The Estevan Motor Speedway (EMS) is looking forward to the green flag waving on its 2021 season.
The track will host its season opening program on Sunday night, starting at 6 p.m. The five classes that compete regularly – the slingshots, along with the IMCA modifieds, stock cars, sport mods and hobby stocks – will entertain fans that night.
The speedway will be able to have 150 spectators present in its grandstand. People can also watch from inside their vehicles behind a fence in the paid parking area at the southwest corner of the track.
Track president Aaron Turnbull said the speedway is looking forward to the upcoming season, and the drivers are excited to be back on the track.
“It’s a long winter, so pretty much every year, I would think everybody’s pretty eager to get back out there,” said Turnbull.
The track will be unable to attract drivers from the U.S. due to the ongoing closure of the Canada-U.S. border to non-essential traffic, and it’s also going to be tough to have Manitoba drivers present. Manitoba currently has a 14-day quarantine in place for those who enter the province for non-essential reasons.
A number of Manitoba drivers competed at the speedway for the first time last season.
After the May 30 program, the remaining races will be double-headers on Fridays and Saturdays: June 11-12, July 2-3 and 16-17, and Aug. 6-7 and 27-28.
Turnbull hopes they will be able to get drivers from elsewhere in the province.
“The vast majority of our Saskatchewan drivers are from within a one-hour radius of here, but there is definitely the odd one that comes from a little further than that,” said Turnbull.
He expects there will be an increase in local drivers this season, especially for the slingshots.
“It’s really taken off,” he said. “There’s quite a few new ones. Some of them have replaced drivers that we had last year in that class who have mostly stepped up into other classes.”
The slingshot class is an entry level class with the intent of getting drivers into full-sized cars.
Anywhere from 15-18 slingshot drivers are expected to compete each night.
“That’s a good sign of things to come for the future of the speedway and racing in general,” said Turnbull.
If the Canada-U.S. border does reopen, Turnbull said they could get more drivers from Williston, N.D.
He’s also hopeful that the speedway will be able to have more than 150 fans present in their grandstand before the end of the season.
Fans who do attend a race program will need to keep some things in mind. There will be food trucks operating on site, and the speedway likely won’t have a concession for the second straight year.
“Last year we were doing that at the last minute, and it was a bit of a scramble, and this year we knew right from the hop that we weren’t going to be opening our concession. We were going to be relying on food trucks again.”
The food trucks that were present last season had excellent food.
“We don’t really have any plans of opening the concession. That would be something that we wouldn’t want to rush into it, and it’s a lot to prepare. We would probably just plan to open that back up in 2022.”
The speedway has already had a number of events, including a work bee on May 1, the first-ever spring Enduro on May 8, and the test and tune practice session on May 15.
The speedway also has some new board members this year, and they, like everyone else, are eager to see the season begin.
