START YOUR ENGINES
Miners Memorial Speedway has been for sale for two years
Potential buyers found for Cape Breton Speedway.
The engines may soon be starting up again at the local speedway.
After two years on the market, Miners Memorial Speedway could soon have a new owner.
Bill Vasil, the current owner of the speedway on the SydneyGlace Bay Highway, believes he has two potential buyers.
“I have a couple people interested in it as we speak,” Vasil said, adding one of the interested parties is local and the other is from away.
“Hopefully (the sale) goes through. They aren’t planning on opening until next year by the sounds of things.”
Vasil said both potential buyers are interested in maintaining the property has a motorsport speedway which is good news.
“It was a shame to have it close,” he said. “That’s part of why I bought it in the first place to get it back up and running. It’s definitely a bonus if they are thinking of opening it again.”
The speedway was built by Bud Greer and opened in 1976 as Bud’s Speedway. Although there have been a few different owners, in 1990 Stan Dicks assumed ownership and ran it for 16 years. In 2006, Barry Cusack Jr. bought the speedway and ran it through to 2010.
The facility was closed until Vasil purchased it in January 2014 and ran it for three seasons.
He says he enjoyed running the business.
“That’s probably the best racing in the Maritimes as far as
I’m concerned and I’ve see a lot of it,” he said.
Vasil said he has always been a racing fan. Although he has lots of good memories at the Sydney raceway, the last season stands out.
“Three championships were crowned pretty much the last lap of the last race. It was tight, very close racing.”
Vasil, who is from Antigonish, said he put the speedway up for sale in 2016 because he is too busy to run a business in Cape Breton.
“I have a couple other businesses on the go in (Antigonish) and am very busy. I have to focus on what’s close.”
Vasil believes it’s possible to have a race season at the speedway this summer.
“If the right person took it over they could still have a race season,” he said. “It would be shorter but at least they’d have one.”
The motorsport race season usually starts in June.