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Guest · 2008-02-29T21:44:43Z

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

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25_JLM_13hp

Mar 01, 2008 6:50 pm

(@25_JLM_13hp)

Joined: 1 second ago

You gotta wonder how much one of those, functioning with all the stuff needed to operate it, would cost, even at a used rate. (versus a coat of asphalt lol jk)

Posts: 2480

Shadowracer

Moderator

Mar 01, 2008 7:37 pm

(@shadowracer)

Member

Joined: 20 years ago

Never been there, pritty cool? fun? ???

Oh yeah...it was a blast actually. (I only never go because there's tracks closer to me.) Last time I saw can-am midgets, and a couple different full size divisions which, at the time, were pretty much indistinguishable from each other. I just remember a lot of 77 Montes, and the fact that there could be 2 of them - one guy going into one, and one guy coming out of 2...yet both of them were running bumper to bumper. 😀

I beleive thay also must have some sort of record for degree-of-banking vs size-of-track.

Course, if you care about such things, the washrooms were horrible. I remember that being the first thing I smelled when I got to the track....but as said, it was over 15 years ago - I'm sure that's probably changed.

CHECK OUT THE "SHADOW REPORT" GROUP ON FACEBOOK FOR LIVE RACE PICS AND UPDATES

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jcrashm2

Mar 01, 2008 8:41 pm

(@jcrashm2)

Joined: 1 second ago

The washrooms for the fans are some of the best now.
I remember my first year racing there in the 80's the guys in the pits was an evestrough on an angle running out the back and a 2 holer. You had to watch for hornet nests every week too. Like Flamboro's in turn 2 today, except its a 4 holer without the eves.Lol.

Posts: 3382

Thayne

Mar 01, 2008 9:12 pm

(@barrie97ps)

Famed Member

Joined: 20 years ago

flammy got me this year witht he hornets...lol

as for Varney, The track is the mos fun i have run...period...tonnes of fun to drive on! i dont want it to get paved...Varney is aweosme bexause of what it tis...just pin it!

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flybyya8

Mar 01, 2008 9:43 pm

(@flybyya8)

Joined: 1 second ago

Just went on youtube, Hooly crap, it looks EXACTLY like the old track in North Bay with more banking! I gtta try that this year.

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