Street Racing in Calgary
 

So i am filling up my 7 last nite, and a couple guys in an lancer riced out with some neon lights pull up and start drooling on my car. They then proceed to ask me if i ever go to the street races? The driver then continues to tell me where they are, i am barely listening as i am dumping my pre-mix in to the car, but i catch something about it being way down in the south end. Sarcee or Shaganappi?

He told me there are some pretty nice cars that go at it down there
anyone know about this shit?

Yep, been there, done that a few times. Pretty big culture, split into 2 groups and 2 locations.

As I am sure you would have guessed anyway, :lol:

well give me some more details. when does it take place and the location. is it like in the movies where there are cars and people lined on the streets and everybody scatters when the cops come?

yep

We can hook up next Saturday night and I'll give you an introduction. Perhaps line you up against Neils rb25 skyline....

There a turbo'd beamer you should take out as well....

well i gotta Skyline in my kill bag already. Not really keen on the idea of getting busted Street Racing, but i would definetly like to check it out. Although anybody down there driving a high powered car, even if not racing would probably be "Guilty by Association"

Yep here we go, just another "spectator". The spectators are more of a problem than the racers. :icon_no2:

Its not like the old days when we used to be able to race all night with no problems. No body got hurt and the cops never bugged us.


Along came FnF and the population tripled - and so did the distruction of property, crashes and just general idiocy. I go just to chat with friends, see the cars and hang out. My last race was over 2 years ago.

Is that because there aren't any 3 cyl firefly's out there wanting to race the landrover.

I beat a 4.0L Explorer the other day.

LOL, haaaa, that was a quick response. I'll put my Explorer against your Landrover in a 1/4 mile any day.

Its a tough city with the attention that the cars are getting. Its just like the exotic guys getting up way early and booting around the small roads and highways. Now there on youtube and in the news...wait a second...what ever happened with that...huh, no longer an issue? that went away fast!

Anyways, there are a lot of low cost, high HP cars running around and people are itchin to line up. I've "accelerated" from light to light but wont keep running to top end inner city( need closed roads right! -always makes me laugh)

I used to go way back when(decade or so) around deerfoot mall but nothing great there...now you hardly hear about it.

Its good if its a few guys with minimal spectators...saw a similar setup in vancouver and there are some good runs( never seen a AWD car light up on a rolling start before! crazy power...

Theres enough good driving roads outside the city that there really isnt an excuse to race in the city. Just go for a good blast on a backroad. Just Try not to disturb the yocals.


You should come off-roading with me sometime gary.

well when were "on the record" like this i gotta act like a spectator. but its really hard 2 twist my rubber arm

Race city opens in a few weeks if you want to do it the legal way - and you get a sweet time slip to boot :)

And a 3 hour wait in line per run, unless of course someone breaks something. Not bad for $25.

and what do you think will happen when race city closes? everybody will be stretching their legs on the streets no doubt! End up like vancouver, at night you always hear someone's tires light up!( like crickets at night!)

That's the difference between the 2 crowds. The young crowd flows like a river following each other to the designated spot. 50-80 spectators and 10 race with a crowd at the side of the road for the first 60 feet. Wonder why the cops break this up and look to ticket? While the older crowd goes out, almost all race, nobody stands on the edge in the first 50 feet, no arm dropper to get hit at the line, and the cops tolerate this much better! Worst thing the cops have done is pull in and say it's time to go home boys.

Thats how it used to be period. The only time police showed up was either someone called it in while driving by, or the cop just happend to be driving by.

They'd ask you to leave and away you went back to the meeting place.

"They know exactly when racing started. It was when the second car was invented." - Richard Petty

Calgary is where it's at!

Sorry for bringing up an old thread and I know its middle of winter here, but does anyone know if these races are still going on? Been to the ones at barlow timmies but 90% of the time they suck! Are there any others going on?

Totally died down, nothing like it was years ago.

The closure of racecity put the last nail in the coffin

Still plenty of cars on the occasional fri or sat, but little racing at all.

I'm a little surprised, I thought losing the track would spike the street racing/drags scene, not kill it

Ya I thought it was gonna pick up to and figured I was just going to the wrong ones haha. There barely any cops that try to shut things down too. Not like a few years ago they were always on the corners waiting for groups to leave

Nobody really races anymore. The hardcore guys spend more time driving than hanging out. We just go to our favorite meeting spot and then cruise from there.

ya a lot of people like to cruise lately which is alright as long as you get to do some pulls on the way. I live about an hour out of the city so it sucks when everyone just hangs out and talks about how cool their car is

Old thread, thought I'd toss in my 2 cents. If you stay late enough at Tim's on Barlow south there's usually a few people willing to play. I've only been a few times last summer and like others here have said, most just want to talk about how cool their cars are, but I've always managed to find a few people who actually drive them.
On a similar note, with race city gone, the only thing left is autoslalom (that I know of). Does anyone know if there is someplace here they'll be able to race this summer or just another drive to the Red Deer area?

Hey, was just wondering if the thing at Timmies is still a thing. Does anyone know if it will even be on this Saturday? Just want to go and check out the crowd and cars with a couple buddies

There is always people there on friday and saturday nights. Always.

Thanks man

I've never been during the winter months. What's the turn out like? Hit and miss? I can't imagine there would be any good racing.

I know of nothing. What's in the red deer area? I'm pretty close to there.

I doubt anyone is there in the winter months. Went once really early in April and there was like 7 cars and all Junkers

I don't know if I was just late (11:45ish) or just a slow week, but there were only a couple trucks and subarus that looked like they we part of the shindig. Didn't talk to any of them though, tints and low light make it hard to tell.

I use to race autoslalom with the Calgary Sports Car Club who typically held their events in Ponoka or in Red Deer at the westerner park. It was fun, but I was never a fan of driving that far just to race in what was supposed to be a local event.
This summer I'm going to see about running the circuit at Castrol Raceway just outside of Edmonton. More expensive, but if I'm driving out of the city it seems better value. Track Junkies has a website up with all those details.

Ya might check out Edmonton this year too. And I don't think you were late being there at 11:45. My cars parked and even if it wasn't I'm not too fond of chilling out in a parking lot this time of year haha. Hopefully by beginning of May it will be good this year.

CSCC and SASC are both still running a joint autoslalom series, but I'm afraid still no local venue - CSCC events are still in Red Deer at the Westerner Grounds, and SASC events are in Fort Macleod - both roughly 1.5 hours drive from the city, but depending on which end of town you're in, you might be a half hour closer to one or the other venue. We're working on local venues, but unlike most large cities (or even frickin' Red Deer-sized cities), Calgary lacks any large sports arenas with large parking areas - McMahon Stadium lots are filled with curbs, planters, dividers, and so on, and the Saddledome is part of the Stampede Grounds - which besides being heavily used nearly every day of the year, the Stampede wants to rent out at rates into five figures - suitable for a downpayment on a condo, not so much an event cost. Both clubs continue to work to find local venues, but it is a hell of a job - we have to consider safety for both competitors and being able to control public access, plus it needs to be distant from residences, or guaranteed that even though noise levels are unlikely to violate city bylaws, complaints from the public can and will quickly torpedo our relationship with lot owners, regardless of how petty.

It is aggravating that a city of Calgary's size, and that supposedly has sales of performance and exotic cars that number amongst highest in the world, has no decent track facilities.

I couldn't agree more. Calgary needs to have some sort of motorsports otherwise people, who would normally legally race, turn to illegal racing.
Many people will argue that this is either not the case and/or a bad choice, however cost and time play a large role when people are trying to get into such a sport.
I grew up in a small town, 300km from a track, and most, if not all, raced on the street.
I hope that sometime soon motorsports will be brought back to Calgary. Until then, many of us will resort to street racing.

just how much does a group pay to rent to get a lot for autocrossing??

From what I've been told, the issue has never been money, but typically lot owner liability. Most places will not allow you to use their lot, even if it's empty.

It's not really about liability - we carry millions in liability coverage. It's just that there is a paucity of suitable lots. Malls, for example, may have large parking areas, but are busy days and evenings. The rare time we find a suitable lot, getting owners to even talk is a challenge. If they can be sold on the idea of us giving them money to use their unused lot, we've faced the problem of them pulling the plug pretty much as soon as even one complaint is heard from the public - that's happened twice, with both Grey Eagle Casino, and the parade square at CFB Currie. At Deerfoot Mall, all it took was a change in the mall manager - we had a good relationship with the previous one, they were happy to have us, and even seemed to realize that besides bringing in a $1000 an event for a lot that otherwise sat empty most of the time, we brought traffic into the mall and the food court. But a new manager came in last winter, and without so much as talking to us, cancelled the already booked events for last summer. Just no. That's the mentality out there.

Its gorgeous out right now in Calgary, first warm day in a while. Is anyone taking out their 7 tonight?

I thought about takingit but it's a long drive for me but if your there and it's busy post it on here and I might make the drive out.

And there's a couple tracks trying to get built around calgary. Most likely one is badlands motorsports calgary. Check out their site

Just noticed your post was yesterday. Did you make it out last night? If so how was it?

Yes I went out, driving my Acura. There was a pretty good turn out. One really nice s15, but only one rx7. It was a red/black fc. The meet died down and then street racing and drifting commenced.. at another location. It was mildly entertaining.

Sounds alright. How many people actually went out to do some racing?

not many, maybe 10 cars. The fastest was a gray skyline.

Saturday night is when everyone shows up. I wont be out this weekend in the rx7 but I will be next weekend.