Southwinds Dragway/Saskatoon International Raceway/Saskatchewan International Raceway (SIR)
ActiveActive Still racing today.
Saskatchewan International Raceway is the Saskatoon-area strip formerly known as Southwinds.
- Nick Kozak ran 182.14 MPH on opening day in 1966
- Don Kohut set a 7.05 at 211.34 MPH record in the Royal Canadian dragster in 1970
- The RCMP charged more than 130 people with liquor violations at a 1975 race
- Raced
- 1966-present
- Province
- Saskatchewan
- Raced on
- Built as a drag strip
- First race
- October 2, 1966
- Track
- 1/4 mile
- Surface
- Paved (resurfaced 1995)
- Address
- Saskatoon, SK
- People
- Les Howard, builder, owner and manager (1966-)
- Vic Halabura, lessee (1982-83)
- Saskatchewan Drag Racing Association, operator and buyer (1986-)
- Sanction
- WDRA
- Elevation
- 1,677 ft (511 m)
- Coordinates
- 51.97872, -106.54940
- Contact
- racesir.com [email protected]
Big races
Southwinds Showdown
The track's flagship night, with jet and alcohol funny cars, dragsters, Pro Mods and nitro bikes; the 2026 edition marked 60 years of racing at the site.
Home Quarter Drag & Drive
Three-day event mixing morning quarter-mile passes with afternoon road drives across Saskatchewan.
Fall Finale
Big-payout bracket race that drew 150 entries from across Western Canada in its first year (2025).
Street Legal nights and SIR Points Series
Volunteer-run street-legal nights for cars and bikes plus a points series for Super Pro, Pro, Sportsman, Jr. Dragster and Jr. Street classes.
Miles Of Mayhem
A drag-and-drive: racers drive their street cars from track to track over several days and race at each stop.
Home 1/4 Drag and Drive
A drag-and-drive: racers drive their street cars from track to track over several days and race at each stop.
History
Les Howard bought land from Walter Pfeifer in 1966 and built this strip seven miles southeast of Saskatoon for $200,000. It opened on October 2, 1966, and despite a damp track Nick Kozak ran 182.14 MPH in his AA/FD. Track problems delayed the 1967 opener until June 4, when 3,000 fans came. Howard ran the racing himself in the early years. The name changed to Saskatoon International Raceway in 1970, the same year bracket racing started. On June 21, 1970, Don Kohut set a track record of 7.05 at 211.34 MPH in his “Royal Canadian” dragster. The return road was finally paved in 1973, and NHRA sanctioned the track by at least that year. Night racing came back in 1974 after a few years without it. During a race on June 1, 1975, the RCMP raided the track and charged more than 130 people with liquor violations. Howard leased the track to Vic Halabura in 1982-83. The Saskatchewan Drag Racing Association (SDRA) took over running it in 1986, put $100,000 into improvements and renamed it Saskatchewan International Raceway, or SIR. The SDRA made its first down payment toward buying the track in 1993 and resurfaced it in 1995.
Background
The Saskatchewan Drag Racing Association, a non-profit that had run SIR since the 1980s, bought it outright from Les Howard in the 1990s. It's an IHRA-sanctioned quarter mile, and ahead of the 50th Big Go in August 2016 it got fresh asphalt from the concrete launch pad to the second turnoff, a repaved return road and more grandstands.
Video
More in Saskatchewan
- Status unknown Closed, but nobody has checked how much of the site survives, or the exact spot was never found. Estevan Airport Drags 2003-14
- Status unknown Closed, but nobody has checked how much of the site survives, or the exact spot was never found. Yorkton Airport Drags 2004-18