Salmon Creek Raceway   Vilhelmina/Schweden
 
Ice racing history Laxbäcken,Sweden
 
The story about the race on the frosty ice of the creek „Laxbäcken“ goes back in the
´60s. Before this ice racing was preformed just outside of Vilhelmina on the lake „Baksjön“,but since the community was growing and the need of drinking water was getting bigger the city decided to turn the lake into a clear water source and for that reason all activity that included possible pollutions was banned. This however did not stop the very dedicated people behind the car culture in Vilhelmina. Because it was big interests behind ice racing here, many races with well known that people was performed as early as in the `40s. Around 1955 in the lake „Malgomaj“, one of the biggest reservoir for the river „Angermanälven“ and important to the water power in Sweden, the building a dam in the outfall of the lake turned the little creek „Laxbäcken“ into what more looks like a lake. This was the very early start to what you know as “ Salmon Creek Raceway“. The name is a direct translation of the swedish name into an english version.
The start in the late `50s and early `60s was performed by local enthusiast and the people from Wilhelmina who had the track there. One of the first guys out was Oscar Bäckström. He was fearless. knows for having an old Volvo car that he had, put pieces of wood under the car for securing the car if the ice would break when plowing the snow on the early ice!