After seven long, tedious and enormously expensive years, work on Canadian Motor Speedway in Fort Erie is finally underway.
Survey crews have been busy on the site between Bowen and Gilmore Roads in the town, laying the road map for heavy excavation equipment to roll out in a few days as we sit, to begin work on phase one of the project: the re-construction of Miller Creek.
A new era in Canadian and North American motorsport has indeed begun, after many episodes of wondering if we would ever see this day.
For those of you just joining us, let’s go back with a little thumbnail history.
Investors from Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates, working through a group of Canadian investors and partners wanted to build a $400-million motorsport and entertainment/attraction complex in the Fort Erie-Niagara Falls tourist corridor along the west side of the Queen Elizabeth Highway in Fort Erie.
The speedway will be Canada’s first high-banked NASCAR and IndyCar compliant oval, connected to a road course of at least two miles in length. Initial seating would be for 60,000, expandable to 100,000.
The complex would also include industrial, recreational and commercial retail space, as well as a motorsport innovation park in collaboration with McMaster University’s faculty of engineering.
After being told the re-zoning and provincial approval process would take only a matter of months, one opposing group, which turned out to be one single individual, was able to hold up the Ontario Municipal Board for seven years until final planning approval was granted.
Then, a month ago, CMS engineers discovered aboriginal artifacts on a portion of the property, but clearance and permits to begin work on the land comprising Miller Creek were finally granted, and that brings us to the present day with equipment ready to roll.
Canadian Motor Speedway chief executive officer Ibrahim Abou Taleb is all smiles.
“We are making history in Canada and North America for the motorsport fan with this track. For the town of Fort Erie, this is a new era. CMS is the hub, but around it you have hospitality, retail, and research and development that is like a city in itself. CMS will be an attraction that will bring tremendous value to the town of Fort Erie.”
For CMS senior partner and chief developer Azhar Mohammad, it’s like a dream come true.
“We are ecstatic. If you look at the efforts that have been expended and the milestones we’ve achieved after so many years just to get to this point, this is truly exciting for our entire team and my partners in Kuwait and the U.A.E.”
Designer of the oval track portion of the CMS project, four-time NASCAR Sprint Cup champion Jeff Gordon is thrilled.
“I’m excited for Canada, I’m excited for auto racing. CMS will definitely be Canadian pride at its best. It’s a Canadian speedway built by Canadians, just 45 minutes from Toronto, 15 minutes from Buffalo and 15 minutes from Niagara Falls. I think Canadians are going to be very proud to have a 1.2 km, three-quarter-mile track that’s going to put on some great racing once it’s completed.”
The core property for the oval, the grandstands and the road course is in CMS hands while work to finalize site plans continues.
Aecon Group Inc., one of Canada’s largest construction companies, is the project’s construction manager. They are in charge of the entire 820-acre development, working with local construction resources.
CMS plans a formal ground breaking in the spring of 2014 to green-flag 18 months of construction of the sport’s first carbon neutral, and Canada’s first NASCAR and IndyCar compliant speedway complex that is slated to be race-ready in 2016.
There is still a lot of work to be done, but luckily, the investors were determined to see their vision come to pass, no matter what obstacles arose.
The sport in this country is about to undergo big changes. Good changes.
