Volunteers who groom the race track of Burns Lake’s Cold Smoke Drags say they had a major setback last week when one or more unauthorized snowmobilers damaged the track.
According to the Burns Lake Snowmobile Club, the incident took place over the weekend of Jan. 7-8, 2017.
“There has been a dedicated volunteer who has put in many hours packing and grooming the track in preparation for the races this year; however, all of this hard work has been ruined by a few inconsiderate people who were up on the race track running it backwards and putting large deep trenches in the surface,” said Dennis Firomski, president of the Burns Lake Snowmobile Club.
Firomski said it will take volunteers several hours to fix the damage.
“The rut that they dug, now it’s frozen, we have to cut that, I’m not sure how we are going to do it,” he said. “It’s going to take a lot of hours.”
“This type of vandalism can cause a serious risk to racers when they are travelling at high speeds,” he continued. “We are currently trying to fix the damage, but it will not be an easy feat for our volunteers.”
“We’re getting to the point that we’re a little tired of people doing that kind of stuff,” he added.
Although this was the first time that the Cold Smoke Drags’ race track was damaged, Firomski said unauthorized people have continuously been seen at the property. The club is now looking into installing surveillance cameras to prevent these kinds of incidents.
Firomski said the club has not contacted the RCMP about the vandalized race track.
“We don’t know who did this, but the word is out and sooner or later we’ll find out,” he said.
The Burns Lake Snowmobile Club is urging the public to come forward with any information by calling 250-692-4172.
Firomski said he is confident that the race track will be fixed before this year’s Cold Smoke Drags, which take place on Feb. 18, 2017.