About Us
Formed in the spring of 2000, the Edmonton Motorcycle Roadracing Association (EMRA) has evolved from a small group of people to a strong healthy membership, and realized a number of significant accomplishments along the way.
Prior to the start of the EMRA there was no form or organized motorcycle roadracing in the Edmonton area since the early 80's at Edmonton Speedway located at 127th street, and about 140th Avenue. The speedway park facility was closed down in the early to mid 80's due to re-zoning of the area, and is now all residential and commercial space.
The founder and past President of the EMRA Simon Hughes had a vision of organized motorcycle racing in Edmonton, talked to some people, asked where racers could race in the Edmonton area, and came up empty handed. Simon was not about to give up that easily and researched all the paved areas in the Edmonton and surrounding areas that where large enough to host a motorcycle roadracing event, this meant contacting the city center airports, airports in surrounding communities and the airport on the Military base at Namaio. With some luck the Military agreed to allow a motorcycle roadracing event to happen at the Namaio Air Base in Edmonton.
In August 2000, the EMRA staged the first regional motorcycle roadracing event in almost 20 years, and in June of 2001, successfully hosted round 3 of the 7 round Canadian National Superbike series. This National stop was only one of two in Western Canada. In August 2001 the EMRA held a second regional race of the season and completed a successful Edmonton Motorcycle Roadracing Championship series.
Each and every year our club continues to grow, our membership both racing and associate members are made up of people from all walks of life, Police Officers, Doctor's, Prosecutors, Business Owners, Students, you name it we have it. Our sport is a great sport to be involved in because our racing members are men, and women of all nationalities, and we are working very hard to grow the youth involvement in the sport truly making it a family affair.
Our club is working very hard to get youth involvement with the club racing 50cc, 80cc 100cc and 125cc motorcycles. Starting youth off at a younger age has many advantages, including teaching them respect for the bikes, and the inherent dangers, by educating youth from a young age the club hope to encourage a "Take it to the track" attitude. If this type of attitude is developed from an earlier age, young and old adults become more responsible when they ride their bikes on the streets.
In 2003 the EMRA started to give back to the community by providing a day out for different organizations though out the city. Two groups we have invited out to the events at our cost was Bosco Homes, and the Stollery Children's Hospital. The children from both facilities are so happy to be able to come out to an event they may have never been able to go out to, and to be treated like Very Important People (VIP's) at the events, all of our racers and support people in the organization are happy to lend a helping hand and will do what ever it takes to put a smile on the kids faces.
The EMRA also supported the Edmonton Police Services, Victim Services Unit with a teddy bear donation through the purchase of teddy bears from money collected at the the year end banquet. It is programs like this the EMRA is hoping to be able to support in the years to come, to continue giving back to the community.
