It is not that Windsor Mayor Drew Dilkens opposes the idea of a drag strip in the city for motor-enthusiasts to show off their muscle cars, but he doubts the proposal would work within city boundaries.
Dilkens told BlackburnNews.com he has fond memories of visiting Checkered Flag on County Road 42 when he was a kid.
"I know it was difficult then for them to sustain operations and I also know there were a lot of complaints with respect to noise," he said. "I think we would have that challenge anywhere in the city. I can't envision a place you could put a drag strip and not have noise challenges."
Dilkens comments come after a petition on Change.org called on the city to open a drag strip.
Guiseppe Prestia launched it about a week ago with an original goal of getting 2,500 signatures. He got 300 in one day and the goal has been adjusted to 5,000.
Prestia believes giving people a place to race will actually improve traffic on city roads.
“This will highly decrease all the illegal street racing and shenanigans that have been going on the past few years,” read his argument on the petition.
Dilkens said he's happy to speak with those in favour of a track and has seen the petition.
"It might be best for the organizers to find a parcel of land in a county municipality where you don't have a lot of residents living nearby," said Dilkens saying he is open to discussing the proposal.
"Even if a private business came forward saying they wanted to build it, I'm not sure there's a parcel of land if we're looking at our long-term plan -- that this would fit in without causing friction somewhere down the road," he added.