Maritime Motorsport Hall Of Fame

April 25th, 1936 was the day Ernie McLean entered the world in Chatham, NB. He was raised by a great uncle, in Barnaby, about 25 miles away from Chatham where he achieved grade eight. Education was not available beyond this for many at this time, including Ernie, so he went to work, eventually moving to Ontario in his late teens seeking to better himself. He worked hard in factories and gas stations, and after marrying his wife Winona in 1954, finally achieving his mechanic's lisence in 1957. Ernie McLean has been involved in racing since 1957 when he began attending races at Pinecrest Raceway. There he met Jim Hallihan, (a legendary racer and an integral part of Scotia Speedworld today) who sold him a car. Ernie raced at all the tracks in the Ontario region including Flamboro, Sutton, Nilestown and the CNE. " The CNE was the last track I raced on, with a car I built myself."Ernie smiled, obviously thinking back to those early days. A desire to return home to New Brunswick led him to become employed with Drury's Transport and buy an old farm house near Riverglade on the site of the present Riverglade Speedway. There was no stock car racing at that time so Ernie went about drumming up interest with meetings, posters and talk. He also started to build a quarter mile track out "behind the barn". Eventually Ernie was spending so much time working on the track that he had to give up his "day job". Finally, on August 22, 1964, the first race at the new facility was run and it was an "immediate hit". The track was dirt at this time and posts and cables served as fencing.