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Eganville – There are great chefs, talented artists and wonderful musicians, but how many skillful ice track builders do you know?
First off, you might wonder what an ice track is. Well, to begin with we’re not talking about ice cleats for boots or shoes to make walking on ice safer. We’re talking about building a racetrack for snowmobile racing. Fast snowmobiles that reach speeds of up to 100 miles per hour. And a half-mile flat oval track to be precise.
For 49 years, the Eganville Sno-Drifters’ Club – now known as the Snowdrifters Activity Centre – has been building an ice track for the Bonnechere Cup Snowmobile Races, one of the top snowmobile races in North America and likely around the world. There aren’t that many pro circuit races anymore, so there are only a few people who truly know how to build a good track.
In this area, Ralph (R.J.) Selle is the official track builder for the Bonnechere Cup Races and although this is the 49th year the races have been held at the Snowdrifters Activity Centre, which is now owned by the Township of North Algona Wilberforce, the responsibility of preparing the track has only fallen to Mr. Selle for the last four decades.
Previous to that, building the track was a volunteer effort. In the early years, starting in 1975, Smith’s Construction Company of Arnprior loaned the club a tandem truck with a water tank to flood the half-mile oval and volunteers like the late Sherwood Lett and Billy Griffith delivered load after load of water from a fire hydrant in Eganville to the track site.
Today, the tradition continues with a few changes. Mr. Selle’s company is contracted to build the track and the 2500-gallon tank on one of his trucks is filled with water from the Bonnechere behind the arena. It takes about 15 minutes to fill the truck and about the same time to empty each load.
Amazingly, in 49 years weather conditions have never prevented a track from being built. Despite all of the hullabaloo about climate change and changing weather patterns, not once in the history of the races has there never been racing because weather prevented a track from being built.
“There were a few years when it looked pretty scary,” Mr. Selle said Saturday as he emptied another load on the track. “Even last year, it was tight with mild temperatures, but it finally turned cold and we were able to build a good track.”
There were also some anxious moments going into 2025 as December was a mild month and a cold front only moved in as the calendar flipped to a new year. Adding to the concern is the fact the races are a week or two earlier this year and scheduled for the first weekend in February.
Flooding started on the dirt base half-mile oval right after New Year’s and with more than two weeks of ideal temperatures, the track is more than half completed with about 170 loads of water forming what will eventually become a seven to eight-inch base on the straight sections and 12 to 14 inches on the corners which require almost double the thickness due to the beating from the powerful sleds.
When flooding is completed heading into the February 1-2 weekend when hundreds of professional racers from across Canada and the United States will have arrived ready to compete for over $30,000 in prize money, Mr. Selle will shave the surface with his grader, making the ice smooth enough for skating on.
He knows the track like the back of his hand. He knows where the (water) springs are, the areas that could be improved with loads of gravel and sections that could be graded and made more level. He is hoping race organizers will consider investing in track improvements over the next few years.
“I would like to see them spend a little bit of money on the track and make it easier for us to build it,” he said during flooding Saturday. “Let us do some work on it and level it up a bit. If the races are going to continue it would make sense to make improvements.”
The work wouldn’t have to be done all at once; it could be spread out over a few years depending on the gate proceeds, he said.
“It is a wonderful facility, the track is one of the best on the circuit and it looks like the races are growing again in popularity,” he said. “So it should get some attention, just like you would make investments in your own business.”
While Mr. Selle is recognized as “the official track builder”, it really has become a three-generation family responsibility as his son, Ron, and grandson, Corey, are also involved. The three take turns running the truck with Ron flooding mainly on weekdays and Corey taking over about 4 p.m. and working the night shift until about 2 a.m. Then the truck is parked in a heated building for a few hours to thaw ice that has built up inside the steel tank.
Over the near 50-year history of racing here, thousands of drivers – including a much younger Ralph Selle many years ago – have provided a lot of entertainment for fans as they pursued the checkered flag and prize purses.
And while many racers have come and gone, the one thing that remains constant is the half-mile oval track. All the racers, especially the top guns, always express their thanks and gratitude to the club, now the organizing committee, for ensuring they provide one of the best tracks on the pro circuit.
While the Sno-Drifters’s Club no longer exists as an entity, when the property was transferred to the township it was done so with the understanding racing would continue at the site as long as a core group of volunteers continue on with a legacy that has put Eganville on the map when it comes to snowmobile racing.

