Hard-wired is the way to go for NITRO Motorsports Park.
Just in time for this weekend's bracket meet, the city's drag racing facility has ditched its wireless timing system and has installed a new PortaTree system at Rolling Mix Concrete Raceway, which should eliminate a lot of the glitches that have plagued the track in the past.
"We've been working on this for over a month to directional drill underneath the track to put proper tubes in and all the wiring's been buried into a chase tube down the track," said NITRO club president Brian Barby. "It's a wired system. The wireless created a lot of issues for us."
The quarter-mile drag strip has just achieved International Hot Rod Association sanctioning, and that's good news for racing fans who want to see some of the fastest cars in Western Canada test their driving skills and reaction times. At least 75 entries are expected, with racing in six classes - box, no box, bike/sled, sportsman, junior dragster and teen championship classes.
Joining the IHRA brings Prince George in line with IHRA tracks in Fort St. John and Edmonton and will entice racers to bring their hot rods to the city. Barby is expecting at least 75 entries for the bracket meet this weekend. Drivers from Terrace, Houston, Fort St. John, Dawswon Creek, Williams Lake, Quesnel, Chetwynd and Mackenzie will converge at NITRO Motorsports Park, located about nine kilometres west of the city limits off Chief Lake Road.
"Our location is great and we're a multi-use facility, our bathrooms are top-notch, and our timing system is brand-new, and we're doing upgrades all the time," said Barby, who races a rear-engine dragster.
"We not getting much support out of the south. Ashcroft is now closed. (The owners) decided they weren't gong to spend any money on the track and I heard a rumour the were digging it up. Mission is an NHRA-santioned track but we don't get a lot of draw to the south so it just made sense (to go with the NHRA), our biggest contingency of support comes from the north and the west."
Barby has heard there will be a couple of pro modified entries on the track at the bracket meet this weekend, provided the weather forecast for warm dry conditions the next couple days is not wrong. Brody Belsham of Prince George will be bringing his blown dragster and he'll have company with Rusty Stevenson of Fort St. John also expected to race his supercharged rail. Darin Meroniuk will bring his pro modified Mustang for Foji Dhansaw to race.
NITRO is an acronym for Northern Interior Timed Racing Organization, which began operating the track last year. In April, former owner Brent Marshall finalized a deal to sell the 138-acre site, which includes the drag strip, mudbog pit, motocross track, stocked fish pond and sandy beach, and it remains in the hands of a group of four investors. The not-for-profit club intends to use profits from its racing events to pay off the $600,000 purchase price and become the sole owner.
"It's changed a little bit from when Brent had it in the way we've structured it, it is run by racers now, for racers," said Barby. "It's the racers who actually know what the racers want. A racer wants good traction and consistency in the timing system and in the track surface. If you can't maintain consistency, you don't know what to dial in your car at and that's important to us as a club to offer all the racers who come to the facility."
Time trials start today an Sunday at 10 a.m. with racing at 12:30 p.m. each day. There is a $10 admission fee for spectators.
NITRO has several big events planned for this summer. On June 25th, truck drivers will get a chance to settle bragging rights in the Smoke 'n' Mirrors Big Rig Drag Race, followed by the third of three bracket race weekends, July 9-10.
On July 16-17, it's the return of the Vintage Iron Drags, for cars 1986-and-older. The Big Bucks Shootout, Aug. 6-7, offers guaranteed cash payouts for the winners in each respective class.
The club also hosts Friday Night Street Legal racing each Friday from 6-9 p.m. throughout the summer (except long weekends) through Sept. 16. The first street legal race events if the season happened on May 6, which Barby said was the earliest the track has ever opened.
The cost to race in club events for the season for members is $125, while associate members from out of town can race for $80 per season.
