Cold Lake, ALberta
A new place to play
Cold Lake’s new motocross facility will benefit local riders and the community
After four years of planning, debating and building, the Buster Ingram Memorial Raceway has opened up and is surprising even its strongest supporters with its success.
High In The Sky: The Cold Lake Motocross Association has some finishing touches to do on the new facility but they plan to start hosting events next summer. —photo by Torie Peterson
The track, located in Cold Lake, Alberta, had more than $10,000 in memberships sold by the time the grand opening rolled around on June 21—and that number has steadily risen since then. Year-long memberships ($100 for an individual, $180 for a family) have even been sold to individuals as far away as Grande Prairie and Red Deer.
The 2.1-kilometre track is built on sandy clay-based natural terrain with the longest jump reaching 130 feet. It’s a pro national-style track featuring tabletops, step-ups, roller sections and doubles. It also has a mini track for small-wheel bikes.
“It’s a track that everyone can use,” said Jason Peterson, vice-president of the Cold Lake Motocross Association (CLMA).
The idea of a track in or around Cold Lake was born four years ago when local riders met at a race. They hailed from the Cold Lake area and were dismayed that the closest track was 90 minutes away. They knew there was a decent amount of riders from the area that would use a track on a regular basis and knew it would draw riders from other parts of the province.
The men formed the CLMA and went to City Council with the idea. The proposal received immediate support and council even offered an unused parcel of land for them to lease. The city also put forward funding to help the group get going.
The land happened to be in the perfect location—in the centre of the city and surrounded by trees. It also had the perfect design in terms of elevation changes and hill location. The only negative was that it was covered in trees and due to the season changes, the tree removal took up a large portion of time.
Once the land had been cleared and a band of trees had been planted to provide a noise barrier, the CLMA started to plan the track design. They knew that they wanted a well-made racing track that could be used for competitions as soon as the track was created. The CLMA researched the best racing tracks in the area and settled on hiring Ralph “Chick” Schumilas from Trax by Chick to design it.
Schumilas has been building tracks for more than 10 years and designs the tracks used in nationals.
“It’s racing-course ready,” said Schumilas. “I designed like I would design a course for nationals.”
Schumilas said he winged it in terms of planning and drew no blueprints up at all.
“They showed me where they wanted it to start and I just went from there. I planned it as I went and worked with the obstacles.”
The finished product has impressed Cold Lake Mayor Craig Copeland.
“It was better than I thought it would be,” said Copeland. “I am very impressed with the finished product.”
Copeland was also pleased with what the track can offer the community for a relatively low cost.
“When you look at the number of people it will bring in with races and the cost, it’s amazing,” he said. “It costs $12 million to build a new a new hockey arena and a $500,000 track could potentially bring in similar numbers.”
According to Peterson, the track will be hosting events as soon as next summer.
“Our long-term goal is to host nationals,” said Peterson. “But right now, we’re aiming for provincials. We’ll also have other races next summer.”
The track will also have weekly races for local riders to compete in during the summer months. Peterson noted that while the plan is to have events next year, there is still work to be done.
“We need to install a watering system, which is the first priority,” said Peterson, “and we need to get benches, the starting gate installed and we need to complete the road going out to the track.”
Peterson doesn’t think that the remaining work will carry over to next season due to the fact the community has been overwhelmingly supportive. Businesses and individuals have pitched in time and money since the building started and support hasn’t dissipated.
“We even had one guy buy a membership just because he was glad that the bikes and quads won’t be racing around his house any more—he doesn’t even ride,” said Peterson.
For more information on the track, contact CLMA president Dan Cookson at (780) 207-7361. Day passes and memberships are available at Cash Central in Cold Lake.
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