Celebrating the Return of Sydney’s Speedway

Longtime motorsports fan and archivist Ken MacIsaac is just one Sydney, Nova Scotia resident rejoicing over the recent news that Cape Breton’s only stock car racing facility will reopen this year. The announcement was made last week by new owners Bill and Lynne Vasil (promoters of the Napa Sportsman Series), who purchased the track Barry Cusack Jr. Cusack was at the helm from 2006 until 2010, taking over from longtime owner-operator Stan Dicks.

Ken met with Bill Vasil at the track last weekend and has since been in contact with both Cusack and Dicks to get their throughts on the reopening. Ken’s interview, along with a history of the facility in words and pictures, follows…

Some good news for Cape Breton stock car racing fans recently with the announcement that Bill & Lynne Vasil from Antigonish bought Island Speedway near Sydney. The Vasil’s purchased the speedway from Barry Cusack Jr., and plan on running at least four events this summer.

The last time the track ran was in August of 2010. Although the facility needs several upgrades and repairs, the plan is to have their first race meet in July. The main attraction will be sportsman class racing, supplemented with street stocks and four cylinder classes.

Island Speedway was built by Wendell ‘Bud’ Greer in late spring of 1976. Greer had operated Bud’s Playland, which was a small amusement park type facility located immediately in front of the speedway. The playland featured children’s rides, and a go-cart track. Although there hadn’t been any stock car racing in the Sydney area since 1969, Greer felt the time was right to build a race track. However, it wasn’t a quick decision. Almost three years of planning went into the track. In July of ’76, Bud’s Speedway held it’s first race, and the facility quickly became an enormous success.

For opening night festivities, Greer brought in over a dozen modifieds (now called pro stocks) from Atlantic Speedway in Halifax, Riverside Speedway in Antigonish, and even River Glade Speedway near Moncton. Twin 50 lap races were held for modifieds, with Rollie MacDonald winning the first race and Frank Fraser winning the second.  About a dozen local street stocks ran the first night as well with Frank Bennett and Earl Drysdale taking heat wins, and eventual points champion Ron Boutiler winning the 35 lap feature.

During his tenure Greer also brought in attractions such as the Imperial Hell Drivers, Benny Koske The Human Bomb, the Lessard Bros., and Jose Canuc – a motorcycle daredevil. Late in 1977, Greer added a 4 cylinder class to the weekly card, and in 1978 a late model (pro stock) class was added as well. Maritime racing legend Frank Fraser was a semi regular competitor in ’78. For the first three years the crowds were strong, as were the car counts. Greer’s philosophy: “…I beleiveed that if you gave the fans a good show they would turn out – and they did…the first few years were so successful…”

Suprisingly, in 1979, the popularity was declining. The late model class was dropped and the 4 cylinder and street stock classes lost numbers. Greer chalked it up to a ‘cycle of interest’, hoping the public would regain interest in again in a few years. Greer had no plans to run the track in 1980, but former racer Dennis Nichol approached him wanting to rent the facility for weekly racing. He did, with marginal success.

In 1981, Greer had no plans to open, keeping to his ‘cycle’ theory. However, the track was rented for one race meet by former competitor Jerry Hill. Several sportsman runners from Onslow Speedway came to town to put on a show, with a decent crowd.

The track remained closed in 1982. But in 1983, the late Bob Planetta approached Greer with plans to reopen the track for weekly racing featuring a low buck street stock class, called the Dukes. Planetta was a former regular at Bud’s Speedway but in recent years he travelled to Onlsow Speedway near Truro competing in the sportsman class. It was there that he became friends with track director Ernie Ledwedge who was introducing the dukes class to the Onslow track. Planetta took Ernie’s advice, and was convinced the new low buck class would be successful in Sydney. He rented the track from Greer in 1983. And what a success it was. Huge car counts, and packed grandstands. In 1984, Greer decided that he’d like to take back the reigns from Planetta. The Dukes class remained a hit for several years,  and the track remained successful throughout the remainder of the 80s.

In 1988 Greer decided it was time to get out of the ownership business and sold the track to Russell Davis. Davis only ran the track for two years, changing the name o Sydney Speedway. He ran street stocks and four cylinders during those two years along with some memorable demolition derbies.

In late 89 Davis sold the track to local businessman Graham Gates who had plans of demolishing the facility in favour of it becoming a building site, but that never happeneed. Thankfully, in early 1990, local racer and businessman Stan Dicks bought the track from Gates and ran it consecutively for over 16 years hosting many a racing show including several visits by the popular MASCAR touring series.

It came as a shock to the racing community when, early in 2006, Stan Dicks announced he had sold the track to Barry Cusack, Jr. who kept it going until the summer of 2010. The facility has been silent since then but will roar back to life this summer, thanks to Bill and Lynne Vasil.

My interview with Bill Vasil follows…

KM – “I remember a year or two ago, you were looking at renting the track from Cusack to hold a Sportsman race?”

BV – “We just really wanted to bring the show here but we weren’t able to make a deal. Barry really wanted to sell the track and not really get into a leasing type deal. I didn’t want to buy it obviously, just wanted to bring the show down.”

KM – “Are you and Lynne the sole owners?”

BV – “Yes.”

KM – “I know it’s still early, but have you decided on what classes you’ll run, beside Sportsman?”

BV – “It is a bit early but once we have our driver’s meeting we’ll have a better idea of the numbers. Typically, I’d have to say…sportsman for sure, street stock, and a four cylinder class or trucks. I just don’t know yet. Realistically, after the meeting, we’ll know what we’ll run.”

KM – “I know a lot of local cars were either sold or scrapped, so some folks may have to build or buy cars. Not a big deal but it may or may not affect the numbers for the first meet.”

BV – “I was on a website the other night that showed a race track running different classes together. Let’s say there’s only six four cylinders and six street stocks and six trucks. The track ran them all at the same time – just like the GT classes do. So we could do that until the numbers came up.  The fans are still going to watch their guy – and there would still be a race within a race.”

KM – “What about staff?”

BV – “Obviously I have to bring my experienced staff from Riverside. The ones that we need to. We’re still undecided if we’re going to farm (rent) the canteen out or try and do it ourselves. If we do it ourselves we’ll use all locals. And if we farm (rent) it out it’ll be to a local outfit. As far as staff around the track there are certain positions that we will have to use locally. I don’t want to bring from there (Riverside) unless I have to. However the people from here will have to go to Riverside. This is all going to be under one blanket. My pit staff at Riverside will be my pit staff in Sydney.”

KM – “Is it too early to talk about the number of races?”

BV – “It’ll be four to six races. No weekly shows. This year we have four dates scheduled currently. July will be the first one because we’re two months behind already.  Those events will be headlined by sportsman, with support classes.”

KM – “What about a points fund, or banquet?”

BV – “I really want to do a banquet. That’s definitely on my list of things to do. And there will definitely be a points system between here and Antigonish for the sportsman only.  It’ll be a series. So if someone (track) calls and says ‘can you come to New Brunswick?’ , it’ll be a points system between Sydney, Riverside and New Brunswick…. or Sydney, Riverside and Scotia. For local classes, we’ll decide that at the meeting.”

KM – “Do you have a Sportsman date at Petty this year?”

BV – “We don’t have a date there. But that’s cool. I’m ok with that, because I’ll be busy getting the Sydney track up and running this year. I look forward to the possibility of visiting other tracks with the sportsman tour in 2015.”

KM –  “What about rules?”

BV – “Rules are going to be the same as everywhere else. So if we have a street stock class it’ll probably be Petty’s rules. I don’t want to reinvent the wheel. Same deal for four cylinders. But we’ll discuss that at the meeting.”

KM – “What about tech?”

BV – “Definitely.  We’ll be teching cars. It’s like anything, I’ve got guys running Sportsman class in Antigonish, and I know that some of them are running illegal. Actually, I shouldn’t say I know they’re running illegal, it’s just a matter of finding it. The way I tech cars is – even before the race starts, I have my four things to check, and four things to check after. I don’t look for anything else. So, to be fair and consistent throughout the field, if everybody has those four things in order, everybody’s good. Unless it’s something blatantly obvious I don’t go looking for stuff.”

KM – “You also want to change the name of the track?”

BV – “We put a contest in the newspaper for the youth to decide on a new name for the track. We want everything new. New name, new start. A fresh beginning.”

KM – “Let’s talk about repairs to the facility. What’s your priority?”

BV –  “Repave the turns and part of the backstretch. That’s my priority.  The straights are ok – only a couple of spots here and there that need to be touched up. But the corners are really worn, like Riverside used to be. Very hard on tires. Also want a concrete wall from turn three to the front stretch. That’s going in first thing in the spring.”

KM – “Are you happy with turns one and two being open? ”

BV –  “I’ll probably leave that. But I haven’t decided though. Honestly I’d love to lengthen it a little bit. But looking at it today, closer, I don’t see much point in it. I think it would be too much to do right now because you’d have to start excavating back here on the front stretch  and then sweep into the corner. For what I’m going to gain, I don’t think.”

KM – “What about the grandstands?”

BV –  “The lumber on the stands is rotten. I mean, there’s a lot of new stuff – but a lot of the boards have to be replaced. Structurely it’s good. I had an engineer come in and look at it and they said they’re pretty good. There’s a couple of pieces we’re going to replace, particularly that whole top railing where the tree fell a year or so ago.  That section of railing is rotten.”

KM – “What about the tower?”

BV – “That’s a concern. Ideally, what I want to do is – well it all comes down to budget – if I can get it into my budget, I want to expand it over twice on both sides  for VIP seating and stuff like that. If you get people spending money at a place like this you need to treat them or give them a different  experience than in the stands, and a VIP seating area would be perfect. So maybe remove that top section and build out from the sides.”

KM – “What about the canteen.”

BV – “Well it’s a mess, but the gear is all there, which is good. Whether it works or not, I don’t know.  I’ll have to get somebody in and see if we can get things up and running.”

KM – “I noticed the light poles are gone from the infield?”

BV – “Yes. He (Cusack) took the light poles out and put them on the external part of the track or at least that was the intention. I will suspect we will continue that theory because we’re not going to have infield pits. So there’s no reason to have lights inside.”

KM – “When is your first meeting scheduled?”

BV –  “The meeting is Sunday, January 26 at 1:00 PM, at the Mira Road Fire Hall.”

I spoke with previous track owner Barry Cusack Jr. last week to get his comments on the sale…

Barry – “From the start, I never wanted to sell the place.  I mean, I grew up out there. But I just didn’t have the money for it and it wasn’t giving me anything in return. With Bill going with the Sportsman tour and what he gets for local guys with street stocks or minis, I think he’ll do well. I definitely support the guy.  The Vasil’s are the best people for it.”

I also spoke with Stan Dicks about the sale of the track…

Stan – “It’s wonderful. It broke my heart every time I drove by it the last few years. We ran it for 16 years and I would’ve still been there but my family was getting tired of it, being there every weekend for years and years. I’ll be so happy to see it going again. I’m going to go meet him though because I’m glad he got it. Any information I can give him, I’ll be glad to. We gave up a lot of weekends in the summer to keep it going, but I enjoyed doing it. I hope it works out for them, and I wish them all the luck in the world.”