Speedway waiting for Niagara Council to drop checkered flag

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It’s been a process stretching almost eight years, but the Canadian Motor Speedway in Fort Erie is on the cusp of a milestone that will bring major motor sports racing to the area in the near future.

The speedway wants to transform 820 acres of farmland next to the QEW into a 65,000 seat race track, along with research and development buildings for local colleges and universities. An overseas investor is fronting the entire cost of about $400-million.

Organizer Erik Tomas told CHCH News: “Up to this point there hasn’t been a track in this country large enough to attract the major touring series of the major stock car racing and open wheel sanctions in the business. When this track is done it will be big enough to attract that stuff.”

The Niagara Region planning and development committee has included the speedway in its Niagara Gateway economic zone and centre community improvement plan which gives the developers tax breaks for the next decade.

Fort Erie mayor Wayne Redekop says “the current staff very much understands the significance of the project to its economic prosperity program.” Councillor Sandy Annunziata agrees. “This is the first time that the region has ever got on board to this level of investment for the Canadian Motor Speedway.”

Tonight the entire council will vote on the including the race track in the incentive plan. But there are still some hurdles before the estimated completion date of 2017

The Canadian Motor Speedway wants to attract 65,000 race fans and that means they have to improve transportation to and from the facility. They’re looking to update the Bowen Rd bridge which was built in the early 1900s, and councillor Annunziata is hoping the province can help them out. “(The developers) came here to build a speedway, not to build overpasses for the MTO. I think that’s a responsibility that has to be borne by the province.”

A new bridge would come in handy for the hundreds of jobs expected to be spawned by the speedway. Says Redekop, “there’s a wide range of jobs not just with the racetrack, (but with) the associated aspect of the development, whether it’s industrial, whether it’s educational, recreational.”

Moreover, committee members are hoping that the racetrack will be the pace car to lead more business to Niagara. As Annunziata puts it, “we’re open for business.”