Winter Festival of Speed organizer Ken Staples has confirmed today that all ice-racing events scheduled to take place on Lac La Biche Lake have been cancelled.
Winter Festival of Speed organizer Ken Staples has confirmed today that all ice-racing events scheduled to take place on Lac La Biche Lake have been cancelled.
After spending several hours on the lake Wednesday testing the ice, organizers decided that conditions would be unsafe to hold a large-scale event like the Festival of Speed.
“The conditions were too poor,” said Staples. “It’ s too thin, there’ s water coming up all over the place - there’ s geysers of water coming out in a couple of places. There’ s one spot on the lake that’ s been pumping water, enough that there’ s fresh animal tracks. That’ s where they go to drink.”
He said the Festival of Speed, which sees hundreds of vehicles parked on a racing across the lake ice, as well as hundreds of people spectating, volunteering, and racing, would be too much for the ice to handle in its current condition. He added that this is tough break for the region as well as event organizers, who had been working hard to get everything together.
“It’ s a big hit, obviously,” he said. “It has a huge impact.”
Despite the events being cancelled, organizers are still trying to salvage some of them on land. Staples said he is looking for a place to potentially hold the snowmobile races and poker rally, but they have yet to determine any possible locations.
“We’ re looking at some places right now,” he said. “We want to at least do something. We don’ t want the event to just not happen.”
The POST will expand on this story as more information becomes available.
