Greetings from Lethbridge, Alberta, Canada
From the travels and adventures of the “World’s #1 Trackchaser”
Bridge County Raceway – Track #287
First Alberta province track visit – 1996. I didn’t begin writing my famous Trackchaser Reports until about track #430. With the Bridge County Raceway being track #287 (more than 1,500 tracks ago as this is written!) my memory is a bit dark on this one. I do know the NSA Sprints were sanctioning a show won by Mark Huson in the #3D sprinter. My notes remind me it was an excellent facility with a little dust. You might have remembrances about the Bridge County Speedway. If so, please feel free to share in the comments section below. If you have any photos from back in the day, send them to me at Ranlay@yahoo.com. I’ll try to include them here. 
My very first track to see in the Canadian province of Alberta was back on August 9, 1996. This visit was part of a seven-day nine-track trip that went from Oklahoma to Missouri to Montana, up to Alberta and then back to Montana before finishing up with a new track visit to Lemoore, California. The weekend before I had knocked off four major tracks in New York. Four days after the Alberta trip I was at the Peoria Speedway for a special Wednesday night event on my favorite quarter-mile dirt track in the world.
When I look back on trips like this I truly wonder how I did it. It also reminds me I’ve been making these bonsai trips for a very long time. I was living in California and, at the time, had no airline sponsorships. That’s a lot of geography to cover week in and week out.
Lethbridge, the fourth largest city in all of Alberta with a population of about 90,000. is the largest city in Southern Alberta. The latest information I can find tells me the owners closed the speedway in 2011 after being open for about 20 years.
It was interesting to see what concession items were being sold before the track shut down. They had items such as taco in a bag, Spitz and slush puppies. The healthiest menu choice? Bottled water.
4 comments
Sure miss Bridge County Raceway near Lethbridge, Alberta. It was an awesome facility, having everything needed by the racers as well as the fans. So many good cars and drivers, all at a time when many folks in this area made good money and could spend it on hobbies like this. It’s a real shame that small tracks keep closing. This is where it starts for so many up and coming champions.
Hi Murray, Thanks for your note. Sadly, a lot of good tracks have closed over the years. It’s very difficult to make running a short track a profitable business. Just about every aspect of short track racing from the promoter to the racer to the car owner to the fan is expensive. Additionally, there are not enough places to generate revenues to cover all of the expenses. I frequently say to people that I see short track racing going the way of the drive-in movie. As we think back on our experience at the “drive-in” we usually have fond memories. I hope short track racing doesn’t fall into the same category as a dying business but I fear it will. Take care, Randy
Hi, saw that you where at Castrol Raceway in Edmonton, Alberta on June 2,2007…did you write a review on the track at that time?
Thanks
Rolly Nash
Rolly,
Yes, I went to the Castrol Speedway for the first time back in 2007. It was my 1,200th lifetime track. I have not posted my review of the Castrol Raceway yet but will do so shortly since you mentioned it. I also went back to Castrol Speedway in 2014 to see racing on their road course track and to see Steve Kinser race with the World of Outlaws one more time before his retirement from full-time WOO racing.