It was a fare one Ottawa cabbie will never forget.
“I didn’t plan for it,” Blue Line Taxi driver Tony Chamoun says with a smile, “someone jumped in my cab, they were in a hurry, they were running, they were in a competition.”
Chamoun and his taxi were featured in CTV’s Amazing Race Canada Finale on Sunday, September 21, 2014.
The father of four, who has been driving a taxi for 20 years, picked up the eventual Amazing Race winners, Mickey Henry and Pete Schmalz.
Chamoun said he predicted the outcome as soon as the two best friends jumped in his car, “I knew they were going to win, I could feel it.”
The Amazing Race Canada Finale was filmed around the Nation’s Capital, racing through some of the most beautiful landmarks in Ottawa. The final three duos paddled down the Ottawa River, raced through the halls of Parliament and even went underground through Canada’s cold-war Diefenbunker in Carp.
Chamoun said he did the speed limit and still managed to get Mickey and Pete to the finish line a Rideau Hall, the home of the Governor General, first. The cab driver says he feels like a winner even if he didn’t see any of the team’s $250,000 prize, “they were talking to me about how much money they were going to win, which I didn’t see nothing of,” he joked, “they didn’t even call me about it.”
The hunt is now on for dynamic contestants for the next season of the Amazing Race Canada. To audition visit: www.CTV.ca/TheAmazingRaceCanada
Chamoun admits he still hasn’t seen the Amazing Race Canada Finale. He says he only gets to watch cartoons with his kids. A friend told the cabbie about his national television debut, “I’ve become a big star now,” he says with a laugh. The taxi driver says with his new celebrity status he should be the one getting someone to drive him around, “a limo, not a cab,” he jokes.
