@ 2014 by John Joseph Kelly
ISBN: 9781483523699
Table of Contents
Title Page
Publishing Information
Table of Contents
Picture Credits
Introduction
Dedication
Chapter 1: Growing Up Hayward
Chapter 2: Signing On With the Supertest Team 1957
Chapter 3: The 1958 Racing Season
Chapter 4: 1959 And A New Boat
Chapter 5: Take Two: The 1960 Harmsworth Defense At Picton
Chapter 6: A Third Harmsworth
Chapter 7: The Final Race-The 1961 Silver Cup
Chapter 8: Legacy
Photo Credits
Chapter 1
-Doris Hayward, the author & Frances Hayward 1996 (Author’s collection).
-The Hayward homestead (Author’s collection).
- Bob & Keith ride in the snow (Hayward Family collection).
- Bob & Keith on the lawn (Hayward Family collection).
- A wedding photo: Mrs. Hayward, Keith with his new bride Doris, Frances and Bob (Hayward Family collection).
- Keith & Bob stand with their boat, Pokey 2 (Hayward Family collection).
- Bob & Edie in the yard (Hayward Family collection).
Chapter 2
- Bob appears for the first time in a picture with the Supertest crew in 1957 (Jim Thompson collection).
- Miss Supertest II at Anacostia Naval Air Station in 1957 (Bill Braden collection).
- Bob, Art Eadie and Colonel Thompson discuss test results (Jim Thompson collection).
Chapter 3
- Bob is dressed casually for this test run. Note the plaid shirt and the gym shoes! (Jim Thompson collection).
- Bob has graduated to a white shirt for this photo. Note the length of the exhausts! (Jim Thompson collection).
- Bob in the cockpit of Miss Supertest II in Detroit in 1958 (Bill Braden collection).
- Bob & Jim Thompson pose with the St. Clair International Trophy in 1958 (Jim Thompson collection).
Chapter 4
- Bob Hayward helps Vic Leghorn hoist the Griffon engine into Miss Supertest III (Jim Thompson collection).
- Bob Hayward takes Miss Supertest III for a test run at Sarnia (Jim Thompson collection).
- Bob Hayward poses with the Detroit Memorial Trophy in 1959 (Jim Thompson collection).
- Miss Supertest III & Maverick are lowered into the Detroit River during the 1959 Harmsworth challenge (Jim Thompson collection).
- Bob Hayward takes Miss Supertest around the Detroit River course during the Harmsworth races in 1959 (Jim Thompson collection).
- Maverick leads Miss Supertest in front of the judges stand in the 1959 Harmsworth races (Jim Thompson collection).
- Bob Hayward gets the checkered flag to win the 1959 Harmsworth challenge (Jim Thompson collection).
- Bob Hayward poses with the Canadian flag and the Harmsworth Trophy after his win (Jim Thompson collection).
- Bob Hayward passes a broken down Maverick in the final race of the 1959
Harmsworth (Jim Thompson collection).
- Bob Hayward with crew chief Vic Leghorn after the race (Jim Thompson collection).
- Bob Hayward and Vic Leghorn ride on Miss Supertest III in the 1959 Grey Cup parade (Jim Thompson collection).
Chapter 5
-Bob Hayward and Vic Leghorn tow Miss Supertest III to Picton (Jim Thompson collection).
- Miss Supertest III being swung out into the Long Reach waters at Picton (Jim Thompson collection).
- Bob Hayward bests Bill Muncey’s Gale V in the first race of the 1960 Harmsworth challenge (Jim Thompson collection).
- Bob Hayward gives a victory wave to the judges as he takes the second race of the 1960 Harmsworth challenge (Jim Thompson collection).
- Jim Thompson, Bob Hayward and Colonel Thompson receive the Harmsworth Trophy from Picton Mayor Harvey McFarland (Jim Thompson collection).
Chapter 6
- Bob Hayward with his opponent Chuck Thompson at the 1961 Harmsworth race (Jim Thompson collection).
- Bob Hayward and Jim Thompson receive the Harmsworth for a third time in 1961 from the Lieutenant-Governor of Ontario, and Mayor McFarland (Jim Thompson collection).
Chapter 7
- Bob Hayward moves up on the outside as he approaches the first turn in the 1961 Silver Cup race (Author’s collection).
- The US Coast Guard tows Miss Supertest II to shore after the fatal crash (Author’s collection).
- Damage to the left sponson of Miss Supertest II after the fatal crash (Author’s collection).
Chapter 8
- Knox Presbyterian Church from where Bob Hayward was buried (Author’s collection).
- Bob Hayward Branch of the YM-YWCA in London, Ontario (Author’s collection).
- Commemorative plaque inside the YM-YWCA Branch (Author’s collection).
- The Hayward family burial plot in the North Embro cemetery (Author’s collection).
- Cairn on site of the Hayward farm at Cody’s Corner (Author’s collection).
- Bob’s white driver’s jacket hangs in the Hayward house (Author’s collection).
Introduction
The root of this story lies in several yellowed scrapbook sheets in my possession that date back to 11 September 1961. As a child, I was scrapbooking decades before it became a popular past-time. One of my topics was Bob Hayward and Miss Supertest. I had become familiar with the Miss Supertest story when she captured the Harmsworth Trophy on the Detroit River in 1959. There was great coverage in the Windsor Star for those three races, and I chronicled her victories in my scrapbook. Like with all young Canadian boys, Bob Hayward quickly became a hero. Then the bitter cruelty of life was brought home to me in those Monday papers, which stated that Bob had been killed the previous day, only a couple miles from where we lived, one block from the Detroit River. What was so crushing to an eleven year old was that one’s hero is not supposed to die in the prime of his life, at age 33.
So I always kept those sheets of scrapbook paper even though my other sport scrapbooks got thrown out as I grew up. It was like I could not bear it to break faith with Bob in death by throwing those clippings out. I became a high school Canadian history teacher; and for three and a half decades I would visit bookstores to enquire whether there were any books out on the Miss Supertest story, or a biography of Bob Hayward. But no books were ever forthcoming.
In the summer of 1996, I vacationed at Picton, Ontario; and went out and found the Long Reach, where the Harmsworth races had taken place. I stood on the abandoned Cole property when Mayor McFarland had erected the viewing stand for the dignitaries at the 1960 Harmsworth, and stared out at the water, letting my mind go back to those glory days. This really built up in me a desire to learn more about the Supertest story, and about Bob Hayward. That autumn, I called up Jim Thompson, who was actually listed in the phone book, and went to his house to interview him. Then I found the Hayward family, still in Embro; and went and interviewed Bob’s sister Frances, and his sister-in-law Doris. These interviews, along with full and complete access to Jim Thompson’s personal papers and photo collection provided the information for my first book: Roostertail: The Miss Supertest Story (2008). From this book came a second title: A Taste for Speed: The Biography of Will Braden: Canada’s Top Raceboat Driver 1915-1958 (2010). Then in time for the 50th anniversary of Miss Supertest’s third Harmsworth triumph, came The Miss Supertest Story in Photos (2011).
Now eighteen years later, I am back to where I started out, when this whole topic was percolating in my mind back in 1996 and earlier. I wanted to write the story of my childhood hero, Bob Hayward; and this is what we have tried to do between these two covers. I hope that I have done justice to Bob’s memory. Unfortunately, Bob never kept a diary or left behind letters, which would have facilitated understanding what he was thinking at key moments in his life. And a problem in waiting eighteen years to write the story is that so many of Bob’s contemporaries have passed on; while those who remain have memories that have dimmed with time.
A core group of people have stood by me as I have written these manuscripts since 1996. It has been these people who have provided me with the information, anecdotes and photographs that have allowed for the chronicling of this period in Canadian boating history. My thanks and appreciation go out to: Jim and Bev Thompson; Doris and the late Frances Hayward, Bob’s nephews Scott and Mark Hayward, and Mark’s son Cody, the last male Hayward in the direct line of descent. Then Bill Braden, Dave and Cathy Braden, John Braden, Norm Braden, Gwyn Braden and Mike Braden for all the information about their dad: the predecessor to Bob Hayward in the cockpit of Miss Supertest II. John Lyons has been a firm supporter since I met him in Picton in the late 1990’s. Don Gaudier and Mike Yates, both of Woodstock, have been big Miss Supertest fans from the outset. And finally, Hoby Hartwick, Brian Campbell and Ian Reid of Waterloo exposed me to the knowledge that Bob Hayward built and raced Canada’s first dragster. Thanks to, as well, Don Chenoweth, Bob’s cousin from Drumbo, Ontario, who was kind enough to sit down for an interview in 2011.
It has been a wonderful journey of two decades, especially made possible by my wife Maureen, who not only financed my publishing ventures, but put up with me being missing in action at the computer screen for hours on end; along with accompanying me on expeditions to Embro, Gravenhurst, Picton and other Miss Supertest locales. When I started my research back in 1996, Kate was 12 and Colin was 8. Both my children grew up watching Dad’s eyes glaze over at the mention of Miss Supertest; and I was mentally AWOL whenever the topic was brought up. Now that they are long since adults, I hope that they will forgive their father for pursuing his dream with such zealousness during their childhood.
John Joseph Kelly,
Halton Hills, Ontario, CANADA,
March 2014.
Dedication
This book is dedicated to my wife, Maureen Hastings, who has stood by me for eighteen years as I have written a series of books on the Miss Supertest racing team of the 1950’s, and the people involved with her success. Thanks, honey, for making my dream to write come true. We can now cross ‘authorship’ off of the Bucket List!
Chapter 1: Growing Up Hayward
It is said that the place to trace a family history is to find a family Bible in the house and thumb through it. This is true with Bob Hayward’s family as well. Hayward is a common English name, as evidenced by the number of Haywards found in www.ancestry.ca.
The first Haywards who pertain to our story are John and Mary Hayward. They had nine children, who were in order of descent:
1) Frederick Hayward (b. 24 December 1842)
2) Ambrose Hayward (b. 30 September 1844 & d. 21 April 1907)
3) Emily Hayward (b. 1 January 1847)
4) Martha Hayward (b. 19 July 1949)
5) John Arthur Hayward (b. 20 October 1851) *
6) Harriet Jane Hayward (b. 26 June 1854)
7) James Henry Hayward (b. 5 September 1856)
8) Philip William Hayward (b. 2 April 1859)
9) Alice Booth Hayward (b. 14 February 1862)
The fifth child, John Arthur Hayward, is important to our story, because he is Bob Hayward’s grandfather. He is listed in the 1901 census as of ‘English’ background and employed as a ‘farmer’. He was listed in McAlpine’s Dominion Business Directory of 1873-1874, as being a member of the Church of England, and, once again, as a farmer. The Hayward family lived in Eastwood, a small hamlet about one mile south of Highway 401, at Exit 238, on old Highway 2 at its junction with Oxford County Road 55. Family members are buried in the cemetery of St. John’s Anglican Church.
John Arthur Hayward married Jemina Gillean Gibson on 25 September 1888 in, of all places, Beamsville, Ontario. She had been born on 23 January 1864 at 60 Marischall Street in Peterhead, Aberdeenshire, Scotland. She was the fifth of six children born to William and Lucretia Gillean, both of Scotland. She emigrated to Canada in 1880.
John and Jemina had four children: three sons and one daughter. Gordon Hayward was the oldest, being born on 9 October 1889. Gordon served with the Canadian Expeditionary Force in World War I, being drafted under the Military Service Act of 1917. His Regimental Number was #3139361; and he was described as being age 28 at 5’5” tall and having brown eyes and auburn hair. On 10 July 1918, he was posted to the 1st Depot Battalion, where he remained till the end of hostilities. Arthur John Hayward was born on 9 November 1891, and was Bob’s father. The other two children were Earl Gibson Hayward (b. 18 April 1893), and Hanna Lucretia Hayward (b. 2 October 1895).
John Arthur Hayward, the patriarch of the family, passed away on 18 March 1916 at age 64. He died at East Oxford, Lot 7 Concession 1, and was buried at the churchyard in Eastwood. His cause of death was given as “cystitis” for the final three months, augmented by “uremia” in the last ten days of his life. His wife, Jemina Gibson outlived him until 12 January 1937. Her occupation was listed as “housekeeper”. She passed on at age 72 years, 11 months and 20 days, with cause of death being listed as “mental illness”. More specifically, the cause of death was uremia, with convulsions due to nephritis. She spent the last eight years of her life in the London Hospital.
Arthur John Hayward continued in the family tradition of farming. He was married on 9 June 1920 to Edith Pearl Meikle. She had been born on 9 November1899, and was the daughter of William Meikle, and Frances Mary Smith. The bride’s father had been born in Paisley, Scotland. Obviously, the family was of Scottish descent, and they were of Baptist religious affiliation. They had settled in Norfolk County around the community of Middleton. On their wedding day, he was age 28 and she was 20. Arthur was Anglican, while his wife was a staunch Baptist. The witnesses to the wedding were Mr. W.L. Meikle (RR #8, Woodstock) and Miss Anna L. Hayward (RR #6, Embro). They were married by the Baptist Minister in Woodstock, Reverend Joseph James, and it was noted that both the bride and the groom could read and write. They moved from Eastwood to the Embro property in the 1920’s, and they brought Mrs. Hayward with them to the new home.
The family property was purchased on 1 April 1921. The two brothers bought it off of Frederick E. Day for the sum of $2600. It was in the Township of West Zorra and was described as being ‘….composed of Northerly 25 acres of the SE Quarter of Lot #5 in the 5th Concession of Said Township’…. On 19 April 1949, Gordon Hayward sold his interest of the farm to his brother and his sister in law, in consideration of $4,000. It was described as a ’deed of land situate in the Township of West Zorra’ and goes on to describe it as ‘Part of Lot #5 in the 5th Concession of said Township, commencing at the NE corner of said lot, thence southerly along the Easterly limit of the said lot, 15 chains more or less to the said lot on the easterly limit thereof thence westerly parallel with the northerly limit of the said lot 33 chains, 33 ½ links to the center of the concession thence southerly along the center of the concession, 7 chains and 50 links thence westerly parallel with the northerly limit of the said lot to the Easterly edge of the North Oxford and West Zorra Grand Road. Thence northerly along the Easterly edge of the said gravel road to the Northerly limit of the said lot. Thence Easterly along the Northerly limit of the said lot to the place of beginning and two other lots….’ Four days later on 21 April, Arthur sold it to himself and his wife as joint tenants for the sum of $1. The farm was set on 11 acres; while another 150 acres were set across the road, but were scrubland.
The Haywards were a very progressive and forward thinking family. Both of the parents had graduated from high school. Mrs. Hayward did secretarial work in Detroit; while Mr. Hayward worked in a bank. Both parents were both great readers and very intelligent. A typical Saturday evening would see Mr. Hayward poring over the Saturday Evening Post; while Mrs. Hayward sat in her favorite place, next to the heating register, darning socks. Doris Hayward remembers that Mrs. Hayward was a ‘tremendous cook…who could make something out of nothing’, which accounted for the stocky build of the men in the family. Keith picked up his parents love of the written word; though Bob did not take to it as readily. Family suppers followed a similar routine. World affairs were a dinner time staple for discussion. Bob was the mathematical mind in the house. He was a genius at math and could do all the math he needed in his own head. The parents were always open to new ideas: being one of the first farms to have a hay baler and a combine; and later, on, a television set. They had hydro, as well as a water tank in the attic of their home. They owned a flush toilet inside rather than having an outhouse in the yard. They rigged up milking machines to milk the Guernsey cows rather than having to do the herd by hand. Both Arthur and his brother Gordon owned the family farm. They made money by gravelling the local roads. This working relationship would cease when Gordon moved west and became a jeweler. He would ultimately die of liver cancer, while out there.
Bob was quite precocious: one time, Uncle Gordon, who was a bachelor, lived with them, and had gone out and purchased a pair of top quality work shoes, and then left them laying on the floor of the kitchen till they were to be used. When he went to make use of them, he found that young Robert had cut the tongues out of the shoes with a jackknife, and had used them to make a pair of slingshots for Keith and himself…. Embro native John McKay recounted a personal story about Bob:
I vividly recall an incident when we were Grade 9 students at Embro Collegiate. I went home with Bob for supper! We had big plans! After the evening meal, we were going to ride our bikes to Woodstock, an eight mile jaunt and take in a picture show. Unfortunately one of the chain guard supports on my bike broke. In view of the fact that the bike was almost new, it was hard on my pride and my frugal Scottish upbringing to rip the guard off completely and throw it in the garbage. Bob came to the rescue. Like a flash, he removed the broken piece, measured it carefully and picked up a scrap piece of metal, sawed it to size, filed the edges, put it in the vice, hammered it into the desired shape, and drilled the necessary holes for the bolts. The finished product, as one might expect was far more superior than the original and to complete the evening we were in time for the movie. Somehow I knew that night as we peddled merrily along to our destination that I had a great friend….
Bob’s sister-in-law, Doris, the only remaining member of that generation, described his physical appearance as: ‘He had reddish chestnut hair, with brown eyes, and ruddy coloring. He had a widow’s peak at the front of his hairline. He had short arms, no neck and he was very hairy. He weighed about 160 lbs, and never gained weight. He looked like his mother’. Keith was fifteen months older than Bob, and they shared everything they got. Frances was seven years younger, so the boys spoiled her: she was like a small toy to them with the age difference. Frances was an animal lover in her own right. So the farm was filled with dogs, cats, cows and calves, all of whom could be her playmates. The three children were all musically inclined. Bob played both the saxophone and clarinet, the latter he bought off a wino at the train station for $20. He took lessons. Keith played the accordion, while Frances mastered the piano. So the family had its own band on site; they would often set up in the dining room of the house, and proceed to entertain their folks. There was a story of how Bob and three compatriots were off to Waterloo to compete in a music festival. On the way there, Bob discovered that he had forgotten his lyre, and he knew that he would be unable to have his music sheets open and visible. He stopped the car at the side of the road, ran over to the fence, twisted a piece of wire loose, and fashioned a substitute lyre out of it. At the festival, Bob and his colleagues went on to win the cup! Once again, necessity was the mother of invention for Bob; and he was not found lacking. Before Bob and Keith headed off to a musical engagement, for which they were always much in demand, Bob would say: ‘Now which Miss will I take out tonight? I’ll take Miss Saxophone’, or ‘Miss Clarinet’. When he went down to Florida to work, he was part of a band down there. One of his many skills was that he was musically inclined: he used to play in a local dance band at Woodstock Collegiate. He taught himself how to play the saxophone, and he learned by ear. His mother played the piano quite well. Every Sunday there was a jam session in the barn, and Bob progressed to play music at dances in small places like Ayr. He built stereo speakers and put them in Keith’s house. He used to tape the sounds of different musical instruments, and then would pretend to play the instrument, while this wonderful music would issue forth.
When Bob was a young boy, his Uncle Gordon had a dump truck, and Gordon looked out the window one day to see the truck weaving in and out of posts at the roadside: it was young Robert behind the wheel. Diagonally from the cairn at Cody’s Corner, stood the Cody School. It was run by the county, and was staffed by local people. It was part of the Thames Valley School Board. After leaving the local school, Keith went on to the high school in Embro for four years, with a fifth year at Woodstock Collegiate Institute (WCI). Bob quit after two years of secondary education, attending WCI as well. The difference between the two boys was that Keith’s record keeping skills were strong; while Bob did not write things down. Also Bob had a more cavalier attitude about school than his brother.
Each of the boys owned a BB gun: one was left at the house and the other out at the barn, and they would shoot away with them. In his last two years of elementary school and his two years of high school, which were during World War II, Bob was let out of school early to work on the harvest. He would drive around a big tractor and a plow on a farm to till the soil. Also when he was in school, he was painting bridges for the township: no one else locally owned an air compressor like the Haywards. Physically, he was well built: a stocky 5’6” to 5’7”. Bob was very opinionated: he would argue that ‘black is white’. He was also a daredevil: he used to walk around the silo edge at the top. He was not afraid of anything. Once he went into the hen house while the hens were roosting and got his nose broken for his efforts. Another time at Christmas, he tried to do a magic trick by pulling the tablecloth off the table, with the result that the meal was served on the floor. When Bob was 18-19, he went to Florida with his pal Hughie Ross, and he stayed there all winter, working in the orchards. In his last two years of high school, he got out early in the spring to help the war effort by cultivating the crops on different farms.
His cousin Gord Chenoweth referred to him as ‘always smiling…always happy… [he] had a good sense of humor….They were doing and experiencing so many things. They did a lot of living in their short time. They were adventurous and into everything. They were so far ahead of their time’. There were visits to the lake on Sundays in the summer. Frances always had her own horse.
His sister-in-law, Doris, had these words about the Hayward family: “These boys were lucky. They had good parents who were really interested in the world. At dinnertime, they would talk about what was doing in the world….The chickens were a back-up (money wise). They felt that their children should ‘do whatever [you] want’. Both parents were big readers, and Bob had read Ben-Hur at age 11. He had also written an essay for a contest that appeared in the newspaper. Bob looked like his mother. She was not a controlling personality, and was easy going. She was a strict Baptist and taught Sunday school. Her husband, and her two sons were non-drinkers, which was unique in itself, as Embro was known to be a ‘drinking community’. Both parents valued any opinions that their children might choose to share.
Bob was into model airplanes before radio control came into vogue. One time the plane disappeared into the distance. Then there was a phone call from someone who lived four miles distant, advising Bob to come and pick up his plane, which had crashed up against a post. It was obvious that his reputation had spread around West Zorra.
Perhaps one of the reasons that Bob and his brother lived lives to the fullest was the fact that Haywards had short life expectancies: a number of them died from cancer of the stomach. Their dad had had five or six surgical procedures. He had been contaminated by the chickens for whom he cared. He was also treated for ulcers. So perhaps a sense of fatalism afflicted the boys, seeing ill health so close at hand. Bob and Keith lost their father at an early age when he passed away on 18 May 1955, at age 63.
Doris would shop for Bob and purchase clothes on his behalf when shopping for Keith, because it was hard to get him to go out and do it. She noted: ‘He was never a clothes person…as long as he was covered that was enough. We were always trying to dress him up….’ But his own lack of interest in clothes was the opposite of his generosity with clothes. When he accompanied the Griffon engines back to Scotland in 1961 for their refurbishing, he came home with cashmere sweaters for the ladies in the family: he was always quite generous.
Mr. Hayward felt that his sons should have dreams and ambitions, and work hard to make them come true. At an early age, they wanted a boat, so he worked alongside them to build it. They built a rowboat or punt. Was this the boat they named ‘Frances’ after their little sister? By age 14, Bob had tinkered with enough engines that he knew enough to be able to race outboards along the Thames River Then they bought a runabout with a motor to go with it. Two to three years later, they graduated to a cabin cruiser, which they built in the basement of the family home. Then they had to tear out the back wall of the house to get the boat out. If they built the boat, their father had promised to put an engine in it. As well, he bought a huge bell for the boat. They sold their first boat (Pokey 1) to Uncle Gordon. This boat was Pokey 2.
