If a modern-day Horatio Alger – the famous writer who wrote about American rags to riches stories – were to come to Canada, his first story would be about ‘Fast Eddie’ Ed Hakonson. The businessman and racing enthusiast was inducted into the Canadian Motorsport Hall of Fame in 2019. You would be hard-pressed to find a Canadian racer or fan who hasn’t heard of Ed Hakonson or been touched by his participation in the racing and/or automotive fields.
Ed was born in Timmins, Ontario in 1949 and graduated from high school. He moved south and landed in Stouffville and got work delivering Datsuns to dealers in 1972. You read that right.
Datsun was making inroads in Canada, but they were still not up to speed on distribution. Hakonson and others would drive the new cars to the dealers and a co-worker would pick them up or they would need to catch a bus home. He also sold Datsuns for a while.
In 1974, Ed got married to his wife Hiedi and they’ve had four children: two boys and two girls. One of the boys is a home builder, and the other son is a member of the RCMP. His two daughters are deeply involved in the family business.
In March of 1983, Ed launched Choko with two employees… he and his wife. They originally designed and made high-end snowmobile suits and apparel for the rapidly developing leisure market.
The Fast Eddie brand was added a few years later. To demonstrate how far they’ve come, Fast Eddie now has fifty employees on both sides of the Canada-US, border with Ontario locations in the Stouffville/Uxbridge area as well as North Tonawanda in the US.
My favourite Fast Eddie story occurred in 1988, and it is legendary to say the least. Ed had been selling ‘unofficial’ NASCAR branded souvenir clothing and the brass in Daytona Beach caught wind of it. They were going to bring the big guns to Canada and shut things down.
Dale Earnhardt Sr., heard about their plans and got hold of Ed’s daughter Jamie. The two of them came up with a plan to calm the situation down, and Dale went to the ‘Ivory Tower’ on Volusia Ave.
The seven-time NASCAR Cup Series champion explained that NASCAR had a lot of fans in Canada but no official distributor for their branded products. A deal was struck and the rest is history, with Ed now selling official NASCAR branded products on both side of the border. Their extensive line of swag includes hats, T-shirts, sweatshirts and jackets.
Along the way, Ed started sponsoring race cars. The first was fellow CMHF inductee Peter Gibbons (Class of 2015), who raced in CASCAR, ACT, Busch North and at Sunset Speedway winning many races in all four disciplines.
In fact, just last fall I was speaking with Ed, and he told me he was in his car driving down to see Gibbons in Mooresville, North Carolina where Pete has lived for decades and setup shop.
Ed also got involved with fellow Canadian Motorsport Hall of Fame member Tony Novotny (Class of 2007) and his CASCAR sanctioning body. The list of drivers Hakonson has sponsored in CASCAR is long and includes Dan Shirtliff, Kelly Williams, Alex Nagy (CMHOF – 2020), Billy Rowse (who I also sponsored at Motion), Chris Fowler, DJ Kennington (CMHOF – 2017), Mark Swain, Stu Robinson, Jr., Derek Lynch and Jason Hathaway who married Ed’s daughter Jamie. He also sponsored Hathaway and Don Thompson (CMHOF – 2014) in NASCAR Canada Series action.
And fans of the NASCAR Canada Series know that when the tour was hurting during the pandemic – battling to survive racing without fans in the stands – Hakonson’s Fast Eddie / Team 3 Red team fielded a good portion of the cars that were on the track. Without those cars, who knows if the tour would have survived during that challenging time.
Heavily engaged as a team owner looking to have his cars win on the track, Ed Hakonson has always been a passionate supporter of Canada’s NASCAR series and Canadian motorsports in general. He puts his money where his heart is and has strong opinions about how to make things work for everyone involved.
In a business marriage that lasts to this day, Ed hired Tony Paton, who is now a partner in the business, over twenty years ago. Tony brought with him the legendary Paton Family Racing Team. Their father Barry (CMHOF – 2002) was a long time drag racer successfully competing in the tough Alcohol Funny Car class on both side of the border.
His two boys – Tony and Todd – took over running Alcohol Funny Cars at first then switched to not one, but two, NHRA Top Fuel Dragsters. Both dragsters, of course, sport Fast Eddie sponsorship as well as sponsorship from several other companies.
Their cars are regularly booked in to dragstrips on both sides of the border to be feature cars at big meets. Over the years, the boys have honed their craft with the cars becoming more and more consistent and running some BIG numbers. Todd still regularly drives the fueler with Tony being team manager. They have become the go to team for those aspiring top fuel racers, where many have obtained their top fuel license in the Paton Racing car and many have gone on to full time NHRA careers…Shawn Reed and Spencer Hyde to name a few.
Hakonson’s newest big venture has him very excited, although it doesn’t really have much to do with cars or racing. In 2023, he purchased a facility in a town called Elk Lake, near New Liskeard, in Northern Ontario. The 7,500 square foot lodge has six chalets, a restaurant, and onsite fuel for ATVs and snowmobilers.
Ed’s goal is to attract others in the racing community to come up for snowmobiling and cross-country skiing in the winter as well as swimming, fishing and hiking in the summer. He loves the area and feels others will share his love as well.
As for the future of Hakonson’s companies, they continue to flourish. Ed and his wife Hiedi are co-owners, daughter Jamie is President, and their other daughter Jessica is Vice President. Add in Tony Paton’s enthusiasm and talents and the business side of things looks well positioned to grow in the future.
As for the on-track program, Jason Hathaway looks after the racing end of the empire. He earned the 2020 NASCAR Canada Championship and in 2024 finished a strong sixth in final points in the very tough and competitive NASCAR Canada Series.
Next time you’re at a racetrack and see the Fast Eddie signs you’ll know a bit more about the rich history of Ed Hakonson and his amazing businesses and contributions to the Canadian Motorsports landscape.
