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Dead Horse Creek Speedway celebrates the successful revival of dirt racing in Morden, MB
By Meghan Diemel, Editor
All The Dirt! Racing News
MORDEN, MANITOBA — Dead Horse Creek Speedway, located in Morden, Manitoba, has a unique approach to race track management. As its mission declares, the track is, “Rallying community people who share common interests to work together and use their talents, skills, and resources for a common purpose.”
The track was built back in 2008 by Al Hildebrand, and run under the ALH Motor Speedway moniker. He ran the speedway, with races on Sunday afternoons, through the end of 2019. When the COVID-19 pandemic affected the ability of the race track to open under normal operating procedures, he sold the land to a gravel mining company.
Located in Morden, Manitoba, Canada, Dead Horse Creek Speedway hosts several two-day shows throughout each season for WISSOTA racers.
Once the restrictions were lifted, current promoter Chris Unrau and other racers decided to band together to bring racing back to Morden, initially leasing the facility from its owners and working with the owners of the property to bring dirt track racing back to the community.
“Our approach was a little different, in that we wanted it to be really community driven,” said Unrau. “We wanted it to be something that was geared towards our community, which is maybe a little different than some of the communities in the United States … for us, racing isn't really part of our culture. It’s still fairly new here, and a lot of people don't really know what dirt track racing is. They’ve never been to a speedway. They don't know what goes on there, and they’re unfamiliar with it.”
The program at Dead Horse Creek Speedway keeps fans entertained and new fans coming back to the track throughout the summer.
Noting the need to draw new fans into dirt track racing, Unrau said they made a concerted effort to add other entertainment value to their programs throughout the season. They’ve also made the race track a community-focused initiative, providing what Unrau noted is good, wholesome entertainment for the community. That community-friendly effort is further boosted by the way they’ve structured themselves as a nonprofit — the Valley Motorsports Association. As Unrau explained, with hospitals publicly owned in Canada, there was the opportunity for the VMA to give back through different benevolent initiatives and charities.
“We decided to operate as a nonprofit … with the goal of using this track and this community of people to do good things in our community,” said Unrau. “We [had] just come through this health crisis, and about the time [we got the track] going again, our local hospital announced a huge expansion. And so, we decided we wanted to take the good that comes out of this initiative and put some of that towards this new hospital that was being built.”
With the formation of the VMA, the track was buoyed by the grassroots family of race fans they were building, who not only love the sport but also wanted to give back to others. They approached the owners of the facility, and they loved the idea of the race track returning, leasing it to the VMA for $1 a year.
Late Models are a popular addition to the program at Dead Horse Creek, giving Canadian and U.S. drivers the opportunity to flex their muscle together.
“They said, ‘You guys go to town and make this thing successful.’ They put a lot of trust into us, and it was fantastic.”
Track leaders found a lot of support right away, said Unrau. The first year they held two events and Unrau said they learned a lot and made a myriad of improvements to the facility and to the track.
“There’s a bunch of things out there that had never been quite finished off,” he said. “So, we added lighting, we added more space for grandstands. We just [made] all kinds of improvements throughout the facility, and that’s still going on to this day.
“The second year, we struggled with weather a little bit,” he added, “and then this last year, in 2025 we just had a phenomenal season, and we only lost one date to the rain.”
The outside entertainment they brought in throughout the season to fill the downtime in the track’s program has also helped the race track grow its impression on new and returning race fans alike.
“I’ve got a good friend who’s a distinguished aerobatics pilot, so he’s come out and done some air shows,” Unrau said. “We’ve added fireworks, we’ve added live bands — all kinds of little things like that, that we’ve added to round out the entertainment offering to families.”
Unrau said this family-focused effort has paid dividends as far as fan buy-in.
“We see a lot of people coming [to the track], and what’s interesting is people come, and then I hear them say, ‘I’ve never seen a race before, but once it started, I just couldn’t stop watching. It was just fascinating. I loved it. I watched this whole thing from start to finish, and I had no idea what this was about.’
“And so, we’re getting a lot of feedback like that right now, and it’s been really good.”
Unrau said they continue to receive significant support from local businesses in terms of sponsorship. When they identified a need to make their grandstands more accessible to those with mobility challenges, their call for help was answered quickly.
“[We said] we want to pour some concrete pathways and make it easier for people in wheelchairs to get up to the stands,” he explained. “And within a day, I had all of the concrete and all the labor and all the supplies donated for that project. Within three weeks, we had that done this spring, and it was great to see people be able to get up to the stands in their wheelchairs and scooters.”
As nearly every race promoter can likely attest to, running the race track hasn’t been without challenges.
“It’s been really, really rewarding to see people rally behind it, but it’s still a tough, tough gig,” he said. “Racing is a tough sport in a lot of ways. It’s expensive … getting back and forth across the border hasn’t been as easy as it has been in the past, and so getting support from the American racers has been a little tough … we’d like to figure out how we could make that easier. The exchange rate is tough on us, because all of our supplies and parts and tires and everything is based in US dollars. And then we pay 40 percent on top of that. Financially, this has just been a tough gig.
“But thankfully, we’ve got a lot of support and people are really rallying behind it. So overall, it’s been great, and we’re looking forward to just keeping this thing moving ahead in the future.”
The VMA plans to continue hosting their handful of two-day events in 2026. It may not be a traditional weekly schedule, but it works for Dead Horse Creek Speedway, which is purely volunteer driven. The two-day format allows the volunteers time on the weekends to do other activities if they so choose or attend racing elsewhere. Having hosted six events in 2025, Unrau expects the group will follow a similar schedule in 2026.
“The racers really like the two-day events, because they can haul everything to the track and set it up for two events in a row,” he said. “So that part’s been working really good. Fan attendance is definitely stronger on the Saturday nights than the Friday nights, but the racing is just as good. So, I think we’re planning for the same kind of thing.”
As the VMA moves forward and continues to make improvements to the facility, Unrau said they look forward to continuing to bring racing to Morden-area fans, and possible expansions into other areas of racing into the future.
The group was able to purchase the property this year, further solidifying a bright future for dirt track racing in Manitoba. They closed on the property on December 15, 2025, so now they can say it’s officially theirs.
“We had been putting so much into it, in terms of heart and soul and energy, and we wanted to make sure that we were able to keep this for the community, so we worked hard at trying to figure out how to buy it,” he said.
“[It’s] a done deal [now], and that way we can secure this thing going forward.”
For more information on Dead Horse Creek Speedway, check them out at https://www.deadhorsecreekspeedway.ca/.