The River’s Edge Road Course at Mission Raceway Park has just received a face-lift that fans will love. Gone is the rickety wooden grandstand structure, replaced by a large and new (to us) set of sturdy metal grandstands, built on a raised foundation for improved viewing. The big story on this initiative is how our members joined together to get it done.
At the end of 2017, the SCCBC grandstands temporarily set up for the 2017 season were taken down to facilitate the rebuilding of the base in that installation area. Around 15 truckloads of fill were dumped to elevate the viewing area which had settled over the past 15 years. SCCBC member Ryan Jansen brought a large excavator and set about the task of preparing the area. Ryan, Norm Shaw and Ray Stec placed large concrete shoring blocks were used to form a corral for the new grandstand base. These blocks elevated the stands and ensured that viewers on even the lowermost rows would have a great view of the racing action. Ryan and his excavator then filled in the corral and then leveled the gravel on top.
Fast forward to April 2018. Now that the area prepared last fall had a few months to settle, it was time to set up the stands for the 2018 season. Bruce Yeo and Ray spent a rainy Friday compacting and finish leveling the base area. The next day a work party started in earnest under partly sunny skies. A great turnout of 21 volunteers from SCCBC and the Vintage Racing Club of BC (VRCBC) made quick work of building the stands, largely owing to the prior experience in grandstand building on the part of some of our crew. This was a true example of the “many hands make light work” axiom, even though there was some very heavy lifting.
The stands were erected in short order and the crew was finished by mid afternoon. Although some small amount of detail work still needs to be completed, just under 500 seat stands are now up, and the view from the top is outstanding. From the prime spot, you can see almost the entire track! We look forward to filling those seats in 2018 and beyond.
The stands will be officially dedicated to our long time club member Ron Householder, who passed away about a year ago. Ron made a generous donation to the club that went towards the purchase of the stands.
A big thank you from everyone at SCCBC to the hard-working crew that came out to make it happen.
Mike Bailey
Jack Burnett
Lynne Burnett
Al Cruickshank
Scott Dougans
Stanton Guy
Al Harvey
Paul Haym
Bruce Jamieson
Ryan Jansen
Craig Johnson
Rob Johnston
Michael Lensen
Heather McEwan
Keray McEwan
Hugh Richards
Keith Robinson
Norm Shaw
Darcy Smith
Ray Stec
Roland Stec
Roger van der Marel
Bruce Yeo
Mike Zosiak