Gaston Salvas helped shape the world of dirt racing through his role as an official for over 50 years. Salvas became involved in the sport in 1962, going on to write the first rulebook for dirt track racing in Quebec in 1969. He improved that rulebook and released a new version in 1974. Over the years, he’s served as head starter and race director at 47 tracks across Quebec, Ontario and the U.S.

Salvas held various roles at Super DIRT Week in Syracuse, NY from 1978 to 2010, including signaler, chief flagman, technical director and race director. He joined DIRTcar as Vice President of the North division from 1992 to 2004 and was the DIRTcar 358-Modified series director from 1993 to 2011. He remains active in an officiating role on occasion, serving as head starter for the Chevrolet Urban Challenge at the Grand Prix of Trois-Rivières, an event that sees dirt modifieds race on asphalt at the prestigious street course event.

Away from the track, Salvas served as a police officer with the Montreal Police Service from 1959 to 1986. Merging his two areas of expertise, he founded and served as president of the Formation Routière Professionnelle G.S. Inc. from 1986 to 2021. The driving school specializes in emergency driving instruction for police officers, paramedics and firefighters. He developed a counter-terrorism version of that training for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, offering instruction to drivers from over 90 countries.

Salvas was inducted into the DIRT Motorsports Hall of Fame in Weedsport, NY in 2017, in recognition of his outstanding contributions to motor racing. He was also inducted into the Mémorial de la Terre Battue du Quebec, a dirt track wall of fame at Autodrome Granby, in 2023.