Immortalized
Raceway Park owner inducted into national hall of fame
Kevin Power, owner of Raceway Park in Oyster Bed Bridge, was one of 22 people inducted into the Canadian Drag
Racing Hall of
Fame at its recent awards gala in Laval, Que.
Raceway Park, which is one of the longest-running drag tracks in Canada, has had events with as many as 230 competitors and has hosted celebrity racers such as Shirley Muldowney, Danny O’Day, Aggie Hendricks and Barry Paton.
Power got his start when he graduated from Fanshawe College in London, Ont., in automotive technology and opened an auto repair shop in 1973. He later developed and taught a post-secondary automotive technology program at Holland College in Charlottetown.
Power began drag racing in the early 1970s with a 1956 Ford sedan. In 1981, he bought the Raceway Park drag track with James Merrill Cronin and Doug Young, and after a couple of years Power and Merrill bought out Young.
In 1984, arsonists burnt the drag racing building. The two partners rebuilt and expanded to include a quarter-mile dirt stock car track. With those earnings, they upgraded the park to include paving the stock car track.
Merrill sold his interest to Power in 1987 and Power ran the park with a succession of several business partners, and in 2010 sold the stock car track.
In 2012, Power and his wife, Nadine, started their annual Pinks With A Twist event at Raceway Park to raise money for the Canadian Cancer Society’s research division and since have donated $50,000.
Power was also inducted into the Maritime Motorsports Hall of Fame this year.