New oval circuit for Canada
The proposals for Active Mountain Raceway in British Columbia.
Picture: Active Mountain Raceway
The cream of American motorsport could race on an oval in Canada for the first time since CART abandoned Sanair in the 1980s.
A new circuit - the Active Mountain Raceway - is being constructed at Merrit, British Columbia, 125 miles east of Vancouver on Canada's west coast.
The £150 million complex includes a low banked 3/4 mile oval and a 2.5 mile road course winding up, down and around the spectacular desert property which is also the home of the famous Merritt Mountain Music Festival.
The new 260 acre motorsports facility will be able to accommodate over 100,000 race fans per day in total grandstand and festival seating and circuit bosses hope to attract the NASCAR Winston Cup, Champ Car racing and the American Le Mans Series.
There's so much interest in this exciting project from race fans, sponsors and the motorsports community.
Trevor Seibert
Track designer Trevor Seibert, himself one of British Columbia's most notable racecar drivers, says that much input is still required from various racing series and regulatory bodies, and alterations to the layout are likely.
"The purpose of disclosing the layout here today is to get on with final design comments so that construction can begin as soon as possible," he said in January. "On top of that, there's so much interest in this exciting project from race fans, sponsors and the motorsports community in general, we thought we'd give them a sample of what they can expect to see when it's done."
Active Mountain principals Diana Kelly and Claude Lelievre expressed their approval for the submitted design. "We were hearing nothing but positive comments from racers, even when they just saw the beautiful property!
"This multiple course layout will be superb for just about every type of racing, from open wheel to sportscars to motorcycles. The ability to separate the two tracks and have them function independently will be very important in making a facility of this magnitude a viable, cost effective venture."
Construction and ground breaking work began in February, with a targeted opening date of late Autumn, ready for a full racing schedule in 2002.
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