The Playground of Power is getting a facelift and that means smooth sailing ahead for stock car racers.
The three-eighths mile oval track is scheduled to be repaved with a new layer of asphalt to hide all the cracks, potholes and frost heaves that came with 37 years of high-speed racing and hit-to-pass mayhem at the home of the Prince George Auto Racing Association.
The repaving project has been in the works for decades, and each year the club socked away its proceeds from gate admissions and driver fees to save the money it will take to pave the track, a project that involves all local contractors and material that will cost more than $200,000.
The Aitchison Road facility opened May 19, 1985 and has served the stock car racing community ever since. PGARA was formed in 1952 and until that year the club operated at a track located at Ferry Avenue and Highway 16 West, the current site of Real Canadian Superstore.
“It’s probably 20 years we’ve been talking about it,” said former PGARA president Chris Arronge, who held the top post in the club executive from 2008-2017.
Sometime over the next three weeks, paving crews will descend upon the track located just north of Prince George Airport to finish off what racers and fans have been waiting years to see accomplished.
“It’s been our stated goal for quite a long time and we haven’t made any secret of that,” said PGARA secretary Guy Lefebre. “Over the winter we’ve managed to get some financing and some sponsorship and we’ve had enough attendance in the last few years that we’re finally to the point where they would look at us seriously.
“My understanding is it it’s going to happen in the next week or two and it’ll be ready for our first race day.”
That would be the Turgeon Memorial, June 11-12, which will include all the PGARA race classes – hornets, minis, pro-minis, street stocks - and, on Saturday, Jun 11, the WESCAR traveling series.
Eight events are on the PGARA schedule for 2022, including the PGARA Invitational, Aug. 13-14; big rigs, Aug. 20, and hit-to-pass, Sept. 3-4. Another hit-to-pass event set for May 7 was cancelled because of delays in track preparation and too many drivers who weren’t ready with their cars.
Before the paving equipment could be lined up, the club first had to fix the wall between turns 3 and 4. When crews were inspecting the track to address drainage issues, it was discovered the end wall had snapped off the pins that held it in place. Years of cars crashing into it during races did the damage.
“If you walk the track between 3 and 4 you can see the hump where the pavement was starting to fold and buckle,” said Lefebre, who said the concrete wall was repoured last week.
The track has developed hump in the backstretch which drivers are well-aware that is especially hazardous to the faster-class drivers and Lefebre, a hit-to-pass driver, is glad he will no longer have to worry about it.
“The track has had a reputation of being really rough and it we think it might have deterred other shows, but now that we have (new pavement) we can promote it,” said Lefebre. “I’ve heard of retired racers wanting to come back at least to try the new pavement and guys wanting to come back to the club because we’ll have pavement that will withstand a decent set-up on the cars.
“When I raced, the guys taught me when I started to wait until the bump in the back straight before you let off the gas to get set up for the turn.”
He said with a new surface, track officials will try to be more vigilant forcing drivers with flat tires to get off the pavement and duck into the pits to avoid damaging the new track.
Lefebre is also well aware of problems with the dimly-lit track and the club executive is working with local sponsors to help make those improvements happen.
“The lighting stinks,” said Lefebre. “I think at the very least we’ll have new traffic lights in the corners, so that will help for the drivers.”
PGARA was shut down entirely by the pandemic during the 2020 season and opened last year for a condensed July-September season that allowed the full schedule to be completed.
