Drag racing enthusiasts will have to wait another week to rev their engines at the newly-named and recently-repaved Rolling Mix Concrete Raceway.
There was hope the quarter-mile track at Northland Dodge Motorsports Park would be ready for street legal racing this Saturday but the start of the season won't be until next Saturday, July 20, once the 720-foot stretch of new concrete has been treated with a layer of thin rubber and traction compound.
"It takes three weeks for the concrete to cure and with the size of that pour that means the soonest we can get cars on it is the 20th," said track owner Brent Marshall. "We have to bring in special equipment to spread the rubber. The jet cars and rails wouldn't be able to get traction if we didn't put the rubber down on the track."
Starting next week and continuing each Saturday afternoon/evening through September, the track will host the FasGas/Lordco/Quaker State Street Legal series, offering drivers the chance to bracket race in their own street vehicles, provided they first pass a safety check.
In bracket racing, each driver's qualifying times are used to determine how much of a head start they receive when racing a faster vehicle. That faster car has to wait the difference at the start before the green light will appear in that lane. Whichever car crosses the finish first wins the race. If a car covers the quarter-mile distance in a quicker time than the qualifying time, that driver is disqualified, having broken out of the assigned bracket.
Rolling Mix Concrete Raceway is sanctioned by the National Hot Rod Association. The first big drag racing event of the summer will be July 26-28 when the Rolling Mix National Dragster Challenge comes to the Prince George, the first of three NHRA events this summer. As part of that weekend lineup, drivers in the Rocky Mountain Nostalgia Funny Car series will duel in their final points meet of the season.
Track volunteers willing to help run drag race events the track, located nine kilometres northwest of the city off Chief Lake Road, should contact Landon at 260-562-5254.
