surveying and took the data home. Obviously, Bristol is ½ mile, but it was originally 22-degree banking and asphalt. It has since been redone to 36. Riverside is probably 17 degrees banking. So Riverside is a scaled replica of the original Bristol configuration. KM – Your father eventually ended up selling the track to Eric Van Daalen. But after Eric passed away, your father bought it back. Tell me about that? DC – When Eric passed away, the tour (MASCAR) got permission from Eric’s wife to continue to race there. But the track had no caretaker anymore. It had fallen behind in repairs. Dad figured that probably no one else was going to do it, so after a great deal of discussion he bought it back and wanted to make it as good or better than when it was first built. He always told me that he hoped someone else would have bought it and spent the time and effort fixing it up, but it didn’t appear like that was going to happen. He was always very proud of Riverside and I think the rebuild in 2006 was his chance to give something special back to the racing community that would be there for years to come. KM – George Koszkulics is pretty important to your team. How did you guys get together? DC – George always had his own equipment. When I started racing, I knew of George but didn’t know him personally. I had certainly watched him compete many times. Dad had known him for years. George would’ve grown up watching dad race. But when we started, dad was sponsoring George a little bit. George came in one day looking for sponsorship and dad mentioned that I was racing now. So we went to practice at Riverside one night, and he came over and started chatting. He started looking at the tires, and said “all your tires are mounted backwards”…He gave us a hand changing them that night and helped us remount them. That was my first introduction to George. KM – Did he join your team then? DC – No. We raced against him for a few years. I was always looking for help and George was always looking for help and sponsorship. So we kind of got together. He would run our car a few times a year, and be my crew chief the rest of the year. Without George and all the other guys I just wouldn’t have the time to get the car ready. They’re invaluable. Especially George. KM – You’ve had some big names run your cars over the years, primarily in the IWK 250. I’m going to throw some names at you. The first one is Ricky Craven. DC – That was the first IWK race. We had both Craven and Regan Smith join us for that race. Through Joan Roué we got in touch with Craven, and through other contacts, we got in touch with Regan Smith. Ricky is a super guy – a real gentleman. He did a great job for us but unfortunately, he was caught up in an early wreck. Smith was relatively unknown at the time but we were told he was a great guy and would do a good job. I’m not sure if that wasn’t one of the last times Ricky was in a race car. Regan finished third behind the Rowe boys. We brought him back the next two years. KM – You still keep in touch with Regan? DC – We have. In January he texted ‘keep me in mind for the IWK 250 this year’. At the time he didn’t have a permanent ride. His schedule for the season was very much up in the air. Shortly after we chatted he got the Tommy Baldwin NASCAR Sprint Cup Series ride. If that hadn’t worked out for him, we would have loved to have him back. KM – Aric Almirola? DC – We got him through the management company that we got Regan with. One or two of the guys we dealt with in that company left and went on their own. We used them for Regan, Aric, David Reutimann, and Marcos Ambrose the first year he came. But the second time Marcus came we just dealt directly with the driver. Much easier. Also, at that point, there were enough guys down there to spread the word about us. They knew it was a great event and a great cause. If a driver needed to know about us they could talk to any of the guys who had been here. They knew it was good, safe, gear. So it was word of mouth spreading that helped us get Brad (Keselowski) and Joey (Logano). But back to Aric, he was a great guy too. A smooth driver. KM – David Reutimann? DC – He was great, a super guy with a good sense of humour. Fun to be around. Just wanted to come up and race. We haven’t kept in touch but I have run into him at different Cup races and we have chatted. KM – Marcus Ambrose? DC – We’ve lost touch a little since he moved back to Australia. I did some road course racing with him in South Carolina after one of the 250’s. Spent a few days at his place. Got into Petty Motorsports with him. Great personality, wide open with energy. One of those guys you can put in any crowd anywhere and he’ll do fine. KM – Joey Logano? DC – Joey did an awesome job for us. He was like 22 or 23 when he was here. He was just old enough to have a beer when he was here. He too is a great guy to be around. Very down to earth and he is always smiling. Did an excellent job at the IWK visit. He wasn’t a lot older at the time than many of the kids he spoke to in the hospital, so they seemed to really relate to him. KM – Brad Keselowski? DC – Brad was all business. On their first day of testing here they beat that thing to death. I think he and Gary Crooks worked half the night and the next morning getting it to where they wanted it. I finished second in the 250, and Brad got third that year. His pilot was his spotter. He flew him here. He had his own entourage. Brad is very smart guy, always thinking. He was certainly there to win. A little more serious, less joking around, although we did have a few laughs with him in the hauler during a rain delay. We keep in touch by text on occasion. He was the reigning champion at the time. Certainly, the highest profile guy we’ve had. Looking back on the drivers we have had come to race the IWK, they have all done a phenomenal job. They are very good at public speaking, and much of it seems to come naturally to them. I’m sure that part of the reason they have reached the top level of NASCAR and race on TV every Sunday is their personality and way they are with people, along with their talent behind the wheel. KM – That fall Gary Crooks told me that Brad wanted to come back? DC – He did, but two things happened. The (NASCAR Sprint Cup Series) schedule changed so it makes it impossible now for us to get current Sprint Cup drivers. Plus, Tony Stewart broke his leg about that time racing “for fun” and someone else got hurt also. So the car owners were clamping down. The owners are one issue, but a lot of drivers have personal insurance policies on themselves. Some were getting a hard time from their insurance people. They were telling them “your real job is on Sunday, no need for you to be risking getting hurt”. But for the most part, it is the schedule changing that has made it impossible for us to get Cup drivers. KM – Crooks built Brad’s car specifically for the IWK 250? DC – That made it easier for us. Not having to prepare another car. Brad had to work hard on Penske to allow him to come up. The year before he came, his crew chief got married, so he couldn’t make it. The year he came he had to sell it to Penske that it would be a brand new car with a carbon fibre seat, it had to be his own late model, and it had to have safety equipment equivalent to his Cup car. KM – Joey Logano also wanted to come back? DC – He did. I talked to Joey in January the year after Brad was up and asked “are you interested?” He said, “ Hell, yeah”. I told him I’d call with details. It wasn’t 24 hours later that he called me back and said, “I can’t get permission from Roger (Penske) to come.” So I went to Kurt Busch. He was very interested but that was the year he ran the Indy 500. He told me that Indy would take all his spare time and focus. We expected he would be a candidate for the following year, but then the schedule change happened. KM – And is that when you got Matt Crafton? DC – Kurt recommended Matt to us. Another great guy. Very down to earth. He grew up racing late models. He’s familiar with Port City cars. Also good friends with the Busch’s. When Kyle got hurt last year at Daytona that’s how he ended up in the 500, a good relationship with the Busch’s. Matt and his wife and little girl have been up two years now. We’ve gotten to be good friends. The last two years we’ve gone to Homestead and hooked up with them. Matt is super friendly and down to earth. A fun guy to hang out with and to talk racing stories with. KM – Jason Hathaway is a good friend of yours, and also driven for you? DC – We have become great friends and we keep in touch quite regularly. He ran our backup car at Riverside a few years ago. He was supposed to race our car again two years ago. It was the night it rained out (Friday) before the NASCAR race at Riverside. That was a rescheduled race from earlier in the season. Anyway, the Friday night pro stock race got rained out but Jason couldn’t stay until Sunday to run it. He had to fly back home. I knew JR Fitzpatrick was still in the area, so I asked him to run the car. He won the race. He’s another good guy. Wide open. KM – Kyle Busch has expressed interest in running the IWK 250 in the past. DC – He has. George and I went to Charlotte a few days early one year, on our way to the spring Bristol race. I always try to catch up with some guys who have been here to race and visit shops to check out the used race car parts places. We also try and find a new name to come up to race. I forget how we ended up at Kyle’s shop but we had talked to Bond Suss (shop manager at the time) a few times before and set up a meeting. We told some racing stories and explained to Kyle what we were all about and what the deal was. He was interested and I think he still is. That year, he had the Oxford 250 on his bucket list so couldn’t make our race. It just didn’t work out at that time. Maybe some day. KM – In 2014, you won the NASCAR Pinty’s Series race at Riverside. DC – That was an incredible day. We were fast in both practices and sat on the pole. The competition with Hathaway in the race was intense. We had passed each other a few times. I think we put everyone except two cars a lap down. It was just one of those nights. The car was pretty phenomenal. No bad luck, no poorly timed cautions. It was pretty big. You wonder if you’ll ever win at that level. I had just lost dad the month before. He would have been so excited that day. It was an overwhelming day – sort of a blur. KM –You had mechanical trouble in last year’s (NASCAR) race? DC – We didn’t qualify well to begin with but still had another good car. Steckly was the car to beat. We made our first pit stop, went to leave, and broke an axle. The car was equally as good as when we had no bad luck in 2014 and won. We had bad luck in 2015 and didn’t finish. KM – Last year you won the Parts For Trucks Pro Stock Tour championship. DC – It was a good solid year and the most consistent season we’ve had. We’ve won more races in a season before but were never that consistent. We had eight top fives and 11 top 10’s. PEI didn’t go the way we wanted, we hit the wall there. But we had the potential to run in the top 10 every race. I don’t know what we did differently. The car worked well and we didn’t do anything stupid. We broke an axle in practice at Petty. But even when we had bad luck we could recover from it. And it often wasn’t in the race. It took a good car, crew, smart driving, and quite a bit of good luck. KM – The last thing I want to mention is your chances of winning the IWK 250 this year. You’ve been the favorite to win it for several years. Do you think it will happen this year? DC – It’s one of the big ones on the list for me to win for a ton of different reasons. We’ve done everything but win it. Led the most laps, started up front, started in the back, dropped a valve, finished second with a dropped valve. We’ve never had good luck. We’ve been fast but never had the luck to go with it. Anyway, we’re going to have to keep wearing it out until we win it – hopefully this year. —————————- Photo Gallery
