Racing club hopes to find a new home in Strathmore

Times Reporter

 

The Calgary Kart Racing Club (CKRC) made a well-received presentation to Town council on July 17 about the possibility of moving their facility into the town. John Kwong, president of the CKRC club, and secretary Nathan Bartley showed a PowerPoint presentation on who the CKRC is, what they do and why they would be good to have in the community. 

CKRC has been around since about the 50s, which is approximately when kart racing was first developed. 

“We started out on parking lots, getting permission to set up and race in empty parking lots prior to when Sunday shopping started. Later we got permanent facilities when they were available, one of those was Kart Gardens by the Calgary Airport,” said Kwong. 

The present facility is located just southwest of Sheppard (SP) road and 68 St. next to the Calgary Waste and Recycling Landfill. Kwong said the lease is coming to an end and the city wants to reclaim it for waste disposal. 

The CKRC has been actively seeking a new location to bring their track. They had worked with the City of Calgary for 13 years and hope to build another good relationship wherever they end up. 

“Traffic and noise concerns are first and foremost sometimes when you let a motorsports facility into the community. Ninety per cent of our facility users are Calgary residents,” said Kwong. 

“The noise level we abide by right now is the City of Calgary noise bylaw which is 96 decibels, we’re well within those limits.”

He said the club is able to stay within the noise restriction without having anything to try and cover the noise, such as berms. There would be about 60 vehicles coming through town to attend the events, which Kwong said would generally arrive at the track before 9 a.m. and leave around 4 or 5 p.m. in the afternoon. The CKRC is not a rental facility; it is by appointment only and is club run.

“It’s a summer time only kind of venue. We run 12 one-day events, test and tune access on Tuesday and Thursday evenings typically. Our other user groups also hold one-day events coming in at about nine weekend events and 20 weekday what we call test and tune events,” said Kwong.

In the past the CKRC has hosted charitable events, they have donated bottles collected on race day to the Boy Scouts, donated track time to the University of Calgary and more. 

The CKRC is looking for something like 15-20 acres on reasonably flat land. 

Some of the concerns they have are storm water management and decent access to main roads. The only utility they need is electricity and an area to  can put up porta potties. 

The CKRC has 150 members in their club. There are 400 in the Alberta mini road-racing club. The Motard club also uses the facilities and has 25 members. The Allen Berg racing schools, and fast track motorcycle safety school also use the track and are partnerships Kwong thinks will come with them to their new location.

Kwong said the CKRC only needs the land; they are prepared to incur all expenses to build their track. Kwong said the facility the town would get at no cost to the taxpayers, but with benefits to the community. Right now the big ticket is to get the land, commitment, get the asphalt down and go on from there. 

“We don’t want to be a burden on anybody, it’s just getting the land, that’s been our biggest obstacle so far,” said Kwong. 

Council was supportive of the presentation and are looking forward to the possibility of having the CKRC call Strathmore home. 

“I sure would like to be able to see you guys locate to Strathmore,” said Councillor John Rempel. 

“I’m excited, I say pursue that with administration and see what we can do,” said Mayor Steve Grajczyk. 

The CKRC will now have to go through administrative channels to begin the required process to bring their facility to town.