Source: Andrew Kunas
Date: 01/29/2008

Rocky Mountain Raceway Park is getting ready for its fifth year of dirt track racing. The season is a little more than three months away still, but the RMRP staff are busy behind the scenes, preparing for the upcoming season.

Following the test ‘n tune “play day” on Saturday, May 3, the 2008 schedule currently consists of 13 nights of racing on the ¼-mile, high-banked dirt oval, with three demolition derbies and a night of tuff truck and extreme freestyle trucks added to the mix. The month of May itself is by far the busiest, with every weekend slated for on track activities.

Three classes will regularly race at Rocky Mountain Raceway Park in 2008, with two other classes usually alternating as a fourth class. The sportsman sprints, IMCA modifieds and hobby stocks will be featured together most nights and 4-cylinder claimers and truck stocks will take turns on regular race nights. The three full-time classes and the claimers will take to the track on Friday, May 9 to kick off the season.

The N.P.P (Northern Provincial Pipeline) Late Model series will visit Rocky Mountain Raceway Park for two nights of racing on Friday and Saturday, May 16 and 17. A large field of late model stocks are expected for this event, which will also see the sportsman sprints in action both nights.

Following another regular night of racing on May 23, Rocky Mountain Raceway Park will have two nights of demolition action with start times to be announced shortly. Cardel Homes will present the show on Friday, May 30. The next night will see more sheet metal being bent in the “Spring Smash.”

The month of June will see two more regular nights of racing, featuring sportsman sprints, IMCA modifieds, hobby stocks, claimers and truck stocks. Rocky Mountain Raceway Park will be active again on June 6 and June 20.

July will also have two regular Friday nights of racing, specifically July 11 and July 25, but another special show is scheduled for Saturday, July 19. The “Mid-Summer Mayhem” will feature Tuff Trucks, Canadian Extreme Freestyle Trucks and a Pocket Bike Race. “Mid-Summer Mayhem” is expected to be held in the afternoon, with a start time to be announced later.

August will see two more nights on racing, both coming on back-to-back weekends. The sprint cars, IMCA modifieds, hobby stocks and truck stocks will be in action on August 8. The next Friday, August 15, the claimers will have their turn to race with the other three classes. After a three-week hiatus, racing returns to Rocky Mountain Raceway Park on Friday, September 5. Two weeks later, action switches to Saturday as everyone races again on September 20.

One more demolition derby, the “Day of Destruction”, is scheduled for Saturday, September 27. Last year, a big yellow school bus got crunched multiple times. Right now, the bus is still sitting in the infield at Rocky Mountain Raceway Park.

On Saturday, October 4, the season will come to a close as all five classes will be in action to close the season. For the modifieds the IMCA Canada season officially ends in September, making the October 4 finale unable to award IMCA points, but the modifieds will still be in action to close the season.

On all regular race nights, the pit gate will open at 3:30 p.m. and the front gate will open at 6:30 p.m. Racing is scheduled for 7:00 p.m.

The champions from 2007 are Pierre Guyon in the Super “B” Sportsman Sprints, Roger Bonneville in the IMCA Modifieds, Rick Thiessen in Hobby Stocks, Dan Turnbull in Claimers and Calvin Fuhriman in Truck Stocks.

The staff at Rocky Mountain Raceway Park has scheduled a general drivers meeting for Sunday, February 3 at 1:00 p.m. The meeting will be held inside the VIP Lounge at the track. The track encourages all local drivers to attend if they wish and all other interested drivers are more than welcomed also. The track has also tentatively scheduled a swap meet on Sunday, March 2, scheduled from 1:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m., pending approval from the Foothills Municipal District.

More information on Rocky Mountain Raceway Park can be found online at http://www.rmrp.ca.

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