Western Speedway (Langford)

In 1984 owner Frank Wille extended both ends of the front straight on his D-shaped paved oval so it could hold a 1/16-mile drag strip. He wanted to grow his racing program and draw new fans with something besides oval stock car racing. The oval had opened in 1954. The South Island Straight Liners Racing Association sanctioned the drags, with four classes: street, pro street, pro comp and motorcycles. After several rainouts the strip opened on April 29, 1984, with 50 entries. On June 17, 76 entries raced before just 756 fans, the most cars yet but the smallest crowd of the weekly Sunday program, so on June 29 the drags moved to Friday nights to try to lift attendance. The speedway then cut ties with the association, saying it was inexperienced and couldn’t put on an interesting show, and from August 24 it contracted Hi-Pro Racing, led by Mark Henrickson, to sanction and run the races. By 1987 the association was back, and it stayed for the rest of the track’s history. Purses kept rising. The Northwest Bracket Nationals on August 15, 1987, had a $13,500 purse, and Debbie Schuflita won $3,500 from a 51-car field. In 1989 the drags moved from Sunday to Saturday with thirteen dates, and the strip was straightened, with a new concrete starting pad and a new control tower. Racing went back to Sundays from 1990 to mid-1992, then to Friday nights, and after that the day varied among Friday, Saturday and Sunday. Western Speedway was sold in October 2020, and whether the track would keep running wasn’t known.