Canby Speedway, July 23, 2005 2005 July 31
While planning my trip to the plains states, I knew I wanted to catch a race in western Minnesota. I decided on Canby Speedway over a couple of other tracks because this race was being held during the county fair. I really enjoy going to races during fairs. You get to sample the fair and all sorts of food on sticks, look at farm animals, and it is just an overall fun experience and the races seem to have an extra buzz about them. Unfortunately many tracks that are on fair grounds don’t run during fair weeks because the track is needed for other things.
The Yellow Medicine County Fair has been around for over 100 years. Hopefully it will be around for a lot longer but the crowds at the fair the day I was there were pretty low. Most of the locals blamed it on the 100 degree weather which I’m sure was a factor. I spent about an hour talking to a guy who participated in rendezvous. These rendezvous were originally held by fur trading companies in the 1800′s when they would go west and bring goods to trade with the trappers and Native Americans in exchange for furs. Apparently this was cheaper then the trappers coming back east to St.Louis or elsewhere to restock. It also seems that this way the trading companies could also trade with the Native American tribes during these rendezvous. This guy knew a lot about the time period and how these things worked and it was really interesting and educational to talk to him.
The race track had no shortage of fans to fill the small grandstands which I’d estimate hold between 500 and 600 people. A far cry from the 10 to 15 thousand that Red River Valley probably holds. On tap on the small 1/4 mile clay oval were Wissota stock car and modified classes. While the car counts weren’t great, there wasn’t a lot of passing, I had a fun time mostly because of the fair atmosphere and the well run show. It probably isn’t worth travelling from NJ to go to a show at Canby but I wouldn’t hesitate to stop by the track if I was in the area again.
My 2005 racing stats after the July 23′rd race at Canby:
Races: 27
Tracks: 17 (8 new)
States: 12 (2 new)