Napierville International Speedway/Napierville Dragway

History

Cliff Jaffray leased the land about 20 miles south of Montreal where an eighth-mile strip was built in late 1962. In 1964 André Gagnon spent close to $100,000 lengthening it to a quarter-mile. Located in Chateauguay, it became Quebec’s first NHRA-sanctioned strip that year, running as Napierville 1/4 Drags Ltd. with Serge “Leadfoot” Adam as manager. Its first big race, the Summer Championships in July 1964, drew close to 5,000 spectators. The Mansfield-Bower dragster from Massachusetts took top eliminator, and the Farndon-Arnold-Oksa dragster from Toronto set a track record of 176.47 MPH. The Quebec Fall Championships followed on October 4, 1964, offering more than $1,500 in cash and merchandise, with over 200 entries expected. NHRA held the strip to unblown cars in 1964 but lifted that rule after it was repaved and widened from 50 to 60 feet in 1965.

The Piston Poppers car club, which had run the races since the opening, rented the strip from Gagnon in 1966 hoping to make money, but it didn’t work out, and Gagnon took the whole operation back in 1967. That spring NHRA planned to bring a major prototype Can-Am race to Napierville. It never happened, because Gagnon decided to cash in on Expo 67 and turned the strip into a trailer park campground for the rest of the year. Before that, on June 4, 14,000 spectators came to the Labatt Championships, where Don Garlits beat Scott Wilson in the feature match race and set a track record of 7.58 at 214 MPH.

In 1968 Gagnon sold the track to roller rink tycoon Ron Bracken and two partners. Bracken, a former hell driver, had lost his left hand in a racing accident in 1952. He added lights and night racing in 1968 and had bought out his partners by 1969. Pierre Favreau of St-Bruno bought the strip in late 1979 and filed incorporation papers for Napierville International Speedway on March 11, 1980. Andre Collete, Alan Cezar and Lorne Cezar became promoters that year, and Ronald Brunet bought the track in 1985.