The bikes are back on the track at Welland
Speedway racing ‘used to be our biggest night of the summer’
Welland County Speedway wants fans to remember a motorcycle racing class that has been forgotten on this side of the Atlantic.
Speedway, while still a draw in central and northern Europe — and to a lesser extent in Australia — isn’t as popular as it once was in North America.
“They used to be our biggest night of the summer. When the flat-track riders were racing on the half-mile in Leamington, there was nothing bigger on the calendar,” recalled Wes Pierce, a lifetime member of Welland Country Motorcycle Club, the owner/operator of the speedway. Nowadays? “I don’t think we’ve had them for four or five years, and I don’t know why. They’re inexpensive to race, and they’re not that expensive to buy,” he said of bikes that have no brakes or suspension and only have one gear.
Pierce couldn’t explain what happened to all the Speedway bikes that use to race regularly during the division’s heyday.
“I talked to one guy who had forgotten he left his in storage in St. Catharines,” he said.
Pierce, who was inducted into the Canadian Motorcycle Hall of Fame in 2013, is part of a concerted effort bringing the class back to Welland County Speedway, a quarter-mile dirt track on Netherby Road east of Highway 140 in Welland.
Initial returns from those efforts have been optimistic.
Pierce expects eight to 10 Speedway riders to participate in this Saturday night’s racing program. “It would be nice to have them back, because when they go, they really go,” he said.
Speedway motorcycles are powered by 500-cc engines that run on methanol fuel. They can accelerate to 100 km/h faster than a Formula 1 race car.
Heats and features in the youth, flat-track and ATV classes round out a program that starts at 5 p.m. with practice for all classes. Qualifiers begin at 6 p.m., with racing beginning at 7 p.m.
‘‘ It would be nice to have them back, because when they go, they really go.
Meanwhile, a Saturday, Aug. 10, show has been added to the schedule in an attempt to make up for four rainouts so far this season.
“All this wet weather has been the worst ever if you’re trying to run a dirt track,” Pierce said.
WES PIERCE Speedway owner/operator