The Auto Value/Bumper to Bumper Michigan Legends Series helds its first race ever outside of the country last night at the Grand Bend Speedway in Grand Bend, Ontario. The track was just built in the fall of 2006 and is a wide, asphalt 1/4 mile D-Oval with the D on the back stretch much like Dixie. The track replaced a 1/6th mile oval that was there before and is located adjacent to the pit area of the Grand Bend Moto-Plex(dragstrip). The track appears to be a touch smaller than Spartan but not by a whole lot.
There was a huge drag racing weekend going on and although we could not see the drag races we could hear them and see the smoke from the burn-outs.
This is a very nice little track that normally hosts a number of mini-sprint classes along with mini-trucks and the J-Car Junior Late Models along with a 4 cylinder street stock division. They also have hosted open wheel modifieds and Late Models along with their regular division of V-8 Super Trucks.
The atmosphere was super friendly and accomodating. At this time there is no seperate spectator side so everyone that bought a ticket came into the pits. It looked like probably everyone there was associated with a race car so it didn't seem to matter where everyone walked. The one thing I noticed was that there was no harsh language, no hurried rush to get things going even though each division was lined up in the chute, ready to go without anyone having to yell over a loud speaker to "get it in the chute". My Wife, Daughter and I had a really great time and hope to go back with the Legends again next year.
If anyone is looking for a new experience you should defininitely check the place out as even though many of the cars were small, scale size type cars, the racing was extremely intense yet clean(some of the best I have seen this year). The winner in the mini-trucks bounced it off of the fourth turn fence and came back to work his way up and win the feature. The 440 CC Mini-Sprints looked like AVSS Sprinters in Miniature and sounded like the NAMRA Mini-Champs and they were really quick too.
They race on saturdays and it only took me about the same time it takes me to get to Auto City or Dixie from my home near Mt. Clemens. Their website is www.grandbendspeedway.com.
By the way, Jerry Warden won the legends feature over Frank Jiovani with Scott Menlen, Rick Kilbourn, Chance Rice, Levi Rouster, Ben Rouster, Tony Monge, Ryan Meldrum, Brandon Mahoney, Matt Todd, Randy Gallagher Sr., Skip Krassa, Butch Polson, and Bob Parker rounding out the finishing order.