Eric were they not building a similar complex in British Columbia, seem to remember Mikey talking about it. Anything automotive racing related is such a tough go especially with politicians involved.
It is old history but the Canadian National Exhibition grounds in Toronto had a famous race track. Third mile completely flat. Started up in the early 1950's and ran to the early sixties. Huge community involvement, it was big business the papers at the time had reporters covering the racing and back stories on drivers and sponsors. They ran "stock" cars that morphed into modifieds and eventually supermodifieds. NASCAR, USAC and some midget racing groups from the midwest. Toronto was the place to be for competition. Friday nights the place would be packed with 23,000 fans, yes 23,000 the big specials brought in even more. Richard Petty ran his first NASCAR race in Toronto. Canadian Lloyd Shaw, a sprint car racer, with a few road races tossed in qualified his Jaguar for that NASCAR event (he put the same car on the poll of a NASCAR race at the famed one mile circular Langhorne Speedway in New Jersey).
Then the politicians got involved and decided what Toronto really needed was a running track. As it turned out, this running track that could of been built anywhere drew crowds of absolutely no one. The race track did reopen years later ran a couple of years but the glory was interrupted and sadly gone. The only time this facility approached the crowd levels of the Speedway was when the Toronto Blue Jays played their first seasons in the open park.
I suspect this is not uncommon for speedway promoters and owners across the country. Tough business.
www.canadianracer.com
www.atlanticmotorsportpark.com
