Stampede Speedway

The Stampede Speedway didn’t last long and was only in business from 1980-1985. A dirt track, it was once located well away from Calgary, so noise from racing was not a problem. Today, the city is encroaching on the lands and I bet it’s on borrowed time. The general area is an industrial park and perhaps soon the old race track will be a site for warehouses or factories. This was the second track with this name. An earlier one operated in the late 1960s elsewhere in town.

In spite of being closed some three decades ago, and later demolished, there is still some remains left behind to reminded us of what once stood here. The banked oval is grassed over, but is easily recognizable. A wall of tires still protects the infield. Bits of sidewalk and foundation remains can be found in the grass here and there, and at one end the track, a pile of jumbled concrete can be seen.

A police cruiser followed us into the site, no doubt thinking we were up to no good. It took a bit of convincing for the officer to believe we were here as historians and not trouble makers. Being it’s such an obscure site, with so little to see really, I guess we understood his concerns.

Another speedway we visited recently…
Figure 8…of FEAR!

Short Subjects: reports that for any number of reasons are brief in nature. They might be updates to older articles, previews of posts planned or not yet published, brief snippets of things that don’t fit in anywhere else or subjects that are so obscure that information on them can’t be found.

If you need any more information on what we talked about here, by all means contact us!

Date of adventure: November, 2015.
Location: Calgary, AB.
The old race track is private property. BIGDoer.com visited with permission.

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Stampede Speedway

Remains of the Stampede Speedway in Calgary – a banked corner is seen here.

Stampede Speedway Calgary

Pretty much all that’s left is a wall of old tires and the grassed-over track.

Calgary Stampede Speedway

Looking down a straight-away.

22 responses

  1. Dan Downey says:

    I raced at circle 8 ,1/4 mile paved oval the precursor to stampede speedway, and the new dirt track. We all chipped in free labour and materials to help the owners of the new dirt track get off the ground after circle 8 finished operations. The fame of circle 8 helped create the new dirt track in 1980. Circle 8 was home to Sportsman, street stocks, mini stocks and the Claimers, also special sprint races over the years, at the end of centre street just past nose creek and split rock. People used to sit on the hill to the south of split rock to watch the action for free and the actual stands were always filled to capacity. Bill Powers the best announcer in Calgary who was unfortunately murdered a few years back was part of the magic. From special events where Pete Van Dyke was dropped from a crane in a car onto a car to figure 8 racing to jumping over cars on a motorcycle and the famous announcers, flag man, and owners who paid out us racers faithfully. Circle 8 speedway is and was the backbone of Calgary oval racing, then the dirt track and then race city speedway. The organization was called Stampede city auto racing association or SCARA.

    Dan Downey

    • Dan, from the bottom of out hearts, thanks for sharing these amazing memories. It’s like we were there. Sadly, it seems car racing has gone the way of the dinosaur, as have many great pastimes.

  2. Rwatier says:

    I raced on that track once ,if I remember right it was just before race city opened or just After it opened ,I think it was just after that it closed

  3. Kyle Levitt says:

    Love all the old race track coverage.

  4. Terry Jones says:

    Good fire pit and better beer 🍻 lots of good times.

  5. Connie Biggart says:

    That cop giving a funny look when questioning what we were doing there. Priceless.

  6. Lorne Ottway says:

    I worked at the original Stampede Speedway in 1965. It was straight north on 4th street N.W., just outside the city limits.

  7. Mark White says:

    I wonder how much tetraethyl lead contaminates that soil from all the “circle burners” going round and round burning high test leaded aviation gas. I guess that’s why they did those sorts of things on industrial land.

  8. Keith Nikles says:

    Spent many weekends there!

  9. George Stringam says:

    It’s really sad when places like race tracks go down. All the anticipation and excitement that was once there is gone. Maybe when you stand out in the infield on a calm day and conditions are right, you can almost hear the roar of engines and the cheers from the crowd. Yeah, I can get a little morose but I was the resident photographer at Bridge County for (5) years. They ran it for 20 years and decided to call it a day. I still get a twinge every time I drive past that track.

  10. Gail Paish Walt says:

    Sad Calgary has no race track…I took my 3 sons to many races at Circle 8 and Race City…

  11. Greg McKee says:

    Really loving these posts!

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