Shannonville Motorsport Park started out as Nelson International Raceway, a grand name for the short, go kart based track east of Belleville, Ontario. Nelson’s background was a shop owner and racer in the Toronto area, a former Brit Bike runner who was central to Honda Canada’s early success.
A careful inspection of images from the sole Canadian Motorcycle Grand Prix at Mosport (now Canadian Tire Motorsport Park) in the fall of 1967 shows Nelson in the pits, helping the works Honda runners, including legendary Mike Hailwood.
The final ever race at Harewood Acres southeast of Hamilton, the key club track of the 1960s for Canadians, was won by Mike Duff on a CR750 Honda 750-4 entered by Nelson in September 1970 – this combo also set the all-time outright lap record.
Nelson’s main store on Queen street East in Toronto morphed into Ontario Honda, new owners Murray Brown and Rick Andrews continuing the location’s tradition to support many racers until the store closed in 2003. Brown had competed at the Canadian G.P. back in 1967, too.
However the loss of Harewood resonated with Nelson, who grew up competing at short circuits in Ireland and understood the value of tighter “scratchers” tracks. Through the 1970s, motorcycle road racing action centred on Mosport, not very bike friendly at the time.
So, Nelson moved to Belleville and, joined by friends, purchased land between Highway 401 and Highway 2, building a rental Go Kart for summer tourists that opened in 1974. The story was that this layout would be extended for motorcycle race use, and sure enough an event was announced for late fall, 1976 – Thanksgiving weekend.
The venue was barely finished, dirt and construction debris close to the edge of the new pavement, but a race did take place in very cool and wet conditions, with lots of snow on the Saturday! (There were no Friday practice sessions in the 1970s).
I was just getting into racing at the time, and a flyer on the wall at a local shop (formerly owned by Nelson!) point the way to S.M.P. – a drive most eastern racers have made many times during the intervening years.
At the time, the major races for eastern Canadian competition was in Quebec: the Brimaco Series offered by the Eastveld Brothers (War Lie Racing) of Montreal focused mostly at Sanair International, near Granby, south of Montreal.
Ontario racers had a couple of races at Mosport (Victoria Day Sprint in May and Canadian Motorcycle Association National “G.P.” in July) but mostly travelled to Nelson Ledges in the U.S. and risked penalties to compete in the sponsored Brimaco tour at Sanair – considered an outlaw series by the National sanctioning group, the CMA.
Back in 1976, almost everybody raced their street bike, with a few people owning pure race bikes, mostly Yamahas. The bulk of the machines were two-strokes, and Yamaha’s lightweight RD Series was the most likely bike for the ambitious young racers. Superbikes, just formalized as a class in the U.S., were not yet a thing in Canada.
Gear for racing was hard to come by, and lots of people wore their street jackets (often by Brimaco!) and leather motocross pants, taped together. Boots were hard to source, most using Greb Kodiaks work boots that invariably got ruined from dragging on the ground. Everybody wore a Bell Star Helmet, maybe even in International Orange rather than white, if you didn’t mind spending the extra ten dollars.
Tire choice was mostly limited to Dunlop’s long running TT100 or K81 series, although at Nelson International in the fall of 1976, a few were running the just-arrived sporting Michelins. The top racers would use American sourced Goodyear slicks, with some early Dunlop slicks also coming from the United Kingdom.
The marquee star at Shannonville was Jim Allen, the former Yamaha Canada-backed racer supported by Erine White Racing, a Yamaha Shop east of Toronto. Allen had a unique Egli-framed Yamaha TZ750 four-cylinder two-stroke, as well as the most common race bike of this era, Yamaha’s over-the-counter TZ250 two-stroke twin.
Allen won the Unlimited Open Feature race, after his only serious opposition expired in a cloud of oil smoke entering turn one. That challenge came from the bizarre but effective Curtis framed Honda 750-based machine of Robbie Mieklejohn, built by his buddy Michael Crompton, both former Nelson employees. The failure of an expensive aftermarket rod grenaded the Honda.
Meanwhile, earlier in the program, U.S. front runner Allen had run up front as expected in the Expert 250 G.P. class, but twice fell off on the newest corner, the second to last left hander added to get the track up to minimum required length. These embarrassing moments meant that Announcer Pat Gonslaves named the turn after the soon-to-retire Allen, and the corner retains Jim’s name to this day. Allen went on to be a central figure in World racing through his efforts on behalf of Dunlop tires.
1977 was the first full year of racing at Nelson, with action focused on motorcycles – there were races affiliated with the CMA as well as the controversial War Lie Racing band from Montreal. With about a dozen bike races per year, Nelson quickly became the centre for racing in Eastern Canada.
Nelson sold to car racer Jack Boxstrom in 1979, with the aim that Boxstrom could continue with the never-ending search for sponsors and the goal to expand the venue. Nelson continued on as Track Manager, his wife and daughter also working at the track to run the concessions.
The second-ever National for the Superbike class took place in the fall of 1980 at S.M.P., the new street-bike based category very much influenced by the big grids turning out at the newly named Shannonville Motorsport Park.
Boxstrom brought strong support from Castrol and quickly realized that motorcycles were the ticket to development of his track. The ground-breaking RACE School started in 1981, running record numbers of young street bike owners though the Shannonville paddock.
Molson Breweries signed up to sponsor a big summer race in 1982, the Superbike Challenge, and soon Shannonville spun off a National tour organized by RACE (Racing Associates Canada Events), a sanctioning group affiliated with the track. (Full disclosure: I started working for Shannonville in 1979 and was part of their RACE management group from the outset)
All this activity made Shannonville a focal point of the booming motorsport era of the 1980s, and Quebec Insurance Czar (Motoplan) Raymond David started negotiating to purchase the track in 1985.
That deal came apart over the winter, and in 1986 car race team owner David sponsored ambition Montrealer Alan Labrosse (winning an AMA F1 race!) and started a Yamaha supported race school at Sanair, FAST: Facility for Advanced Superbike Training. Eventually Labrosse handed FAST over to rising Superbike star Michel Mercier, previously the Quebec language instructor for the RACE Schools.
Eventually David and Boxstrom resumed negotiations, and the track was sold during the winter of 1986/’87, with Boxstrom staying on as overall manager and plans confirmed to use the available land to build a much bigger facility that could host a wide variety of activities.
Part of this development involved the Spenard-David Racing School, an advanced auto program that moved to S.M.P. (along with FAST) and ran open wheeled F2000 racers, as well as GM Production cars, with considerable success. Richard Spenard, a former team-mate of F1 legend Gilles Villeneuve, ran the school while racing in the various major tobacco-backed car series of the era. Eventually Jacques Villeneuve would work as a mechanic at Spenard-David at Shannonville, prior to embarking on an incredible career that included Indy 500 success and a Formula One title with Rothmans-Williams.
Shannonville expansion was supervised by Nelson, fulfilling his ambitions for purchasing the land ten years prior. Nelson suffered a heart attack during the production of the 4-kilometer, 15-turn updated version of S.M.P., and Alan Labrosse stepped in to manage the venue and complete construction of the signature big grandstand on the front straight.
At the start of 1987, Yamaha Canada’s Rueben McMurter hustled back from the Match Races in the U.K. to face off against the brand-new Honda Interceptor of Shannonville hero Art “the dart” Robbins in the Motoplan-Castrol RACE Regional debut of the new layout.
The next few years featured great crowds at S.M.P., with the front straight grandstand packed and the back straight stands (moved there from turn one by a recovered Nelson) managed the overflow. Once a club racer at S.M.P. on a small Honda street bike single, Jordan Szoke built his career at S.M.P. and his unparalleled career success is linked to the track, even though it isn’t one of his favorites!
Currently, Regional racing at S.M.P. is run by the Grummett family and their RACEMoto group, a new set up that offered a revamped program that was successful at Shannonville in 2025. Plans are underway to hold a special event in celebration of the 50th anniversary of motorcycle racing at S.M.P. on the weekend of September 25-27, with the focus on Pro Superbike competition.
This fall weekend will also include the televised final round of the MotoMini National Qualifying series for Ohvale racers organized by Toni Sharpless, those races slated for the Saturday to establish the Team Canada line-up in November’s Valencia World Final. Stay tuned for more details!
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