The much anticipated christening of the new and improved Rolling Mix Concrete drag strip happens today at 5 p.m. when street legal bracket racing returns for the season to Northland Dodge Motorsports Park.
The FasGas/Lordco/Quaker State Street Legal series will be ongoing on Saturday nights throughout the summer.
Improvements are now in place at the city's drag racing facility, including 720 feet of new concrete pavement on the track, an upgraded timing system, wider staging lanes that lead down to the Danny G. Memorial Start Line, new washroom facilities and a sani-dump for overnight campers.
There's even a fish pond nearby stocked with rainbow trout for kids to try their luck at catching supper.
"Altogether we've probably spent $600,000 or $700,000 out here in the last six months," said Northland Dodge general manager Landon LeDuke, about the renovation project co-sponsored by Northland, Rolling Mix Concrete and IDL Projects.
Racers will be getting a better grip on the track today, thanks to some help from a neigbouring drag race facility. Northern Lights Raceway in Fort St. John lent the Prince George track its tire drag, an implement pulled by a tractor that turns four wide rubber tires in the opposite direction of the tractor's motion. The skidding action of the tires leaves a strip of rubber that gets covered with a sticky compound applied by track workers. That thin layer of rubber is key to racers getting traction.
The park, located nine kilometres northwest of the city off Chief Lake Road, will also be the site of a motocross track, BMX racing, radio-control model car racing, snowmobile racing, mud bog events, and dirt track motorcycle racing.
Today from 10 a.m. - 2 p.m., a learn-to-fish for kids event is planned, sponsored by Anglers Atlas, UNBC and B.C. Fish, Wildlife and Habitat Management.
"It's well-stocked for the size of the lake so there's a pretty good you'll catch something,' said LeDuke. "We have a small dock and the shoreline drops off quite steeply so you can cast right off the beach. We'll be barbecuing the fish for the kids out there."
