Flashback Friday: Winnipeg Canada’s Bison Dragaways

Drag racing may have never been quite as big or broad for our neighbors to the north, but much like here in the states, those in Canada have a few drag racing boneyards that remain or once remained on their soil. And one of those was the Bison Dragaways, located in Winnipeg, Manitoba.

Although perhaps best known as the Bison Dragaways, the track did not in fact begin operation under that name. Under the guidance of Don and Glen Remple, the Keystone Dragaways put drag racing on the map in the Manitoba region beginning in 1964 and continuing through the 1960’s and into the early 70’s, and it was in 1971 that Bill Balicky took over the reigns of the track and renamed it to Bison.

Amenities were said to be few and far between, but it was the booked-in match races and local rivalries that kept Bison Dragaways thriving as both professional and casual racers alike navigated it’s quarter mile strip of asphalt and fans poured through the gates. Bison operated under NHRA sanctioning for its entire existence and hosted annual Division 5 events that brought plenty of the most famous names in history of the sport through the pit gates.

Bison Dragaways met its unfortunate demise in 1977, just six years after Balicky took over, as it succumbed to the pursuit of progress in the form of a major Canadian pipeline that ran directly through the property. And while Bison and its 13 year run may be gone today, those in Winnipeg that were there to see it and experience it certainly recall that 1,320 feet of blacktop that was all their own.