As I drove my Laramie Longhorn over a chain hanging low between two concrete barriers 6 kms east of Carstairs, Alberta, I turned into the high fenced area that surrounded the new Rocky Mountain Motorsports Track. There I saw RMM President and CEO, Dominic Young waiting for me in his Porsche Cayenne. I hopped in and Dominic began to drive me around the 3.5 kms of brand new track. Designed by Tilke GMBH & Co, a German track design firm developed by German engineer and racing driver Hermann Tilke in 1983, the new track in Southern Alberta has been touched by greatness, as Tilke is the recognized leader in race track design, responsible for more F1 and F2 tracks around the world than any other firm. Tilke is responsible for Abu Dhabi’s Yas Marina and Circuit of the Americas in Austin, Texas. The company rose to the challenge of adjusting for the unpredictable Albertan climate, having completed racetracks in other cold climates like Norway and Russia. 

Dominic and I cruise down the pit lane situated to the south of a 2 hectare paddock staging area. The pit lane runs the length of the front straight, and development permits are being prepared for the private member garages which will populate along its other side. The track provides the option of doing the full circuit, or choosing between the East or West loop. The East side has some elegant nuances but it is relatively flat with long acceleration zones, while the West side presents more challenges in regards to elevation change. The tire barriers alone must be worth a small fortune, all brand new rubber sitting in perfect alignment. Asphalt run-off areas allow drivers to quickly course correct, and some gravel traps are situated ahead of the finality of concrete barriers. An EMS response team will remain on-site, equipped with the hydraulic extrication tool ‘jaws of life.’ While helmets and regular seat belts are sufficient for running timing laps, drivers will be required to have their vehicle equipped with a six-point harness and roll bar for participation in any racing series. 

We take the West lap first. As we exit from turn 8, an angle in the centre of the entire expanse that cuts fairly acute, we enter an acceleration zone ahead of a more subtly angled turn 9, after which we experience a slight drop in elevation. A car at speed will get very light as it soars over that little dip, so the car will push to the outside of the unassuming looking turn. Then we hit the tightest turn on the track, 10, which swiftly takes you from facing West to East in the blink of an eye. Drivers will drop down to a crawl to manage that one, and find themselves on a downhill slope as they glide through turn 11 and enter another acceleration zone. Coming out of turn 12 ahead, Dominic shares his enthusiasm for the track’s signature feature, an extended uphill into turn 13, a wide sweeping 270 degree turn, at the apex of which the 8 degree uphill grade transforms into a 5 degree downhill, so you suddenly get light right at the apex, and coast your way down to turn 14, the track’s only off-camber turn - sloping to the outside - so you have to fight to come through, or else find yourself careening through the extensive run off provided there for those that don’t make it. If you do make it, you’ll swing through turn 16, and in the right car, with the right driver, be hitting 225 km/hr through the front straight and hit the East side’s 112 degree turn 1 going 190 km/hr. 

The multiple berms surrounding the track are 8 to 16 metres high. These mitigate sound, but they also create a feature of the Rocky Mountain Motorsports track that is unique in North America - the sense when you’re driving on it that you’re alone. Without a car immediately ahead or to the rear, one drives between these little canyons and can’t see much else of the landscape except the immediate area. You’re treated to an interesting vantage point from the perspective of the front straight, seeing different levels of the track’s elevation and turn 6, 9, and 10 through gaps in the berms, which have been seeded, and will be green within a couple years.

In southern Alberta weather events like flooding, heavy snowfall, hail, and lightning are common, and the first line of defence for RMM and Tilke has been proper construction, with much consideration given to drainage: 1600 metres of pipe drainage sits imperceptibly beneath the track, completed with the help of local engineering firm Idea Group, and the contractors at Whissell Contracting and Volker Stevin. Final touches and slight amendments have been numerous, with time consuming and reiterative geotechnical studies informing the build along the way. 

The timing facilities for the track will employ MyLaps technology. Typically this involves installing a timing loop just under the top of the asphalt and a transponder on the vehicle, but MyLaps is developing a more advanced system that uses GPS which RMM has opted to buy. 

The marshal system will utilise an electronic light board system with boards ahead of every turn, to signal that the upcoming piece of track is safe, a collection of 24 closed circuit cameras that monitor every square foot of the track, and a central control room with a couple of employees who can make manual adjustments to the signals as needed. 

The Rocky Mountain Motorsports Company has been Dominic’s prime mission for ten years. Consultations and contributions by the track designers, sound engineers, civil engineers, municipalities, and prime contractors have been extensive. With thirty-five million dollars spent and two million tonnes of dirt moved, one can only imagine the amount of planning that went into the accomplishment. Dominic and co-founder Dan Petrin formulated the idea for the track in 2012, bringing on investors in 2013. The investor group is representative of twelve individuals who are passionate about the sport of racing. They have a major sponsor in Continental Tires who supplied the incredible amount of tires used for rubber barriers in exchange for a couple of track days a year and substantial ad space on the wide sweeping wall of turn 1. Within the next two years, Dominic expects the track to have reached its 350 member capacity. A realistic goal, as they already have 140 members, four months ahead of their opening season, with interest coming not only from Southern Alberta, but also Edmonton, Manitoba, Saskatchewan, British Columbia, and even the United States, which speaks to the desirability of the track’s topographic design. 

The business model operates much like that of a golf course, with annual dues associated with membership. Members are granted exclusive access to the track fifty percent of the year. The other fifty percent of the schedule remains open for daily acccess opportunities; open to car clubs and individuals. The cost for exclusive public access will vary depending on the day of the week (Saturdays being the most expensive) and, to a lesser extent, the season, ranging from $11,000/day to $16,000/day. RMM will offer performance driving training, open to both the public and to private members. Here the price will vary as well ($850/day and up) for beginner, intermediate, and expert classes, which will run from one to three days according to experience level. The track has arranged for appearances from Red Deer’s own Parker Thompson, who came in third for the season as lead driver for Porsche Canada in the 2021 Carrera Cup North America Finale, after winning at COTA and Indianapolis. 

There’s some controversy in the air surrounding the new track, given the 50/50 member vs. public access strategy, which has some considering the experience out of reach, as the RMM website notes that any individual non-member will be unlikely to gain access to the track for more than two days out of the year. Dominic assures that the statement was made in the interest of putting forth a conservative estimate, in order to avoid building up unfair expectations given the high level of demand expected in their opening year, and supposes that the number will likely become three days out of the year. 

It comes as no surprise that Dominic and his team had an endless line of regulatory hoops to jump through to get the track built, some more sensible than others. Naturally, it’s been a high priority to go the extra mile to ensure that the existence of the track doesn’t disturb surrounding communities. RMM worked with the county on creating a sound bylaw, which sets limits that they must abide by. They measure sound levels every second that the track is in operation, and will compile a report for the county every month. Some of the berms were extended for sound mitigation purposes and tall wooden fences were built to block sound from spilling onto the highway. Two and a half million dollars were spent paving range roads that extend beyond the track’s property lines, and a storm pond was built for future use in a facility that would be used to service a police driver training academy, the plan for which has yet to be developed due to municipal police budget constraints. 

One regulatory barrier that has led to some folks expressing consternation on social media is the absence of a drag strip at the track. The county put a specific prohibition in the land use bylaw to prevent the building of a strip for drag racing at the RMM track. Dominic supposes that the reasons for this occlusion included higher noise levels, and the presumption that a drag strip would bring crowds, littering, and a higher risk of accidents - many county residents were quite vocal in their opposition to seeing a drag strip be built in their neighbourhood. While it seems as though Alberta Transportation has been mainly on-side for RMM’s proposal from the outset, it’s no small feat in recent years to gain approval from government bodies, be they municipal, whether city or county, or Alberta Environment and Parks, for such a venture. 

Despite the challenges, it’s cause for celebration that a group of entrepreneurs decided to invest their time and money into creating an economic opportunity in rural Alberta at the dizzying level of technical sophistication and style that they have pursued. The next major capital outlay, roughly another thirty-five million, for RMM will go towards the structural development of the property: private garages, the central control room, and a commercial zone where related and supporting businesses can set up shop. In providing this new tourist destination for Alberta, the presence of the Rocky Mountain Motorsports track will create new jobs in rural Alberta. From the construction for building out its infrastructure, to the thirty-five or so full-time positions that will need to be filled to support the track’s continued operations, including scheduling managers, member liaisons, administrative employees, and track marshals, as well as the roles that will be created within the retail block. As you would imagine, RMM has eager corporate partners in luxury dealerships such as the Ferrari Maserati Dealership, as well as the Jack Carter Group, who will garner access allowing them to host events for their customers and perform product demos at the track. 

While no solid date has been set for the track’s official opening day, the expectation is for it to occur in late Spring. They are entering their formal sound testing phase imminently, and safety testing with vehicles at speeds upwards of 200 km/hr has already been completed. There’s a final layer of thin surface asphalt that remains to be poured, which necessitates nice hot weather if this final touch is to be absolutely seamless. 

Given the considerable trials of the past two years, it would seem that the Rocky Mountain Motorsports racetrack is providing an admirable service: seeding the ground for local economic opportunity, community, and passion. As we traverse the pit access lane and embark on our third lap, Dominic muses contentedly; “so if you’re good at racing, you come around here and you clip the apex tight, and then you swing out - your speed and momentum will bring you out to the edge of the track here, and then you come in, and again you’re searching to clip that apex a little bit... I never get tired of doing this.”

-RA