Following Parts Canada’s withdrawal of sponsorship for the Canadian Superbike series comes news that Toronto Motorsport Park, more commonly referred to as Cayuga and the home of the SOAR motorcycle racing group, is up for forced sale.
A classified ad in the Globe & Mail placed by commercial realtor DTZBarnicke lists the facility as available under Power of Sale. That means it’s either bankrupt or has defaulted on financial obligations to backers, either banks or private
Autoblog.com says that they’d spoken to owner Uli Bieri, a former racer and exotic car dealer, who denied rumours the track was for sale. Shortly after that, the ad appeared. Autoblog says that “Bieri’s financial backers have lost confidence in the possibility that they will recoup their investment and have pulled the plug.”
The track first was used as a drag strip in 1955 on an abandoned air field, and has gone through several iterations and owners before being purchased by Bieri in 1997. Bieri added a road course to the drag strip (and was in constant trouble with neighbours and the township during construction and early operation).
SOAR owner Ken McAdam told us today: “Just found out myself. They sent me an email this afternoon and didn’t say a word. Doesn’t really matter to us one way or the other. We can either run 100% at GBM (Grand Bend Motorplex) or work with the new management. Hell if the price is right maybe buy it.”
Bieri, a former racer, has been in financial difficulties before. In the early 1990s his Scarborough dealership for exotic cars was investigated by the RCMP, leading to his arrest and eventual loss of his licence to sell vehicles in Ontario.
