Canada Short Track Benefiting From MIS Upgrades

With many facility enhancements occurring at Michigan International Speedway for the 2008 season, a Canadian short track is taking advantage of having a major NASCAR-sanctioned speedway in their region doing upgrades.

Varney International Speedway, a ¼-mile paved oval located an hour from Toronto in southwestern Ontario, is purchasing the old MIS scoreboards that were located in Turns 1 and 4 and will use them at their facility for the 2008 season and beyond. The scoreboards, which were purchased at a nominal cost, will be a tremendous help to the popular short track in Canada.

The scoreboards became available because MIS is installing a new, state-of-the-art, 130-foot, three-sided LED leaderboard. The scoreboard, higher than the scoring tower above the grandstands, will replace all three scoreboards at MIS, two in the turns and one in the center and will be visible from all grandstand seats, as well as several of the infield camping sites. The leaderboard will set a new industry standard for scoreboards across any sporting venue, Michigan International Speedway President Roger Curtis says.

“Varney International Speedway should really benefit from these scoreboards,” Curtis said. “When they contacted us about purchasing our old boards, we were glad to see that someone else could use them. We support our local short tracks throughout Michigan, Ohio, Indiana and Canada and applaud their efforts. Without their grassroots initiatives, the sport wouldn’t be where it is today.”

Representatives from the recently renamed Varney International Speedway visited MIS in late February to assist in the process of taking down the old scoreboards in turns 1 and 4. The scoreboards will be loaded onto trucks and be assembled at Varney before the start of their race season in early May. John McDonnell, a longtime supporter of Varney International Speedway, personally spawned the project and received assistance in taking down the scoreboards from other track supporters Clark and Ingrid Hartman.

“I can’t say enough about how grateful we are to have these scoreboards,” McDonnell said. “MIS has been so helpful with the whole process and we were happy to purchase them for our 2008 race season. MIS truly cares about their race fans in the United States and Canada. It is a special place who really appreciates the sport of auto racing and what it means to the local short track communities.”

Varney International Speedway owner Ken McLellan, who has owned the short track since 2000, agrees with McDonnell.

“I’m very excited about all of this,” he said. “It’s great that the opportunity presented itself to acquire these scoreboards and use them to better our speedway. Our drivers and fans will be excited about it as well.”

With more than 10 percent of MIS race fans hailing from Canada, the country has become a major supporter of the Irish Hills track over the years.

“We’ve attended races at MIS in the past and have enjoyed our time there,” McDonnell said. “MIS has a real strong fan base stretching from Windsor to Varney and beyond.  We enjoy having a major NASCAR track close enough that we can attend a race without the added expense of overnight accommodations.  It is no problem attending a race on Sunday and being at work on Monday.”

Story and photo courtesy of Michigan International Speedway