Track heats up for competitive summer

by Dave S. Clark
Wednesday May 18, 2005

Sherwood Park News — At 49-years-old Dan Beith sold his business and threw out his cell phone, destined to retire and get out of the corporate business world. But he retired with goals. He was building a race track and wanted to find a rising star in the go-kart world.

Beith’s track, called Stratotech Park, located north of Fort Saskatchewan 4 km off Manning Freeway, has become very successful. However, Beith didn’t build the track as a business venture.

“I’m not in it for the money,” said Beith. “This was my retirement opportunity.”

The lifelong racing fan was inspired to build the track to spend more time with his son, Chris, who is now leading the youth division of the kart league.

Beith only started racing karts at the age of 45, many years since he raced motocross as a teen -- his last racing experience. Now, he is at the top of the adult league.

In July, he will find out if his bid to host the Canadian karting nationals in 2006 was successful. He is competing against a track in Calgary to hold the week-long event that would attract 150 drivers.

Beith spends all his waking time at the park. When he’s not on the track he’s in the pro shop, the office, or the classroom. His long hours have paid off. He thinks he has found his star, 14-year-old Sean MacDonell.

“He’s an amazing driver,” said Beith.

MacDonell is an ex-sprint car driver who has been driving karts for the past two years. According to Beith he is the fastest driver from Sherwood Park and one of the fastest in Alberta. Beith hopes to send him to the national competition in Montreal later this year.

Stratotech has grown to be a very popular track. The entire summer is already booked solid with events. Tonight, two professional drivers turned coaches, Daniel Lamothe and Dennis Yasar, are coming to the track to coach the rookie drivers.

Beith’s biggest challenge was building the track. He originally planned to build it on a 20-acre parcel of land near what is now Millennium Place. However, after much public outcry about noise and other effects it could have on the community, his application was turned down.

But Beith isn’t bitter. He said the location he eventually got was much more suited to his needs, and is 15 acres larger.

“The track is just big enough to run motorcycles,” said Beith. “Any smaller and we would only have been able to run karts.”

The track is also just large enough for cars, however, passing would be impossible, as the pavement isn’t wide enough. Last season the track was used by police to test the handling of their cruisers.

Beith said he still gets noise complaints regularly, even though the track passed noise limit tests.

“Nobody wants a race track developed in their back yard.”

But despite the complaints, Beith said most of the feedback he gets is very positive.

He said he thinks he has almost built the perfect track, and has no plans to change it in the future.