Clearwater Speedway is racing into a new season thanks to sponsors and volunteers.
The green flag will drop on May 6 and 7 at noon at the Clearwater Speedway, welcoming racing enthusiasts from surrounding areas in B.C. and as far away as Alberta.
When fans arrive at the newly resurfaced track in Clearwater, just off Camp 2 Road near the old air strip, they will be greeted with updated grandstand seating and freshly painted facilities. All the improvements are the result of many hours of hard work by volunteers and often accomplished with the help of donated heavy equipment, materials and labour from local contractors, members, and businesses.
The Clearwater Speedway closed the original track in 2009 due to expensive operating costs and it was not reopened until 2021 thanks to a creative partnership between the Merritt Stock Car Association and local Clearwater area racers who formed the current Clearwater Speedway Association. Together, both associations approached the property owner of the former track in Clearwater about the possibility of bringing racing back to the North Thompson.
The owner of the property, Brian Fehr, was receptive to their plans to reopen as he himself had visited the Clearwater track as a youth. His only request was that the association take full responsibility for the upgrades to the property that had become quite overgrown.
Clearwater Speedway President Dale Calder said she was introduced to racing at an early age when her own parents were involved with racing in the B.C. Interior. In a recent interview with Black Press, she shared her own love of the sport, “My parents opened a track with other volunteers near Lillooet 45 years ago and got me started in racing when I was 13 years old and here I am 45 years later still heavily involved and a racer myself. It’s kept me clean and sober, kept me out of trouble growing up because I didn’t have time as a teen to go out and party, I had to work on my race car if I wanted to race. My whole family is invested in the Clearwater Speedway. We love it.”
Calder explains that the advantage of inviting young people into the sport is to give them something positive to do that is drug and alcohol free. Kids can begin racing as early as 14 with their parents’ permission.
“We welcome out-of-towners to come to our track in Clearwater if they are legal to race on their home tracks, then they qualify to race here with us. We fit them into whatever class suits their abilities and skill level. We have the late models, the streets and the four cylinders. If they bring a mini stock, which is another class all together we run them with the streets because they are very competitive with each other, so we make sure they fit in somewhere. We welcome everybody to the track,” says Calder.
“The Clearwater Speedway also brings in racers from Alberta, the Lower Mainland, Vancouver Island – it’s just a real racing family!”
The association doesn’t permit alcohol in the stands or in the pits, which they feel makes it a true family affair and enjoyable for all ages. Many family teams are involved from the younger teens to parents and grandparents.
One of the younger female street stock class drivers, Madyson Clark, races alongside her father Rusty and her brothers. She’s also taken on the role of public relations for the association.
Once the raceway began publishing about the newly upgraded track on social media, the interest grew steadily with volunteers wanting to support the association as they saw the value of having a family orientated, seasonal dirt track in North Thompson.
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With the revenue from the past two seasons and through a variety of fundraising initiatives, the speedway was able to facilitate the transport of the clay. Father and son members, Brad and Thomas Cameron created a fundraiser for the costs of the fuel for trucking the clay to the track for resurfacing the rough under layer. They decided to recycle and rebuild an old four-cylinder car to raffle off to anyone that had an interest in getting into the sport. Only one hundred tickets were sold at $100 each, which made enough money to cover fuel for the project.
Several volunteers brought out their own trucks and heavy equipment to help with the clay placement and grading. Trucking companies such as Intense Ventures Inc. owned by local operators Tim and Rick Buis along with dump trucks from Merritt Speedway members, Colin Reimer, Kory Reimer, and Jake Mills put their own time and effort into transporting clay all the way from Merritt to Clearwater’s track. Local contractor, Doug Borrow also donated the use of his grader for the maintenance and placement of the clay, just in time for the speedway’s opening race weekend of the 2023 season, on May 6 and 7.
Once the resurfacing was completed members pitched in to finish the construction of the brand new wall in turns one and two. SS Brushing, owned by Brad Warner along with Blue Steel Logging, owned by the father and son team of Jock and Ryan Sorenson also worked hard to be sure the wall was completed on time.
Multiple volunteers and members worked hard on the rest of the venue to be sure everything was ready for opening day.
Due to the involvement of multiple track sponsors such as Fleetwest Enterprises, Borrow Enterprises, Kal Tire, SS Brushing, Clearwater Pharmasave, R. Clark Contracting, Blue Steel Logging, Jock Sorenson, Fields, and the Old Caboose Restaurant and Pub and so many additional volunteers, this year’s racing season promises to be a great success.
