What goes around in racing, comes around
1981 was a rough season for Cayuga Speedway, but the track bounced right back
Almost 40 years ago, Bob Slack rocked the local racing world.
After only two events at his Cayuga Speedway in 1981, he abruptly closed it down.
“I did a lot of thinking after Sunday’s show,” Slack was quoted in a contemporary account. “I’ve always worked and strived for good shows and supported racing for a long time, but the Canadian content (drivers and fans) shocked me, and I decided this was no sport for me to be involved in.”
Slack was referring to the running of the Western Star-Cummins 200, an ASA (American Speed Association) Late Model race held late in June 1981. It was the second of five major shows the big oval on Indian Line outside of Hagersville was to run that year.
Slack had purchased and paved the former dirt track and was ready for action in 1968. During those years, the trucking and lumber businessman had built Cayuga into the finest oval facility in Canada, with the biggest and most entertaining racing shows. But the stands were only about a third full for the ASA race.
“We had the Cadillac of shows, but we didn’t draw,” he said, adding he estimated about 2,000 fans showed up for the Sunday race. “I don’t know what it is, the economy or maybe the fans don’t appreciate what we do here. I’ve seen more Canadians at Grand National races at Michigan and Daytona.”
There were 32 starters for this race, but only a handful of Canadians. The race was won by future NASCAR star Mark Martin, and the field included a couple more drivers who would make their mark in NASCAR, Alan Kulwicki and Rusty Wallace. But no Jr. Hanley or Don Biederman for the locals to cheer on.
Other track owners/promoters were contacted for their views, and it was doom and gloom all around.
“I feel this is just the start of something worse for the future of the sport,” said Len Edwards of the former Checker Flag Speedway in Windsor. “I think before the year is over you’re going to see a few more tracks bite the dust.”
Just over the border in Mt. Clemens, Mi., track owner Cindy Winkler
concurred. “With Cayuga going, it doesn’t surprise me if anybody goes,” she said. “The way the economy has been the past two years, there’ll be others go under.”
One reason the ASA race at Cayuga had few Canadian drivers was a 100-lap event at Sauble Speedway. This CASCAR-sanctioned race
drew many teams that would have travelled to Cayuga if the two races had not been held on the same date. But CASCAR president Tony Novotny had mixed feelings.
“I don’t think it’s that bad,” he said about the Cayuga closure. “This gives
CASCAR a grip on what we’re after and that’s to eliminate the high-cost Flamboro and Cayuga-type cars. It’s a big blow and I don’t like to see it close, but we are Canadians up here and we have to look at what we’ve got here.” CASCAR would morph in the NASCAR Canada series in 2007, and continues as a nationwide oval track series.
For all his posturing, Slack would regroup and open Cayuga for business in 1982. And until the early 1990s, he would continue to present some of the biggest and best shows in racing. Major concerts were held at Cayuga as well.
After the Slack family sold the track, it went through a number of owners and was closed for several years until 2014 when it was purchased by two local businessmen, rebuilt, and reopened in 2017 as Jukasa Motor Speedway. Since then, the facility has returned to the bigleagues with a variety of weekend events for oval track fans, including the Canadian Short Track Nationals with a $500,000 purse.
Fortunately for race fans, Bob Slack had a change of heart back in 1982. Ironically, the Mount Clemens track closed in 1986 and Checker Flag closed in 1992.