A cross-border race event at the Langley Quarter Midget track in Aldergrove drew fewer American competitors than usual, likely because it happened to coincide with the July 4 U.S. holiday weekend down south.
A busy weekend at the Langley Quarter Midget track in Aldergrove pic.twitter.com/fGbeBwZqhl
— Langley Advance Times (@LangleyTimes) July 5, 2026
Ken Shrimpton, LQMA promotions director, said they expected the scheduling of the Northern Shootout would either mean a bump up in the numbers of Americans taking advantage of their holiday weekend, or it could mean a drop if many decided to stay home for the celebration of the American 250th anniversary.
“We have approximately 10 families from all across Washington,” Shrimpton estimated, down slightly from the usual 15.
“Some of our racing families did stay home to celebrate the birthday but the ones that did come up are having a great time,” Shrimpton told the Langley Advance Times.
“We had a couple of rollovers, a couple of fast times, all in all it was a great day of racing, very clean, and the kids had a blast.”
In all, more than 90 racers competed.
Among the Canadians, Elizabeth Chambers and husband Jeff, the current LQMA president, were marking their sixth year of competition by their kids.
Elizabeth said it all started with a try-it event that their daughter Aria wasn’t all that interested in – at first.
“We came for a ride day and my daughter refused to get in the car,” she recalled.
“We finally got her in a quarter midget car, had another older driver strap her in, a female driver, which she felt comfortable with. We pushed the car around the track without the motor running. We came off track, she wanted a car and here we are.”
Since then, Aria’s brother Roman has also taken up the sport.
On July 4, the siblings had a couple of firsts, and a couple of seconds.
In quarter midget racing, drivers aged five to 16 compete in open-wheel cars scaled to one-quarter the size of full-sized midget race cars.
The Aldergrove track, the only one of its kind in Canada, is an all-volunteer operation.
Everything that gets done from yard maintenance to cooking in the snack shack to running the tower is all done with the help of the community and the members of the club.
For more information, visit https://www.lqma.ca.
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