For more than forty years, the Agassiz Speedway has consistently provided a place of sporting entertainment in this town.
Young men and women have been able to test their limits, and the limits of the machines in their power, while circling a quarter mile track.
It's thrilling to watch from the stands, and provides an equally thrilling pastime for drivers of every age. There are multiple generations sometimes racing against each other, as well as father and daughter/son teams to cheer on.
Spend a night at the track, and you'll soon see that racing is in Agassiz's blood.
The Speedway is an integral part of the community, and runs on volunteer equity.
And it's been hit hard. While the last race night was a boon for the non-profit organization, with more than 800 people filing through their gates, the follow up theft was a sucker punch.
Sometime during the week, thieves decided to break in and take whatever they could grab for scrap metal resale (see story front page). In the pursuit of stripping down a few hundred dollars of scrap, they caused an estimated $10,000 in damages.
That's $10,000 that won't go toward future upgrades. The Speedway just finished their two year project to build new washrooms, a costly endeavor. Now, they'll have to pump up their bank account even more to keep afloat, and the only way to do that is to draw in the crowds.
They frantically cleaned up the mess and worked to get the power back up and running throughout the week, again with the elbow grease put in by volunteers.
Now, all they need is the audience and sunny Saturday.
We hope you'll support them as they get back to the starting line.