Those of us who are older than dirt remember Edenvale racetrack near Stayner, Ontario. A WW2 RCAF training field about 15 minutes from Barrie on Hwy. 26, it was the first road racing track in Ontario, opening in 1950. It ran until 1959 when Harewood took over. I saw my first race there in 1952 when I conned my parents into going. Back then it was sort of in the middle of nowhere. Barrie was a sleepy town of about 12,000 and Hwy. 400 did not exist.
The Ministry of National Defence took back over control of the old place and a certain CASC Steward, Louw Broadfield, found out the hard way that the No Trepassing DND signs were for real when he climbed the fence and met some rather large Military Police who had no sense of humour.
A few years ago the DND relinquished the property, and in 2003 Milan Kroupa Sr. purchased the entire airfield and reopened the airport as a private airport. Since then a flying school has been established, several hangers built, tenants arrived, including at least one flying club and a new 4,000 paved runway built. There is an on site cafe serving breakfast and lunch, which is right now being expanded to a full restaurant.
Now what, you ask, has this to do with motor racing?
Well it is returning and if all goes to plan there will be action this summer. Lee Abrahamson, of Dunnville* fame among other things, is building a track on the property. Planned are solo events, lapping, club races, a race driving school, club manufacturers’ days and motorcycle races and just about everything car oriented.
With the planned layout two of the existing taxi ways will be incorporated. This does present a slight problem as the entire area is designated Airport Zoning and is under Federal Jurisdiction. Basically this means the taxi ways must remain as part of the airport except when they are used as part of the track. This is a aviation safety issue as well as a permit useage issue.
Plans are well under way and construction is expected to start as soon as weather permits and if this mild weather continues that may be soon. It will be a 2.8 K track with 1.545 K of new pavement. Hopefuly there will be no opposition like Lee ran into at Dunnville. The area close to the track is sparsely populated but generally it is close to a major tourist area.
Today Barrie is a thriving city of over 130,000 people and the 400 does exist. The closest community of any size is Stayner where Airport Road from the GTA terminates. Close by are Wasaga Beach and Collingwood/Blue Mountain both major tourist areas with lots of accommodation, especially in the spring and fall shoulder seasons. Naturally there are many restaurants in both. Wasaga Beach is now the fastest growing community in Ontario. It even has a Wally Mart.
Both Wasaga and Collingwood merchant/restaurants/hotels would be happy I am sure to see action in the shoulder seasons in spring and fall when the tourist season ebbs. Also, as stated, Barrie is fairly close, again with many hotels and restaurants plus all the big box stores and several major malls. Not all that far away is the famous Horseshoe Valley Resort with accommodations and restaurants.
One drawback to getting to the track is that Hwy 26/27 is also Barrie’s Bayfield street of very congested traffic. A little longer route, but probably just as quick would be stay on the 400 to Horseshoe Valley Road and go west to where it joins 26 thereby avoiding Bayfield. If anybody does stay at Horseshoe or even comes up that way a stop at the Foodland in Craighurst just a very short hop east from the 400 is worth while. Not for the Foodland itself but it is a LCBO Agency Store with more high end liquor and wine than stores triple its size! Can we say money in the Horseshoe area!
So there you have it. Edenvale is coming back! Ontario’s oldest road racing track will be its newest.
Way to go Lee and the Kroupas’
Remember you saw it first here on the Garage Blog!
Starting grid photo from Edenvale shot by Frank Smart courtesy of Racing Sports Cars.
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{ 7 comments… read them below or add one }
Hi Leighton
I too remember those early days at Edenvale and, as a matter of fact, that start line picture is mine. Just curious where you got it? RacingSportsCars.com? I did have them on another photo hosting site for a few years but I removed them as they were turning up in places that never asked for permission.
Don’t get me wrong, as I don’t mind them being used by and for enthusiasts and I always give permission to use them and all I ever ask is a credit.
Cheers
Frank Smart
That’s the the first of heard of this. Great stuff. I also had seen my first race there in 55 with my dad and remember those cars in the photo above especially #63 (OSCA) was not listed in the program and everyone wondered what it was. Looking foreward to this. Thanks for the info Leighten .
Frank, I did send you an e-mail before posting the image. I suspect that it got lost in your junk mail. In that message I cc’d Martin at RacingSportsCars.com as well. He responded this afternoon by e-mail, so I know it partially hit the mark!
It is a perfect shot for this story!
As Gary pointed out I do not pick the pictures for the stories. In addition to the rather rare OSCA (built by the Maserati Bros,) other cars this old f— recognizes are a 100 4 Austin Healy, a 300SL Gull Wing Mercedes and a quite rare pure race car 100S Austin Healy. I cannot identify the car on the far right of the front row.
What a great new business for the community to thrive on! There's nothing better than spending a solid day at the race track! Looking forward to the Grand Opening on Canada Day!
Are they going to offer motorcyle lapping?
Great news. My father raced here in the fifties. Sad news about Dunnville,(only 20 mins from my shop). Thanks to Lee for continuing with this project. Old airfields are awesome to test at, lots of runnoff room,and not much to hit. I'll see you there at the first chance I get.
Thanks for giving the little guy somewhere to test.