It's been idle for a couple of years now, but new owners hope new ideas will bring new fans to the 170 acre facility in Bonfield.
Called Northern Motorsports Neighbour Event Park, the only permanent drag strip in northeastern Ontario will have a "soft" opening today (Friday) according to co-owner Gary Small.
"It's called a 'test and tune' where guys bring their cars out and get them ready. We have to go over our timing system, train and co-ordinate new staff, so it'll be a trial and error kind of weekend. We're still working out the bugs."
A lot of the staff will be volunteers.
Small says he and his co-owner Karl Lewis have at least six events planned this summer.
"We're also getting into mud dragging,' explained Small.
In that event a 330 ft. by 20 ft. lane with one foot deep water is set up and racers start off a light and the first one to the end wins.
Small believes he can succeed where others failed because both he and Lewis are drag racers themselves.
"We've been at it for about 10 years and more. I started at King of the Hill at the airport when it was running. That gives us a lot of credibility because we're running one of the upper classes called semi-pro and it's pretty intense so we think we know what the racers want. We have one of the best tracks in Ontario to tell you the truth."
And there are plans to make it a year round event park, including snowmobile drag racing in the winter.
"Our philosophy is that anybody can bring anything in, your car or whatever, and you can run it down the track and have some fun."
There will also be cruise nights on Fridays.
"We're trying to get the kids out with their cars instead of bombing around town with the loud mufflers. It's going to be a minimal charge of $25."
Getting racers off city streets is a "giant" part of their plan.
"Most drag racers have the mindset of 'keep it off the street and bring it to the track.' You wanna run, you wanna beat your car up, you want to have a good time. We want to get the kids out and get them involved and get it off the street for the safety aspect."
Small and Lewis also have a plan to attract the curious, people who just want to take a quick look and enjoy themselves.
"We're going to shut down admission at 8 o'clock and we're going to have bands on Saturday night. We're going to open it up to the town and we want people to come out, no charge for admission. They can come in and watch an hour of racing for free. We're hoping they think 'That was cool, maybe we should come back tomorrow and pay the 15 bucks to get in. The bar will be open and the band will be playing so it's going to be pretty cool."
The track has permission to run 9-9 Friday and Saturday and 9-7 Sunday.
"We're pretty excited about it!"
