Rebirth of a Legacy : Shannonville Motorsport Park (Belleville, ON) | GTAMotorcycle.com

Rebirth of a Legacy : Shannonville Motorsport Park (Belleville, ON)

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Excerpt from: Wheels.ca

... Bondar and his business partner, Steve Gidman, a Toronto-based business owner who is himself an avid racing enthusiast, took possession last October. Now, Dominique is overseeing the racing operations – the touring cars plus the regional motorcycle, drag and drift racing series acquired in the transaction – and John is running Shannonville’s day-to-day operations.

The track, which was built in 1974, has needed attention for a number of years. Bondar is starting small, but he has grand plans long-term.

“We’re going to be looking at improvements over the next five years,” he said. “When there’s heavy rain, we typically have some pretty bad flooding on the track, so I’ve had contractors in already to work on alleviating that. I need to repair a spot on the track, which we hope to have done by the spring.

“A lot of the paddock here is gravel and dirt, so we’re going to enhance the paddock to make it more usable. We’re getting all-new fencing put across the front because the property, as you approach, looks like a farmer’s field.

“It’s going to be more presentable, and that’s going to allow me to approach corporate Canada to get more engaged.”

Work will also begin on an event centre this summer that will give high-end clients a permanent facility for hosting guests. But one thing Bondar doesn’t plan to mess with is Shannonville’s much-loved modular layout. Incremental builds over several years have resulted in a total of four track layouts, plus a drag strip and an 8,500-metre skid pad.

“That has a rich history, so that doesn’t make any sense to change it,” he said.

Business is already on the upswing. Shannonville’s richest history is motorbike racing, and the Canadian Superbike Championship has a pair of season-bookend stops scheduled here on its 2020 calendar, the opener on May 22-24 and the finale on Sept. 19-20.


They will be at this weekends Motorcycle Show as well !

Nice New Website: Shannonville Motorsport Park – The Birthplace Of Champions Since 1974
 
that is good news
I live 10 minutes from there

track conditions apparently need to improve
but that won't save the place

bums in the seats drive racing revenue and sustainability
the fan experience at Shannonville is dreadful

they need to focus on improving that and the rest will follow
 
I wonder what's happening with RACE ? I heard a rumour that Chris, Jacquie and Larry have all resigned.
 
Just repave the thing and deal with flooding first
 
I wonder what's happening with RACE ? I heard a rumour that Chris, Jacquie and Larry have all resigned.
It called "Super Series" now. They took the word RACE off all year end trophies.

The rumour you heard is true.

I guess it's a wait and see game.

At the January motorcycle show, I asked how it would work with a regional round and National round lumped into 1 weekend. The answer was : "dont worry about it, just show up and race"





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How can it have flooding problems, it's built on top of a fragmented limestone plateau close to the edge of the Salmon River Valley, drill some holes and let the water out :|
 
The water has nowhere to go. Drainage does need to be addressed. If it rains hard, water is across the track in Allen's (2nd-last corner before front straight). It has always been that way. Previous half-hearted attempts to pump the water away from that area using a portable pump just result in the water running back in. It needs to be pumped far away from that area so that it doesn't run back. Evidently this is on the to-do list.

Supposedly the bad pavement in the corner before the hairpin (which developed last year) is going to be fixed pronto, too.

I paid for my license, which covers the 2 May test day. I'm planning to do that. After that ... we'll see. I hadn't been planning to do the whole SuperSeries anyhow. If things are heading the way they are looking, it might not be a problem for them to have a regional and national on the same weekend. And that is a bad thing.
 
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I'm glad to see the venture is serious and they are honouring outstanding passes for lapping from last year (last I heard, but only for 1 year). Ultimately, I'd like to know what the roadmap is?

Does anyone know? i.e. the 5 year plan?

Hauling junk out of the way and fixing a corner or two is great, but after increasing the TD price to nearly $200/day, removing the rain insurance, and no surface improvements, I find the value equation hard to understand. It feels like the focus is on the low hanging fruit but not the underlying product (i.e. on track experience). I hope I'm wrong, but at this point in time, I don't see the TD community being excited about the same experience for more $.
 
If they try to pump water instead of using gravity they are going to lose the drainage battle, it's fractured layers of limestone, give the water a way to drop down to a fractured layer or any water bearing layer below ground level, no more drainage problem. There is an old limestone quarry on that plot of land to the south and salmon river valley to the west, almost guarantee you the water there is traveling south west, if the quarry or the salmon river valley is over-flowing then yep they have a huge drainage problem.
 
The water has nowhere to go. Drainage does need to be addressed. If it rains hard, water is across the track in Allen's (2nd-last corner before front straight). It has always been that way. Previous half-hearted attempts to pump the water away from that area using a portable pump just result in the water running back in. It needs to be pumped far away from that area so that it doesn't run back. Evidently this is on the to-do list.

Supposedly the bad pavement in the corner before the hairpin (which developed last year) is going to be fixed pronto, too.

I paid for my license, which covers the 1 May test day. I'm planning to do that. After that ... we'll see. I hadn't been planning to do the whole SuperSeries anyhow. If things are heading the way they are looking, it might not be a problem for them to have a regional and national on the same weekend. And that is a bad thing.

The "May 1st test day" thing is a good one to keep in mind. Unlike previous years there is only 1 test day, and that's it.
 
The "May 1st test day" thing is a good one to keep in mind. Unlike previous years there is only 1 test day, and that's it.
Rob,

Any racer who bought their license before Jan.31 can get their free test day on May 2nd.

They can still ride on May 3rd, but will have to pay for it.

In the past, we always had a choice of using our free day on either the Saturday or Sunday.

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Rob,

Any racer who bought their license before Jan.31 can get their free test day on May 2nd.

They can still ride on May 3rd, but will have to pay for it.

In the past, we always had a choice of using our free day on either the Saturday or Sunday.

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Yes, those who bought early. At this point the price is $203.00 and only for May 1st, or so I'm reliably told.
 
I made a calendar booboo. Saturday May 2nd is the day that you get for buying your license early. Not Sunday.
 
Yes, those who bought early. At this point the price is $203.00 and only for May 1st, or so I'm reliably told.
Weird, they have it on the registration page
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