A large, overgrown oval measuring one-fifth mile end-to-end and about one-half mile around it is situated on the south side of Highway #16 east of Gladstone in the Municipality of WestLake-Gladstone. It is a former automobile racing track known as the Salt Plains Stockcar Raceway. It was operated from 1966 to about 1983 by an incorporated group called the Gladstone Stock Car Club, which had previously raced at the Gladstone Fairgrounds. In July 1968, a 23-year-old school teacher from Gladstone was killed at the track when his car went out of control and slammed into a safety barricade made of heavy wooden poles. Today, the site is a livestock pasture containing numerous automobile and tractor tires, some embedded part-way in the ground in rows.
Aerial view of the former Salt Plains Raceway alongside Highway #16 at right (July 2017)
Source: Gordon Goldsborough
Row of half-buried tires marking the track edge of the former Salt Plains Raceway (July 2017)
Source: Gordon GoldsboroughSite Location (lat/long): N50.16462, W98.70358
denoted by symbol on the map above
See also:
Historic Sites of Manitoba: Abandoned Manitoba
Historic Sites of Manitoba: Keystone Dragways / Bison Dragways (Richer, RM of Ste. Anne)
“Enthusiastic, but smaller crowd at stock car races Sunday,” Gladstone Age Press, 29 September 1965, page 1.
“Stock Car Club meet with board,” Gladstone Age Press, 8 June 1966, page 1.
“Nine Manitobans die on weekend,” Brandon Sun, 8 July 1968, page 1.
This page was prepared by Gordon Goldsborough.
Page revised: 23 July 2018
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