The Alberni Valley Drag Racing Association will ask the City of Port Alberni for permission to run Thunder in the Valley on Stamp Avenue again for 2020 and 2021.
The AVDRA has written asking for road closures on Stamp Avenue in order to run the annual drag racing event Aug. 7-9, 2020 and Aug. 6-8, 2021.
“With your support Thunder in the Valley 2020 would take place Aug. 8 and 9 this year,” AVDRA president Ben Veencamp wrote in a letter to city council. The letter will be considered as part of the correspondence in council’s Jan. 27 meeting, which starts at 2 p.m. Monday. The meeting will also be live-streamed at www.portalberni.ca.
“Catalyst (Paper) is once again lending their support to this event,” Veencamp wrote.
Thunder in the Valley, traditionally a quarter-mile drag race, did not run in 2019 after efforts to relocate it to the Alberni Valley Regional Airport fell through. The race has been permanently denied access at the airport after the Ministry of Forests, Lands, Natural Resource Operations and Rural Development released a statement on Jan. 14 that any races at the airport would be in contravention of an existing Crown Grant.
The races had previously been held at the airport for 15 years. The AVDRA moved them to Stamp Avenue when the runway was expanded at the airport a few years ago, with the belief it would be temporary.
