On hand at the Motorama Custom Car and Motorsports Show, Jeff Gordon’s step father John Bickford was greeting show attendees as they checked out Gordon’s No. 3M Chevrolet and discussed details surrounding the Canadian Motor Speedway project. Though one of the questions beyond the speedway’s progress was with regards to Gordon’s announcement at the beginning of this season.
Before the 2015 season, Gordon announced that the 2015 Sprint Cup Series will be his “last full Sprint Cup Series season”. He may run other races in the future, but it won’t be the full schedule. Reflecting on his stepson’s career, Bickford says it’s great to see Gordon going out on top.
“I think he’s had a great career and I think going out on top is a great choice,” Bickford commented. “I think, from my stand point, I think that’s the way it should be. I’m just glad he has himself in a position where he can do that. Going out on top is the way all professional athletes should do it. You don’t want to go out with injury, you don’t want to go out because you can’t perform anymore – you want to go out on top.”
Beyond his career behind the wheel, Gordon has had a heavy influence in the racing world – and the speedway is set to become an extension of that. Gordon formed a partnership with race track builder Paxton Waters with the goal of building a race track in Canada – due to the fact that he has always wondered why Canada didn’t have an oval NASCAR event for the longest time.
Over the past two years, the project has gone through some delays with government delays and appeals to the building of the track, however the project seems to be turned in the right direction moving forward.
“The speedway is a long and tedious project that has a tremendous amount of individuals that we have to make sure everything is done right,” Bickford commented. “The track has to last for a long time, and in order to do that, you have to have everything in the right order, and it just takes a long time to do that. We’re very glad that motorsports people are patient and understand that because it takes a long time.
“I think we’re still a good year from actual construction of the track. Some hurdles, things like traffic program, various things like that. Last year, we had to move the creek – that’s all established now. It’s a matter of getting site plans put in front of the municipality, get them to see that – but you always have various government processes that are very slow. Not that they’re slow, it’s just a tedious process.”
