Leigh why dont you enlighten us on this interesting story?

To make a super long story short, and this is just rumour and hearsay from years ago, but Coates was not happy in 1997 (or maybe it was 1996?!) when Graham was disqualified in tech at Sunset for fuel. Rumour has it that he said he would ruin Sunset and Slaugter - so Coates bought Barrie Speedway.

That was the rumour at the time.

Pretty much sums it up Leigh because after that incident Graham went elsewhere and Gord never returned with any of his cars.
Although I think he had more motivation than that when he leased Barrie Speedway. I think he was trying to prove a point on how a speedway could be run and brought back to life and he has done that. He might of said he wanted to destroy Sunset but any business person knows that isn't an easy task as there are always die hards that will support you no matter what. I think it was probably his love for the sport that gave him the determination as he's been involved with racing for many many years and even leased and ran Sunset in the early 70's.
And anyone that knows Mr Coates knows that turning a profit at Barrie is the least of his worries.......

I'm just a fan, but I heard that story as well, but also that the track was in danger of being bulldozed for expansion of Burl's Creek Park because after several years and a string of would-be promoters who all failed in short order the land owner figured enough was enough, away with it. The track surface was crumbling and the rest of the infrastructure was too.
Anyone remember a TQ Midget race that was cancelled due to water seeping up through the pavement in turn 4 a couple days after some extreme rains? The infield was flooded and the ground was so saturated that even hydrocement wasn't working to stop the seepage. The TQ's couldn't make it safely through the corner in their heats so they called it and left. Also, remember the Sunday regular racing featuring slm's? I went up once and there was about six cars to run the feature (Oscaar I believe) and a thin field in the other divisions as well. There was a contingent of diehard Barrie Speedway supporters though, who, as Deb has pointed out, are always in the picture both in the stands and on the track wherever there is racing. Other obligations at that time prevented my going more than very occasionally, but I recall seeing the odd item in the paper about various promoters giving it a go one by one, taking it on and flopping for one reason or another. I recall once when the main power connection to the tower shorted in a shower of sparks! This was the '95 to '98 period for which Statsman has requested info on his excellent KDM Barrie archive site on who did what in championships etc., but I guess there are no good records due to the uncertainty of it all at the time. Sunset was benefitting from it all because the cars and audience had mostly migrated south then the controversy between Gord and Graham Coates and Sunset came along and things happened and Barrie was reborn.
Mr. Coates been accused of having his favs and running "race control" from turn two ever since. Some of those who were supposedly in the "fav" book have moved on, some are still there. This is mostly just scuttlebutt heard here and there so I really don't know how much is accurate except for what I saw personally, but I really have to doubt that Mr. Coates put all that money into the place just to have it fail again, but stranger things have happened I suppose. Btw, just as a point of interest, I have some old Wheelspin News circa 1970-71 in my possession and on the "speedway directory" page Gord Coates is shown as Sunset's promoter.
The car count is unfortunately shrinking in the Barrie Late Model's, but seems fairly strong and consistent in the other divisions. I think the support classes are much more entertaining at Barrie because it's tightness compared to Sunset, makes for closer racing in TC and 4 cyl. and the BLM's look and sound awesome across the board even if their numbers are off this year and their races that I've been to so far aren't bad at all, but I'm not up there every week. It's too bad track politics is what it is so often. It's seems it's an issue everywhere, so Barrie is not that unique in that regard, but having another track so close by is a big difference.
Assuming Barrie continues (which I certainly hope will be the case) what might happen if the rumours around Sunset pan out? Will disgruntled former Barrie racers move on to KD (if it survives), Flamboro, Mosport, Varney, elsewhere or will they hang it up?? Having a clue as to how passionate racers usually are to race I would have to guess on a combination of movements here and there including out of it altogether with maybe more than a few ending up back at Barrie. Time will tell. Six years ago when Barrie was on the verge of disappearing is that not how it went? I wasn't paying that close attention then so if anyone who was there at the time can fill in a blank or two it might be interesting for we history buffs!

Hi Dster, your right when Barrie was basically closed and at times was closed Sunset had amazing car counts I can remember having over a 100 cars in the pits every night and even more!! I worked at Barrie back when Gino from Goodfellow's restaurant attempted to run it for a year (I think the year was 1996 but would have to comfirm that)and I can look at the driver's list at Barrie today and the majority of the guys that ran back then are still there now. I think like any track if your dedicated to it you don't care who runs it, but you do hope there fair. It's hard for both speedways to have it all being so close together but both speedways have been around forever and are still going. Anyone involved in racing and that has followed the different speedways over the years knows that racing in Ontario goes thru stages of great success to building the speedways back up again the cause probably lack of sponsorship?? Or just cycles the business goes thru.
And Mr. Coates may have been listed as the promotor of Sunset but I could show you the old lease papers!! I have tons of history on Sunset but could take a while to dig out of the archieves lol.....I think I have some Barrie stuff too but would have to look. I'm still in contact with the handicapper I worked with that year and I believe she still has records and I'll check.